War memories of Pauline O'Donovan

2nd World War Memories of Pauline Harden (nee O'Donovan) b 1938

I was 11 months at the outbreak of the 2nd World War. My mother, Gertrude O'Donovan, known as Nancy, had travelled to Ireland from the UK to have her 3rd baby and I was left with relatives in Cork. From being a placid easy-going baby, I am told that I cried all the time and my mother took me and my sisters back to the family home in Essex.

My parents made the decision to send all three children to Ireland for safety and we lived on a farm in Ballaghaderreen, County Roscommon, Ireland with Nanny Regan. If we were good, we were allowed to go to market in the pony and trap. My youngest sister was born in 1941 and joined us on the farm. We were well looked after and loved.

I returned to England with my older sister, probably in 1944. We attended a convent school across the road from the family home in Leamington Spa.

When holidaying with an aunt near East Grinstead in Sussex, we often saw the young men from the Queen Victoria Hospital where Archibald McIndoe was treating Allied Aircrew who were badly burned, known as the Guinea Pig Club. I recall they were very kind to us children and would give us chocolate. We were never scared of them. The holiday turned became long term when one after another we contracted mumps and then measles. My father would take the long train journey to visit and he used to bring trays of eggs.

I remember the visit of Field Marshall Montgomery to Leamington Spa to review of Guard of Honour on 4th October 1947.