Birth GRO 2nd qtr 1940
CHATFIELD, Colin J. Bird Surrey Mid E. 2a 670
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Born Ashtead, Surrey and moved to Streatham, south London 1947,
Streatham to Wimbledon 1962 upon marriage.
London to Ransley Green, Ruckinge, Kent in 1964 and then Margate in 1968.
Kent to Praze-an-Beeble, Cornwall in 1970 upon marriage dissolution.
Cornwall to Barrhill, S.Ayrshire, Scotland in 1988
West Scotland to Berwickshire, Scotland 2005
Then upon retirement to Chazelles, Charente, France in 2008.
I was privileged to have been conceived a few weeks before the start of World War II. My parents had just moved in to their dream home in the country in Ashtead, Surrey, a place that is still very dear in my heart. Having memories of the threat of defeat and devastation is something people born after me cannot know in the same way. I can remember clearly the relief after the war had ended that I was free. We owe a duty to all those that have made or are trying to make our world an amicable place to live in. It is the only world we have. I received a good education, a good health service, a system that has enabled me to miss military service and war. A system that enabled me to avoid tax on purchasing my house, an endowment system that gave me a bonus on my mortgage and four years rebate. Now I see that my descendants do not have the same benefits. I am saddened beyond belief. I love my children, grandchildren and great grandchildren. Their life may not be as easy as mine has been. I have had distress and no doubt so will they but their life will not be as secure as mine. I chose to move to France on retirement to relax away from the mindless selfishness of a society divided into the original British self support and those that only want to receive rather than give to each other. My neighbours are supportive and friendly. I could not be happier.
Some memories during my life.
About 1943 asking my father to allow me to mow the lawn and he saying I was too little to push the hand mower. I have the photo of the event.
We had two Land Girls billeted with us during the war.
I recall mum saying 'Hush little ones' at 6pm for the news on the radio.
I also recall sleeping in the shelter under the stairs during the bombings. Mr Weller who fixed things for mum as dad was away. He repaired the leaded glass windows in the lounge after a bomb blast.
About 1946 clearly after school dinner at St Andrews Convent, Grange Road, Ashtead and in the playground staying back to the end of the queue re-entering school and not going in but just walking out of school - Hopping the Wag - I can still see the cleaners clearing up through the dinner room window. I had no idea what I was going to do but upon reaching the road I saw my mum and brother Martin on bicycles coming towards me.They stopped and I got into the rear child seat on mum's bike and we went off to the Cottage Hospital in Ashtead, Surrey to see 'Archie'. I don't remember who she was.
About 1945-6 Peter Lye taking a pencil out of my top blazer pocket and poking it into the corner of my eye. Reverend mother gave me some chocolate in her office which was an enormous treat.
1945-6 we had a bonfire on the common in Ashtead to celebrate the end of the war. Not sure if it was the war in Europe or Japan. But I had sandals on and as we danced around the fire someone behind me stood on my heal and dislodged my sandal. I can also recall going home before the festivities had ended and from my bedroom window at 119 Overdale seeing the fire still burning.
Dad came home from the war in November 1946 and I remember asking my older brother who was sleeping in mum's bedroom? He said 'that is your dad'.
Four months later in March 1947 we had the coldest winter for years and Dad, used to the Far East, felt the cold and travelling to the City from Ashtead Station. It was decide that as I had to leave the Convent School at seven and Martin had already been a weekly boarder at St Joseph's College, West Norwood that we would leave our lovely home in Ashtead and move to Streatham.
My first day at, to me, an enormous school of 600 pupils was frightening. Brother Frederick called me up and almost sat me on his knee and introduced me to the other pupils who had been there for six months. I was on the point of crying but didn't, quite.
In 1948 mum took us to see the Opening of Parliament and we saw King George VI and Queen Elizabeth as well as the Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret. We met an American lady there who for several years sent us sweet parcels including Chiglets.
Also in 1948 we went to the Palladium in London and saw the fantastically famous performance of Danny Kaye. I actually still recall the hand puppet act called 'Yonny', Jonnny in English.
Mum took us to the Tower of London, the Stoll Theatre to see the Ballet. Our grandmother, Noni, who lived in Fulham took all her 8 grandchildren and the aunts to the Pantomime or Circus as a Christmas present every year. Tea at Dickens and Jones in Knightsbridge with wonderful tea cakes and carpets everywhere.
I saw the new Queen, Elizabeth II, at the Coronation, 2 Jun 1953. as a programme seller by the Victoria Memorial when I was 13. There will never be a day like that again.
In 1960 I applied for a job as a photographic assistant with Tony Armstrong Jones. in Pimlico. I can remember so much of that interview including a beautiful photo of a model in a wonderful dress in a builders crane skip above a building site. Sadly I didn't get the job but a few months later he married Princess Margaret. I had already seen her in 1958 when I was guard of honour at the Scout Gang Show in Golders Green, London. How petite and beautiful she was just two or three feet from me.
I also saw the Queen close up in 1962 at Badminton Horse Trials with Princess Anne and took a photo of them. As well as in Cornwall with my children when she passed from St Ives to Camborne in Cornwall with the Duke of Edinburgh.
The last time I saw Queen Elizabeth II was when I was invited to a concert at Buckingham Palace to celebrate the Golden Jubilee as our Queen in 2002. What a magical weekend.
I was in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia when the highest temperature recorded in Melbourne city was 46.4 °C (115.5 °F), on 7 February 2009. At 4pm I could see the smoke from the fires that tragically killed nearly two hundred people. Again I was there in January 2014 when Melbourne had the longest period of four days with temperatures exceeding 40.0 °C.
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I own a copy of "The History of Ditchling in the County of Sussex" by Henry Cheal published in 1901. It includes a Genealogy of the Chatfield's from Thomas Chatfield c1446 to the late 1600's.
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2014 following my heart attack.
Colin ~ There is still too much research waiting to be discovered, and your one of the best at finding it. Would miss you if you weren't around, take care of yourself.
Cheryl (Chatfield) Thompson
CharlieChatfield@aol.com
