Childhood And Parents History

A Memory of Eastbourne.

Born Southfields Nursing Home 12/01/47. Gladys May Haines (maternal grandmother) who owned The Queensborough Hotel on the sea front before the war. Parents, Madge Haines married Andrew Aitken, a survivor from the sinking of aircraft carrier - HMS Courageous - in Sept. 1939, 3 weeks into WWII. Paternal grandparents, Andrew and Mildred Aitken lived in a house in Arundel Road, now, I believe, a nursing home. Grannie Haines also lived at 59, Milton Rd. where my mother and I joined her whilst my father was away at sea. Michael Fish, the notorious weather forecaster, had a family newsagents on the corner of a road (name escapes me) but visible from no. 59 Milton Rd. Both my brother, Peter Andrew and sister Sally where born at Eastbourne Maternity Hospital in the 1950s. When I was nine my family left Eastbourne to live in Woking, Surrey as my father was working in the Admiralty. Sadly no relatives live there now, but I so enjoy revisiting and feel I am coming home.

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