Living At The Fortune Of War As A Boy. (Richard Coleman, Perth Western Australia)

A Memory of Laindon.

Whilst my memories are as a young boy I have some wonderful photos and a lot of information from my late mother and her sister. We all lived at the hotel with my Grandfather, Jack Gill and my Grandmother Violet Gill, Jack Gill managed the pub in the late 40's to early 50's. I don't have the exact dates but I was 4 or 5. Grandad had some lovely photos of the pub with lots of coaches pulled up in the front of the pub. The pub was a popular stop for coach loads of Londoners on their way to and from Southend on Sea. Some of the photos have groups of Pearly Kings and Queens in them

My Mum, Dorothea (Dorrie)and her sister Winnie worked in the hotel with the family and we all stayed in rooms in the pub. I was told that my room, with my Mum, was the upstairs room over the entrance on the corner of the pub. My Father was in the Army in Germany and didn't get home much. I recall the pub being close to fields and farms.

I've been back to see the place twice since moving to Australia with the whole family. The building was as I remembered it but the surrounding were very much changed with a lot of industrial building replacing the fields and elevated roadworks surrounding it. The carpark however was filled with Mercedes and Jaquars so it was still busy . On my first visit I spoke to the lady Publican and asked if it was possible for me to see my old room and the upstairs areas but was was very rudely told that that was not possible. When we left Laindon Mum and I moved to Dedham as she was installed as the first female publican of an Ind Coope and Alsopp pub in the Marlborough Head Hotel next to the Church where she and my Father were married during the war.

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