Memories Of Sunning Hill

A Memory of Sunninghill.

My Memories of Sunninghill are somewhat obscure and and are based on information gathered over the past 70 years. I was Born at 8, The Terrace, Sunning Hill and spent my first 4 years living there. My mother married a Canadian, Robert James Cummings Lennox and resided there until one day the Military Police came and removed him from the air raid shelter, as he had become AWOL. I was then taken to a house in Bracknell, never to see my mother again. I was made to use the name of my new foster parents (Simmonds) and at the age of around 9 years suddenly found that I had a real name (Lennox) - this is possibly the most traumatic time of my life. I felt let down, not wanted, unhappiest part of my life. Now what happened next, and my mother's many marriages without divorces etc is a saga on its own, until about 5 years ago, after many years of looking, she was located living not 2 hrs drive in a place called Hamilton, New Zealand. This is another story for another time. Anyway, the Terrace was well known around 1945 era as a place that had a ongoing stream of visitors, mostly in uniform and at time when we were put to bed, space being a premium in a two up two down terrace house, so us kids were top and tailed. My cousin would later tell me that he would lay awake listening to his mum and mine having sex with the many uncles that came by. Even on the day I was circumcised I had to sit on the potty in the corner with a bandage on, this terrified all the children, that they be next. Years later I worked as a driver for a firm called Harry Coff, when a chap I had known there told me he was my cousin. It was from this meeting that all my need for information started and is still ongoing. I worked just after leaving school for a printing firm in Ascot (Bill Back), and would most days visit Sunninghill delivering and pick up outwork; if only I had started my re search then, some of the clients could have saved me hours and years of research. I still remember a dear lady to this day that was crippled with artritus and used a wheel chair, even as deformed as she was she still had time for a chat. And the Cape family, my mother's sister, Maud, married a Cape and only passed on a short while ago. Again, she left her children (another story). I think there are still family members living in Sunning Hill today, I am visiting England in March 2013 with the intention of tracing my past , Colin Lennox.