Vol 3. Chapter 1 – The curious incident of the exploding frog

My mother was born 31 July 1922 at 20 Ponton Road, Nine Elms, Battersea, the 4^th child of Harry and Eliza (Lilie) Walters.

Mum’s memories of family life as a child were the fights between her parents. Fridays nights in particular were fight nights. Having a whole week's wages in his hand, her father would stop of at the Crown Pub opposite on his way from work, and then come home blind drunk.

Another of her oft told stories was about the time she stole ha’pence from the mantelpiece. (Worth about 10p now.) She used the money to buy some spearmint sweets. When my grandmother found out, she dragged mum along the street to the Ponton Road Remand Home (Equivalent to a Young Offenders Institution).   Right up to the front door she was threatening to have mum put away. Mum remembered this throughout her life, and it had a profound effect upon her and her sense of value and worth.

Mum’s best friend was Winnie Cooper. Being an only child, Winnie experienced the unheard of luxury of having biscuits with her cup of tea at home!  Together, Winnie and mum constructed homemade scooters, played with a skipping rope in the road (No traffic in those days), played with hoops, and played marbles in the street using the gutter for “Alleys”.  They would also make “grottos” – a form of pavement art. They would arrange bits and pieces and odds and ends of this and that to make a tableau on the pavement, and then ask passing people for money. Guy Fawkes Night and carol singing were also popular ways of making pocket money.

My mother was baptised as an Anglican, but was sent to St. Mary’s Catholic School, Crescent Lane, Battersea. In the 1930’s all the teachers at the school  were Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur nuns, who ran the place with an iron fist making the Ponton Road Remand Home seem like a holiday camp. The school had no electricity and had outside toilets. (All my schools had outside toilets well into the 1950s)

My mother's favourite subjects at school were sewing and cooking. She also played netball. Her worst subjects were maths and spelling. Apart from the netball, these never changed throughout her life.

Being at a Catholic School meant that she was required to learn the Catechism. This took the form of the nun asking questions and the pupils giving the correct response from memory.  Mum, in particular, found pronouncing, some of the longer theological terms difficult. However, the nuns were on hand with a swift swipe across the knuckles with a ruler to encourage the right pronunciation.  It didn’t work in my mother’s case.

Mum also enjoyed the nature class.  In those days each child was given a free 1/3 pint bottle of milk to drink at playtime. Mum kept the straw, and during one nature class stuck it up the backside of a frog; blowing the frog up until it burst. Mum left school at the age of 13.

When she left school, her first choice of career was that of being a hairdresser. Nan firmly put a stop to that and apprenticed mum as a Bespoke Tailoress with Universal Taylors. As we shall see, mum never looked back.


Besides clothes, the other great passion of my mother’s life was dancing. This was an opportunity to dress up and show off and the Irish Club was the ideal the place for both. Unfortunately, it would be the dancing that was to lead to a life-time of secrets and lies.