Oral History Transcripts

It was Hillington, and I´m still in the same house. I´ve no reason to leave. My parents were older when I was born. I went to Hillington School, and I really liked school. I didn’t want to leave school. I couldn´t understand how you could leave school. In the holidays…

I grew up with my grandmother. We were twelve kids together with her. And our moms, parents were married so we all grew up with our grandma, in the same house. And with grandmothers you have to be patient because they won´t be…

In Lagos state we were living in the army barracks, in a place called Ojo Cantonment. That was where I spent most of my childhood, although I travelled around. So, in the barracks you get your apartment…

It was great — to look at it on film now you would think, my God that’s really horrible, you know, so I’m a child of the 40s, just after the war, there was still a lot of things, debris and things left over…

Actually, I’m from India. Mostly my childhood was study, discipline, playing with brother and learning my religious activity. Because my mum is a teacher, that was very comfortable for me because I made so many friends…

They call it the Burlaps Bank because in the days of sailing ships they would come in loaded with burlaps which they emptied on the beach in order to take on a cargo and go elsewhere…

During the war, when father was working, the army was short of anti-tank guns. Our anti-tank guns were not terribly effective against the German Panzers. The main one was a two-pounder anti-tank gun. It was ok but it wasn´t powerful enough…

Well, I used to…I’ve been doing shorthand and typing for away about 60 years…

Liver [laugh] cause I hated it. It was like the sole on your shoe. I remember liver and onion… and… caramel cake and custard. That's the things, that I remember…

When I was at school I used to always wonder how cigarettes were made, and when I left school I started looking for different jobs at a Cigarette Factory…