David Wilcock, 78, of Leighton Buzzard, who was born in Kendal and who lived there until 1964 remembers growing up in the town.

As I come to end of my life I find memories flooding back from my childhood in Kendal.

I was born on the second day of 1940 and lived at 27 Kirkland with my mother, Margaret Wilcock, nee Stewart, my dad Norman and my grandmother, Mrs Stewart, who ran the boarding house.

Across the A6 lived my aunt, Joan Dowell at No. 32. She worked at ‘K’ Shoes, where she went on to be personal secretary to the Chairman of the Board, until she retired. (She had been May Queen in 1936.)

My father, Norman Bunker Wilcock, joined the R.A.F. and was killed in action in 1944 when his Lancaster bomber was shot down over Boxtel, Holland. He is buried in Eindhoven cemetery, along with other crew members. His mother Edith Wilson was a Kendal girl born circa 1889. She emigrated to the USA circa 1906.

His father Bruce Wilcock also emigrated to the USA and joined the cavalry. They met, married, had three children and in 1914 returned to the UK and lived in Yard 149 in Kendal.

When WW1 started, Bruce enlisted and all three children went to Kirkland infant school, where my mother went in 1924 and I went in 1943 AND Miss Thornburrow taught us all!

Bruce survived the war and went on to be the Grand Wizard of the Order of Buffaloes in 1943.

Edith died young of bronchitis. She is buried at Netherfield and the headstone also has other names, including Wilson Hack.

My mother remarried and we went to London. When we returned we opened a wet fish shop opposite the Kirkland Bridge and I had to travel to Burneside Road School, St Thomas’s as I could not get back into Kirkland.

I travelled by bus from the bottom of Gillinggate, opposite Hanratty's chip shop, on a mauve ‘Dallam’ bus for a penny (1d).

I went to St Thomas’s until mid-1951.

My best friends there were Gerald Knowles (who died in 1967); Alan Birtles and Norman Gardner (both lived on Underley Avenue); Malcolm Heslop and David Robinson (who lived on Aynam Road).