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Bob
Taylor
"At
the age of fourteen and a half, I joined the army. I added 18 months
to my age, same as thousands of other done at that time, and finished
up with the Seaforth Highlanders.
I suppose
it was a bit of rebellion, if I'm honest with you. People today
think of the Quaker homes and Barnardo's in a far different light
than I remember. Life was very, very, very strict. Looking back
over them years, I still got a bit of bitterness. If the same things
happened today, as to what happened in the early 1930's, I'm afraid
you wouldn't have enough prisons to keep some of the staff in. That's
how bad it was!
But
Barnardo's, in one sense it conditioned me for the life I wanted
to lead. Particularly some of the discipline I had in Barnardo's,
it conditioned me that I wanted something for myself. This is why
I added 18 months on to my age. I made my age the 31st December
1929, so I could never forget it. Every time they asked me, it was
New Year's Eve 1929. It still made me over 16 year old. 16 was the
joining up age then. I forged the signature, both Sandy's and Betty's
my foster parents."
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