Sam was born in 1936. He attended Berkhamsted from 1942 until 1951. He worked as an engineer, then gained clerical skills during his national service. He was very close to his foster mother and didn’t seek out his birth mother until after his foster mother’s death in the late seventies. He currently lives in Surrey.
Early Life
‘My foster mother was the loveliest person… I’ve ever known, she was marvelous. I-I have met my real mother and of course she’s lovely as well but, I met her when… in the early 80s and as much as… as much as I wanted to meet my real mum, my foster mother was the one who bought me up and I live with and so, she’s my mum, my foster mum, if you know what I mean. My foster mum spoilt me something rotten. I know some of the children at school had terrible foster parents but mine was… fantastic, she spoilt me, I keep saying it but she spoilt me something terrible. Do you know what she used to do? I was an avid reader, I loved reading and she used to buy me comics, not the comics you see nowadays, these were comics called The Wizard, The Rover, The Adventurer, The Hotspur… and they weren’t comics with pictures, they were comics with stories and I used to read and read and read and that’s why I’m a good speller and I remember words. Anyway, these comics came out weekly so, when, after I’d come home on holiday, what I used to find was, big pile of Wizards, big pile of Hotspurs, big pile of Adve– the whole comics she would buy me and put them all in week order, so when I came on holiday, I could go straight through and start reading, which I used to do. And she had them all stacked up for me, she spent a fortune. I’d come back from holiday, I’d come home from holiday and I’d run indoors an I’d go straight to the cupboard – I knew they were there – they were all stacked up in piles, “Thanks mum!” she said “Hurry up and get undressed, get your clothes off,” you know, “get out of school clothes, get your other clothes on,” up there and straight away reading. I loved it.’
Into the World
‘When I left school I felt… I felt very lonely at first because one moment I had all my school friends around me and they were gone and it was just me and my mum, my foster mother. So I had no friends as such, only Doug Aitken who lived two doors, three doors away, and he was the only one I could refer to so I found it very hard initially. And I was thrown into my first job, as I say, I didn’t want the job but er I was told- you’re going to have it. “Thank you Mr Kirk.” And um, off I went, you know. Found that very very hard to meet, let’s call it ordinary people because I’d only know the regime at school of saying “Yes, Sir,” to Masters all the time. So when I first started work I called everybody Sir, you know, and he said, “What are you doing?” you know, “Don’t call him Sir. His name’s Charlie,” you know. I found it very hard to… to interact with people.’
Reflections
‘I love- I love reunion day. I love it. Funnily enough the first time I come back, the first person I bumped into was Derek Fowlds and he said, he said, “Blimey Sam, you haven’t changed a bit.” I said, “Come off it,” I said. “I’m grey, fat, you knew me as a fit young man.” “Well you know what I mean,” he said.’
School Life
‘I was bullied terrible… not- I mean really bad, it was every night… Every night, well, two or three times a week, it would be three o’clock in the morning, four o’clock in the morning you’d be called out your bed, “Everybody out!” And you, you were only a little baby, you were only little kids you know, and you had to stand by your bed, and these prefects, so called prefects would come along and they’d grab a pillow off the bed and they’d wind it up so all the feathers went to the bottom of the pillow so they- big heavy mass there and then they’d whack you in the stomach with it, and wind you you know. And just, and that happened…two or three times a week, we were tossed in blankets, hit the ceiling, back down again and they- they let you hit the floor – we only had night shirts on in those days. So, that was the, the big boys as we called them. And they seemed to get away with it, and I don–the Masters must have known what was happening but they had some sort of control, you know.’
Search for Birth Families
‘I was with- round my mother’s once for Sunday lunch and the doorbell, the- the door opened and in walked this chap. Now, my mother went “Oh, oh hello David,” and it was my half brother, and she said “Oh, David,” she said, “this is Sam and Frieda, some friends of ours,” and er she got away with that, and he said “Oh hello,” you know, and, “Nice to meet you, blah blah blah.” And that was the end of that, and he did what he had to do, he said “I’ll see you later, Mum,” and off he went. He didn’t live there he just called there. And I said to my mum, “What’s all that about?” She said, “Oh, it’s David,” she said, “your half brother,” she said. And I said “Well why did you call us ‘your friends’?”, and she said “I didn’t know what to say!” And I thought to myself, well hang on a second, I look like you, which I did do- and mum- and surely David must have seen the similarity and also, he’s known his mum all his life and all of a sudden there’s this Sam and Frieda appeared- friends? Why have you never mentioned these “friends” to us before. But nothing ever ev–nothing ever followed up about that. Strange isn’t it.‘
