Childhood Days
Jimmy Lee has led some sort of life! A country boy, he had a start in life few would have survived… Taken into care at 4 years old, by the time he was 9 he’d had ten homes and eleven schools.
Jimmy’s Father was ‘called up’ in 1942 and was to serve the next four years in one of the most bitter campaigns of WW2 as part of the ‘Forgotten Army’ in the jungles of Northern Burma. He would not return to England until Sept 1946. During that long absence things went ‘wrong’ for his Mother. Destitute, and shunned by her family, struggling to survive with her four children she abandoned her ‘youngest’ on a train with a note attached… ‘I have no money, please take care of him’. She was never to see him again. (Jimmy was to search for, and find him 42 years later.)
Jimmy and his elder brother, suffering from neglect and malnutrition, were taken into ‘care’ at a children’s home in Brighton and the nightmare of ‘childhood ruin’ began. As an infant, dominated by hardship and loneliness, music became a critical stone in the man. When singing in school and church choirs, he discovered that displays of emotion were not seen as a sign of weakness, so music and his abiding faith were to become, and still are, his salvation.
Song Samples
| Sample | Title | Songograhy |
|---|---|---|
| Listen to The Burma Star on SoundCloud | The Burma Star | Songography |
| Listen to Lucy Cartwright on SoundCloud | Lucy Cartwright | Songography |
The Burma Star
Do I remember Seaford, just a toddler at the time
Men who left or came to save us far from home and in there prime
Barbed wire on the beaches the bombs and the aeroplanes
Bright blue sky’s and ‘dog fights’ soldiers marching down the lanes
From Vale road down to East street past the school and the old sea wall
The powdered milk the ration books I can recall them all
Long empty years of loneliness turned my Mothers heart to stone
Forgot she had a Soldier, is he ever coming home?
We played together freely, John, Billy, Anne and me
Played soldiers on the South Downs sometimes paddled in the sea
And I never felt neglected, no I never felt alone
Never knew what fear or hate was until it came into my home
In silent desperation and unimaginable pain
She took the cause of indignation from the cradle to a train
He was found by the Church of England fast asleep and all alone
They granted him salvation but he’s never coming home
Then my world stood still and silence came to my prison without bars
Long days that held no sunshine, nights that held no stars
Lost children to misfortune, someone must atone
They said they’d come to save us but were never going home
Then freedom came to no ones gain, we might have well have lost
Stay on your knees forever mamma you’ll never count the cost
Paid by a ‘forgotten’ soldier so wounded from so far
While fighting for salvation and a hard earned Burma Star
I have a vision of this soldier I’d never seen his face before
He was pickin’ up the pieces that were broken by the war
Broken dreams that never mended, a broken heart that turned to stone
He prayed for her redemption as he wept for his lost home
So I remember Seaford the bombs and the aeroplanes
The barbed wire on the beaches soldiers marching down the lanes
The memories still with me even now that I am grown
My birthplace, lost salvation, and the first time I left home
The Burma Star
My Father went to war soon after I was born and was posted to Burma. He would not return for 5 years. When I was 3 and my older brother 4, we were taken into care suffering from neglect and malnutrition. The two of us spent the next three years in the darkest of places that only small children can find. My 1 year old brother was abandoned on a train and was found at Cuckfield station. He was taken in by the Church of England Children’s Society and eventually adopted. We found him 42 years later.
I spent most of my life blaming my Father for our misfortune. It was not until late in my life that I learned the details…. So this is a tribute to my Dad….a true hero who I badly misjudged.
Lucy Cartwright
When I was only eight or nine
I thought that I was king
With all the wondrous things I had
It seemed like everything
A catapult a penknife
A shilling and a piece of string
A bike without a saddle
And a bell that wouldn’t ring
I couldn’t wait to get to school
I ran there all the way
In the afternoon run home again
Tea, then out to play
Sometimes bow and arrows
Sometimes climbing trees
Build a camp or light a fire
Happy days for me
In my ‘brand new’ clothes that did not fit
Someone else had worn before
Played fantastic games of make believe
With my friend who lived next door
Her name was Lucy Cartwright
She was seven nearly eight
A ‘tomboy’ who was kind too me
In my ‘ragamuffin’ state
We did everything together
She was everything to me
She helped me stealing bird’s eggs
Carved our names upon a tree
Sitting in the orchard
Picking hard skin off our knees
Running home to parents
Calling on the breeze
Riding in our ‘pram wheel’ carts
Show me show you mine
We said that we’d get married
That’s quite serious when you’re nine
We must have really meant it
That promise for all time
Sealed with a kiss of innocence
As she held her hand in mine
I walked on air spoke
I spoke too fast
Until that dreadful day
When I ran round to Lucy’s house
To see if she could play
A stranger opened up the door
Through a mist I heard him say
I’m sorry son she is not here
The Cartwright’s have moved away
I held on tight to something
Clenched my fists in disbelief
Plunged both hands into my pockets
Bowed my head to hide my grief
I never saw my friend again
Where she went I could nit say
The day my heart was broken
When the Cartwright’s moved away
Oh I wish I was still eight or nine
I wish I was still king
I wish I had me catapult
A shilling and a piece of string
Me bike without a saddle
And a bell that didn’t ring
With Lucy on me crossbar
I wouldn’t need thing
With Lucy Cartwright on my crossbar
Once more I’d be king
Lucy Cartwright
When I was 7 yrs old, reunited, our family moved to a small isolated hamlet of five or six cottages where all of us young kids played and roamed freely on downland, fields and forest….I had never known such happiness. The farmer’s daughter Lucy became my best friend and we were inseparable. She could fight, climb, run and swear with the best of us and she was very pretty! It really broke my heart when she moved away but that’s how things were in those days. I still lament the loss of my friend and the loss of childhood innocence which comes to us all, and I mourn that breathless joy that never returns.