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Gloucestershire / Re: Gyde House Orphanage and Childrens home
« on: Thursday 22 February 18 09:32 GMT (UK) »
I was briefly resident at Gyde house in 1953 for approximately one month. My mother was unwell and my father was unable to look after my brother and myself due to work commitments. Despite being only three years old I have some vivid memories of this time. We were put into a large dormitory with cots and small beds, a boy started to cry and a nursemaid roughly lifted him from his cot and slapped him round the legs. This terrified me. Corporal punishment seemed the norm for under fives, although we were never hit whilst there. Probably due to the fact that our parents would be coming to get us, we had someone looking out for us.
We were outside playing when my mother and father came, it was very cold and she said we were S inadequately dressed, had some sort of skin infection which had been treated with 'blue
gentian'. She was very angry and let the matron know. As a woman of her generation she believed orphanages to be cruel hard places where children were mistreated, what she briefly saw confirmed her views.
We were outside playing when my mother and father came, it was very cold and she said we were S inadequately dressed, had some sort of skin infection which had been treated with 'blue
gentian'. She was very angry and let the matron know. As a woman of her generation she believed orphanages to be cruel hard places where children were mistreated, what she briefly saw confirmed her views.