00:00 So Valerie, tell me a little bit more about your grandad, because he was Horsford's first architect
00:05 and he designed so many parts of Horsford that we know now.
00:09 He certainly did. My memories of him obviously are of quite a young child
00:15 and I remember him as being a very kind and compassionate man, very level, thoughtful.
00:24 He was always quite firm with me but very loving and I believe he taught me right from wrong
00:32 at a very young age. After he retired in 1948 and when I was not at school, we spent a great
00:44 deal of time together and he would take me places like the boats on Canoe Lake, the fun fair and the
00:54 little train that used to run along the seafront in that area. Also we would spend weekends in the
01:03 summer out in the country taking more than one car obviously because of the family being quite large
01:08 then and we loved picnics and walks together. He made a lot of my toys when I was very young because
01:19 it was wartime and you couldn't buy things. He made me a truck on wheels that I could put my
01:26 toys in. He made me a kangaroo that hopped down the slope, a chalkboard, an easel.
01:33 So as a professional Valerie, obviously was an architect and constructed many things.
01:40 Yes.
01:40 But the main thing we're chatting about is the memorial stone which still stands
01:44 today in South Sea and that's obviously going to be the centre of some of the collaborations for
01:50 D-Day. How does that make you feel that something that your grandad made?
01:54 Very, very proud indeed. When we are down in that area in South Sea I always make a point of going
02:02 to see the stone. I know it's very simple but it's symbolic and it does make me proud, yes.
02:11 And you also restored the Guildhall after it was bombed during the war in the 1940s.
02:18 I'm incredibly proud there because of his bravery. He was the one who climbed up into the tower when
02:25 no one else would and he did it three times and he assessed the damage and because of his
02:34 assessment and the result of that the Guildhall was restored and that's why we have it today.
02:41 What are the sorts of things that you think you'll be thinking about?
02:45 I will be thinking of my own memories of D-Day because it must have been one of my very earliest
02:53 memories. Seeing the soldiers, the line up of the lorries and the tanks and motorbikes all down the
03:01 A32 just to see a khaki, that probably will be what I will be thinking about. I do remember at
03:08 at the age of not quite three years old my mother saying to me, "There's something that we have to
03:17 go and look at. There's something I want you to see. It's important." And she took my hand and we
03:22 went out of the front door of the cottage, down the red brick path to the little green wicket gate,
03:28 through the gate, down the path to the next green wicket gate and into the driveway that led down
03:34 to the lodge gates onto the Droxford Road at Rooksbury Park. And it was just a sea of khaki
03:42 everywhere. Soldiers, lorries, motorbikes, tanks, cars and because it made such a marked impression
03:52 on me I have never forgotten it. How old were you at the time when you saw that? Not quite three,
03:59 a month off being three. And you still remember it to this day? Yeah, I do, yeah.
04:04 And what do you think of Portsmouth having the anniversary ceremony in such a grand way?
04:11 I think that's wonderful. I really think that's very important. I mean, we must never forget war,
04:19 never forget wars. They are a terrible thing and it's not that we are glorifying in it,
04:29 but we are remembering the sacrifice that so many made, that we should be free today
04:35 and to ensure that it doesn't ever happen again. That is my opinion.
04:43 [BLANK_AUDIO]
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