Jonathan” By Richard Brooke, published by Elise Brooke.
Summary:
The story starts in Yorkshire England in the 1940s, at the age of four his father, a Navy officer was called to fight as World War II broke out, leaving my father in their Mothers care, his older brother was moved off to boarding school. One night the famous Barton Docks were bombed, including the house they lived in, and they were lucky to be pulled out alive!
My father and his Mother moved to Manchester to live with his Aunt, time passed and his mother became more and more unwell, she was admitted to hospital for the foreseeable future. This left his elderly Aunt and Uncle to look after him, when his Uncle got sick and required more care the Aunt could no longer look after my father and sent him to a place called "Oxley Hall." A Lord and Lady lived there and helped out families of Naval officers in need.
It was not long before events beyond my father's control meant he was kicked out and moved on again. My father was now moved halfway across England to a place he referred to as "The Institute." My father seemed to have nowhere to call home, he suffered from loneliness and felt he didn't belong anywhere at the tender age of just fourteen. The "Institute" was a strict old-fashioned boys home, which my father described as prison! No one was allowed to leave the isolated country premises unless they had a visitor or went home for the holidays. My father never received any visitors and had nowhere to go during the holidays. He was stuck there! Until one day he decided to change that...
Elise Brooke