Brocket Babies

The Brocket Babies

1. From Julie Bloomfield - received 17th October 2009

A wonderful story of a family reunited. Please click here

2. From Marie Henstock, Cheshunt - baptism certificate received 28th September 2010

I am a Brocket Baby, born in 1941. Please see attached baptism certificate here

3. From Jili Hamilton - received 22nd January 2011

My mother would be around 100 if she were still on this planet. However two things I do remember and one was that Sister Squires was the person about whom she spoke who was in charge of the delivery room at the time. There were several women who shared her ward and one baby who was born on the same day as me was David Jobson. There was a Janet and a Rosemary but I can’t remember their family names although they may come to me later. Mum also spoke about the Ribbentrop room which I thought was the labour ward but it may not have been. I think it was so called because Herr von Ribbentrop had spent the night there. When she was up and about she went into the ballroom but all the chandeliers had been taken down and put in the basement in case of war damage so she was sad not to see it in all its splendour. Many years later I knew Priscilla Clements (who married Richard Dixon) and who came from Welwyn. She was born at Brocket after the war towards the end of its mission as a maternity clinic and at that time I think local mothers were automatically accepted. Great fun to be part of a select group and if you would like to add any of my details to the site I would be delighted – hands across the ocean and all that.

Jili followed this up with a further story on 22 January 2011 here

4. From Jill Pigott - received 28th March 2011

My father was in the Royal Army Medical Corps based at Hatfield House at that time, and my parents address given on my birth certificate was 23 Lemsford Road, Hatfield. Our family home was in Beckenham, Kent , so we were only in the Hatfield area due to the RAMC being at Hatfield House. I do not know how long my father was based at Hatfield House, or how long my mother was in Hatfield.

5. From Doreen Cater - received 2 September 2011

I was born at Brocket Hall on 26th October 1941. My grandparents lived in London but owned a bungalow in Broxbourne on the River Lee and they with my mother and her two sisters were taken there to be away from the bombing. My father was in the RFM Rifle Brigade and was unable to visit my mother so he sent a very poignant and emotional letter and a handkerchief with his regiments badge on, and I have since passed these to Newhaven Fort who have placed them in the new exhibits case. My father was in a tank which was blown up and he was blinded by the blast, but thankfully the doctors and nurses we able to recover his sight and he lived to the age of 79.