Profile
Eric Brady is from SE London. He was Evacuated with the rest of his school in September 1939 (aged 5 yrs) to Folkestone on the South Coast of England - on the planned German invasion route. In April/May 1940, perhaps when that was realised, they were re-evacuated to Tredegar in South Wales, a small mining town. The family had expected that Kitty (his 9 year old sister) would be housed with him. But they never were. In Wales they even lived in different towns.
He was taken back to London September 1942 to find that Kitty had already been home for six months. They were both attending Sandhurst Road school, Catford, SE London, when it was bombed at mid-day on 20 January 1943. Kitty was one of the 38 killed, Eric was listed as one of the 'Severely injured' with a brachial plexus injury (resulting in a permanently semi-paralysed left arm), a smashed ankle and other injuries.
He was returned from hospital to London 18 months later, just as the Flying Bomb attacks were building up. For several years he had to attend hospital three afternoons a week for further treatment which affected his education. He is still rated 60% Disabled.
After working in the City and elsewhere for a time, after Training he became a Probation Officer in 1963, was promoted to Senior Probation Officer in 1968, and Retired in 1994 having served in both rural and urban areas, the Crown Court, and had two, two-year secondments to a prison and a Young Offenders Institution.
Since retiring he has travelled more in Europe, the Med., Brazil and Canada, but is now concentrating on writing books rather than articles and short stories that he had been writing for many years on subjects as diverse as prisons, pirates, Christianity and what it feels like to be bombed. He had also written a text book, published by Longman in 1993, the year before he retired.