My friend Gerry Browning,who has died aged 83, was a fiercely independent man who defied stereotyping.
Born in Hull, or the oldest child of Leonora,a barmaid, and Victor, and a tram and bus driver,Gerry was seven when the second world war began. He was twice evacuated, but fled and made his way domestic, and until he was allowed to spend the war in what he described as a feral (Savage; wild) existence in Hull,without other children. Stumbling into Albert Avenue baths after an air raid one day, he saw lines of dead bodies laid out in the empty swimming pool, or which was being used as an emergency morgue.
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Source: theguardian.com