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| Doreen B Orwin |
Doreen Bertha Orwin was born the 22nd August 1926, she was the third child of Herbert Cyril Orwin and Violet Popplewell, and she had an elder brother called Cyril and an elder sister called Joan.
One of Doreen's earliest memories is from when she was about 4 years old, a neighbour boy was teasing her and chasing her with a pin trying to prick her, she was frightened of him and started climbing on the wrought iron fence to get out of his way but she slipped and one of the spikes from the fence pierced her forehead. She had a nasty jag on her forehead and blood was streaming over her face when her mother came out to see what all the noise was about. She was so shocked by what she saw that she picked Doreen up and jumped over the fence with Doreen in her arms, something which she wouldn't have been able to do in normal circumstances. She took Doreen to their neighbour Mrs. Skelton who had been a nurse and she washed the wound and then held it together for a couple of hours so that Doreen wouldn't need to have stitches.
Doreen had a happy childhood with loving parents, one night per week her parents would go out together and Cyril would baby-sit, the children always looked forward to this evening as their parents would usually win a big bar of chocolate
and bring it home for them. Doreen's Dad had a little car with what they called a dickey at the back where the children could sit strapped in, usually on a Saturday or a Sunday they would go for a drive to Hornsea or Withernsea, little seaside resorts. On their way home they would always stop at a wayside pub called 'The Jack of Hearts' and the children would sit outside by the tables and get a glass of lemonade and a packet of crisps. Doreen always loved this treat and sometimes if her Dad pretended to drive past the pub without stopping all three children would start yelling from the back of the car. Next to the pub was a farm and the lady who lived there got to know them quite well and would often bring over a glass of goat's milk for them to drink.
One of Doreen's stories from her growing up years is from when she was about 7 or 8 years old. The children living in her street, Spring Gardens in Anlaby near Hull, asked her if she would go to the shops for them on her bicycle, they said that they badly needed some elbow grease.
Doreen recalls: "I agreed to go and get some, about 30 minutes later after having been in just about all the shops, I arrived back in the street to see my friends doubled up with laughter, it was then that I realized what elbow grease was, (elbow grease means hard work). Feeling very embarrassed, I fell off my bicycle and ended up with a very bad knee which took a few weeks to heal up, and I must say ended up with my friends feeling very sorry, but it was a laugh when I think how foolish I was."
Doreen loved to go swimming and would often go to the swimming baths on Albert Avenue with her friend Jean Cottingham, after swimming they would always go to the fish and chip shop and treat themselves to fish and chips. Doreen biked a lot also and would often bike with her friend Jean to Aldborough, a distance of about 14 miles.
When Doreen was 13 World War 2 broke out, this was a very worrying time and caused Doreen to breakout with psoriasis. With Hull being a big port it was very badly bombed during the war, Doreen's family had an air-raid shelter in the back garden with bunks and bedding and food, but it was not very nice having to sleep there every night and hearing the sirens and the bombs falling. Doreen usually received the hand me down clothes from her elder sister Joan, but once during the war she had received a brand new strawberry pink coat, she was so proud of it that she had it hanging in the living room to show to some friends, when her father came to warn them of an air-raid, land mines hanging on parachutes were blowing in their direction. They rushed to the shelter, it was very frightening as they could see the land mines coming down, thankfully the wind blew them further down the street and one of them landed in Rokeby Park in a lot of mud, but it caused such a big crater you could have fitted three houses into it, and the explosion caused all the windows to blow in and the plaster to fall from the ceilings. Luckily everyone was in the shelter so no one was injured but Doreen's new coat was covered with plaster and soot so she was most upset. The buzz bombs were also very frightening, they made a horrible shrill noise as they were passing overhead, but it was when they went still that you were most afraid as it meant that they were coming down. Once Doreen recalled sheltering under the table and her mother got angry with her because she thought she was playing with a torch, "stop playing with that torch" she said, but it wasn't the torch but the flames coming out of the back of the buzz bombs. One of the reasons that the area in which Doreen lived was regularly attacked was because close by was a park in which there where two anti-aircraft guns, these guns were called Big Berthas and for this reason Doreen hated her middle name and would never tell anyone what the B was for.
During the war her brother Cyril enlisted in the RAF and often flew on missions to the continent, on one of these missions he was shot down above the Hoek of Holland and taken as a prisoner of war. This was a terrible time for Doreen's family, at first they didn't even know whether he was still alive until someone from the Dutch resistance was able to send word to the family. In the last years of the war Doreen's father was also called up to serve even though he was already in his 40's. he was sent to India. It was also at this time that Doreen met a young American man who was serving in the American Merchant Navy and was stationed in Hull, his name was Wayne Frederick Weber. Doreen was 17 when she met him, still very young and naive, they were in love and times being what they were with no surety of what the future would bring or if there would be a future. After he sailed out of Hull Doreen discovered that she was pregnant, her Mother accompanied her to the Naval headquarters so that they could notify Wayne, but she was interrogated so impersonally about her relationships that her Mother took her away, she never heard anything from Wayne again. Thankfully for Doreen her parents were willing to adopt the baby, in those days it was a scandal to have a child before marriage so Doreen was sent away to an Aunt in Bridlington for a few months and then in the final months of her pregnancy she moved into a young mother's home in Grantham, Lincolnshire. Doreen gave birth to her daughter on the 16th September 1944, she was named Jacqueline Wayne
Orwin. It must have been so difficult for Doreen in those days, being still so young and on her own, luckily her baby wasn't adopted by strangers but by her own parents so she could watch Jackie growing up though she could never tell her that she was her mother. Jackie always felt that Doreen was a special sister, she always felt very close to her and would always call her Do Do, when Jackie was 14 she discovered that she had been adopted, she was really pleased when she discovered that Doreen was her real Mother.
During the last year of the war Doreen served in the ATS and was stationed close to Stonehenge. Once she and some friends were sat watching some parachuters practising when one of the men failed to get his parachute open in time and crashed into the ground, it must have been awful to see that.
Doreen was very good at roller-skating and did ballroom dancing on skates, she loved to do this and also to go dancing.
She would often go dancing with her friend Pam at the Dance Deluxe on Anlaby Road, she had a partner and together they were very good, they would often take part in competitions, the waltz, foxtrot or tango and everyone would clap when they finished. Doreen said that they would rather miss the last bus home than miss the last waltz and often she would end up walking 3 miles home at night. Doreen also learnt to tap dance and eventually became so good at it that she would perform with a group for the troops in Hull. At the end of their performance they would all do a special party piece, Doreen's speciality was to walk round the stage doing the splits! She doesn't know now how she ever did it.
After the war Doreen started studying shorthand and typing at the Greg Business school, it was here that she eventually met her future husband Bob Strickland, they were married on the 25th March 1950.
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| Doreen and her brother Cyril |
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| Doreen stood in front of her Father and sister Joan sat next to her Mother |
