A snap shot of Sally's early life as remembered by Robert her first cousin 1 year her senior, and one of her best friends at Primary School, Jackie.

Salły's Dad and my Mum were brother and sister. We lived, when very young children, in the same block of flats in Balham, South London. It had a large communal garden that all the children played in and I remember we seemed to spend most of our days outside playing there.
Playing outside is an enduring memory- the two families my Mum & Dad and Sally's took holidays together. We went to exotic destinations - Hove, Rottingdean and Peacehaven! It was on holiday in Peacehaven where,with my older brother Martyn, Sally and I collected butterflies. Yes, sweet kind Sally didn't mind sticking a pin through a butterfly to mount on our sheet of cardboard. She did give them all names like pixi fly, yellow angel - perhaps this was the beginning of her love of creative writing and the English language .
Sally was always very dramatic and we made caves in the tall grass where the Elves and fairies played. This was the only time when playing with her didn't go down well with me!! We both, however, loved playing with the wind up gramophone and listening to Sparky's magic piano. It was a 78 shellac record that we just loved and played and played and played. We also played a Glenn Miller record St Louis Blues March and marched up and down pretending to be soldiers -she had a great sense of fun, but I think this was the time Sally didn't enjoy it so much.
Times were sweet and innocent then, we were the generation born immediately after WW2 had finished. We were the generation that our parents wanted us to do well in education, as theirs had been lost because of the war. Sally did, of course do very well, a clever girl with English, but above all a very kind and loving person.


Sally was one of my best friends at Primary school, (little did I know I would later marry her cousin Robert!) She was very kind and generous, always helping those who had trouble with their essays. We started as 'ink monitors' but eventually rose to be 'Head girls' for a very domineering, dramatic but sweet headteacher called Miss Cox. One of our responsibilities was choosing the hymn for assembly - that was the only time we ever had words, as we both loved to put up the numbers on the board every morning.
We also loved being part of the Drama group, taking part in many plays and entering verse speaking competitions - there may well be others of our generation who can remember learning many many endless lines of poetry!
I often spent time at Sally's home, who wouldn't enjoy going to a sweet shop! I thought she was the luckiest girl alive. Her family were always so welcoming. Our other good friend Barbara Dickinson, whose family also ran a sweet shop, spent many happy times in the playground, mostly poking our noses through the hole in the fence where we could spy on the Junior boys!
Sadly we split at the age of eleven to move onto our secondary phase. Sally went off to boarding school - I thought she was so brave leaving her home ( and all those delicious chocolates & ice creams). Occasionally, Sally's Mum & Dad took me down to visit her with Philip & Liz. I remember her crying and asking me to take her home - the place was what can only be described as something out of Harry Potter's Hogwarts!....... And she positively hated the uniform, especially the awful ' Nora Batty' tights! However, her talent for English and creative writing continued and she did brilliantly and eventually gained a place at Oxford University. Quite an achievement, and I was always in awe of her command of the English language.
However, above all, my enduring memory of Sally will be of a vivacious, bright and happy girl who I loved spending time with.
Jackie ( nee Spicer) & Robert Dilley