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The memoirs series of books, spanning from up to, and including WW2, cover the history of the Midhurst Rural District MRD, a beautiful part of West Sussex in England. They are intended to be a living research resource for others to pick up from if they seek to delve deeper, or to learn of their heritage.
They began with my children, and then their children, asking me to help them with their school work on 'What did your father (or grandfather) do in WW2?' I only had a superficial child's knowledge of my formative years as an evacuee taken to the Midhurst. That was not good enough!
Writing about my own evacuation experience would barely cover 80 pages! It would not contribute much of general interest unless the back stories were also present. It led me to revealing and researching the stories behind my own experiences of that time. Fascinating!
This book is the companion guide to the Midhurst WW2 Memoirs series of books. It gives the main points of my own story presented in Midhurst in 2014 to the Midhurst Society, and then describes the follow-on from that event as the books are born.
All books in the series are made available as Print on Demand on-line editions, along with their e-book equivalents. Local, off the shelf, purchase will be available throughout the Midhurst Rural District.
About the author
Born in London in 1937 Peter Sydenham was evacuated to Midhurst in West Sussex. With his family he migrated to Adelaide, South Australia in 1951, where he still lives. His working life began in Australia as an electrical trades apprentice, merging into an academic career in Engineering from 1961. Upon gaining the BE (Hons) and ME at University of Adelaide, with his wife and baby daughter, he moved to Warwick University for a PhD research period in the early 1960s.
Following that, after a decade as an academic in applied geophysics at the University of New England, NSW, he returned to Adelaide as a Professor of Electronic Engineering. In 1986 he was awarded the DSc, in Engineering by the University of Warwick. He took early retirement in 1998 to allow him to follow writing and handcrafts. He, and his wife Pat, then spent five pleasant years in the Cotswolds, England.
Whilst being a prolific author of academic material Peter has always been attracted to non-fiction writing. His technical hands-on background led him to freelancing popular technical articles in the monthly magazine, Electronic Today International.
During his 35 year academic career he has also authored, or edited, over 30 text and research books and, the usually expected, 100 plus scholarly papers. He was a book-series Editor for John Wiley, in Chichester.
Writing far away in Adelaide, Australia, has not been a problem; the Internet, and its email, provide most of what is needed today. He has visited Midhurst many times, the latest being in 2014 and 2015, to build up research on the Midhurst District during WW2.
His interests have covered just about all handcrafts - with mixed successes. His 1958 electronic base-guitar was a failure; his classic decorated wrought iron balustrades received acclaim - outside of the family! He has constantly been building onto their home to provide for their 6 children who now live in Adelaide, Dubai and Melbourne. Pat and he, now have 9 grandchildren.
