My mother Winifred, divorced my father John in 1949 when I was four years old. So, myself and my sister Avril were brought up by my working mother. My mother was a State Registered Nurse and became the District Nurse for Northolt during the World War .In about 1950 my mother won a first prize in the national football lottery and won enough money to be able to pay off her mortgage and have sufficient money left to become a very wealthy person. She was very ill at that time so she was fortunate to be able to give up work.Once a week at after that mother used to travel into central London and visit an exclusive club called the Challenor. We had a nanny called Ede and we called her Aunty Ede.On the evening of 4 December 1957 there was dense fog around our house and everywhere in the London area.Mum had gone to London Central as usual on Monday and was due home that night. Ede wasn’t worried as she knew no trains would be moving in the thick fog and Winifred would probably stay in the club overnight. On Thursday morning , when we opened the Daily Telegraph paper we read about a huge train crash : The 5:18 pm Charing Cross to Hayes, consisting 10-car electric multiple units carrying nearly 1,500 passengers, stopped at a danger signal at Parks Bridge Junction on the Lewisham by-pass line, under a bridge carrying rail tracks over the line Trains were running out of order because of the fog and the Parks Bridge Junction signalman wished to speak to the driver by the telephone at the signal to confirm the train’s identity and destination. At approximately 6:20 pm it was struck from behind by a train from Cannon Street to Ramsgate via Folkestone, consisting of a steam locomotive hauling 11 coaches carrying about 700 passengers and travelling at about 30 miles per hour (48 km/h). The collision threw the tender and leading coach off the track, dislodging a pier of the bridge, causing it to fall and crush two coaches. Two minutes later a train due to pass over the bridge stopped short, although its leading coach was tilted. There were 90 passengers killed and a large number people were taken to hospital, of whom 109 were admitted. An awful thing but we were not worried about Mum as she was on a different train coming back from Central. Late that afternoon , a taxi pulled up outside our house and a strange figure on crutches shuffled down the path to our front door. It was a hunched woman with a puffy face , a black eye and cheek, a broken arm in a sling and limping on the crutches. The woman was , on closer examination, my mother ! Mum had been in one of the two carriages that were crushed in the crash by a falling part of a railway bridge. All the people in the two crushed carriages were killed except the ones standing in the corridor. Mum had moved from a seat in the carriage out into the corridor. Seconds later there was a huge smash and the carriage was tilted up into the air, the passenger compartments were completely crushed and all the people , including Mum, slid down the tilted corridor into a human pile. The rear of the carriage was removed by rescue workers and the pile of people pulled out with lots of injuries. Amongst them, Mum had a broken ankle, broken arm, broken tooth, black eye, broken cheek bone. In shock, she was hospitalised overnight and tended to. Mum was very embarrassed when we asked what on earth she was doing on the wrong train ! She had secretly been away visiting a new boyfriend whom she eventually married. So, whilst we thought she was in London she had been returning from the visit in East London. So Mums secret came out and we said it was God punishing her for telling us lies about her trip ! Naughty, naughty Mother !