In my early childhood I was an invalid, for I had had birth paralysis and was a very weak and sickly child. Everything possible was done for me, but I was faced with the difficulty of not being able to learn anything. Eventually I attended a special school for three years, but made no progress. Soon after this my mother took up the study of a system which claimed to heal through the human mind. Coming away from seeing a specialist in this system, I said to Mother, "It is all very nice, what he says; but I should like to get hold of something where God does it all." Not long after this a friend asked my mother to speak to his wife about me. She is a consecrated Christian Science practitioner, who is practicing the Christ, Truth, and blessing many others, as she did me, by her beautiful work.
Although I had been undeveloped in every way, it became possible for me to attend school, and later, when I was considered above the age to be living as a schoolboy and yet not ready to go to a public school, I was able to stay on as a private pupil, with a room of my own. "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary-Baker Eddy was my bosom companion by then, and with constant help from a practitioner and my mother, I was enabled to obtain an Oxford Junior Certificate. On page 15 of Science and Health our Leader says, "Practice not profession, understanding not belief, gain the ear and right hand of omnipotence and they assuredly call down infinite blessings."
During the Second World War, I was able to undertake duties of a civil defense nature one night a week in the City of London, working long hours in the office before and after.
