Moving Around
Her family moved house several times while Jane was young. In 1935, when she was a year old, the family moved out of London to the town of Weybridge. Her father’s career as a racing driver was beginning to flourish and the move took them close to the famous Brookland’s racing circuit.

In May 1939 the family moved again, this time to the seaside town of Le Touquet in northern France. Her father had now become a full-time racing driver and, with most of his races in continental Europe, this location was more convenient than anywhere in England. It also gave his daughters an opportunity to become fluent French speakers.

However, their stay in France was brief. Within a few months of their arrival, World War 2 had begun. The family fled from France just before the war started, moving into Jane’s paternal grandparents’ large home in the English coastal town of Folkestone.

A Happy Childhood and a Love of Nature
No matter where she happened to be living, Jane’s childhood was happy. From an early age she loved animals and she enjoyed exploring gardens and observing the wildlife she found – anything from butterflies to slugs. Her family took in several pets, including a dog and a tortoise. At the age of five Jane went missing in Folkestone and a search was started for her. When she was eventually found, it turned out she had been sitting for several hours in the hen house. She had wanted to find out how chickens laid eggs and had sat waiting for one to come into the hen house so she could see for herself how it actually happened.

While they were in Folkestone Jane’s father, who was 32 years old, joined the army. The family then moved to the small town of Hythe.

Jane’s father was posted to France in 1940, at which point the rest of the family – Jane, her mother, and younger sister Judith – moved to her grandmother’s home in the beach resort of Bournemouth.

Despite the war, the bombs she heard exploding, the blackouts, the food rationing, and her father’s absence, Jane lived contentedly in Bournemouth. She loved nature and collected many pets including racing snails, caterpillars, a lizard, guinea pigs, a hamster and a canary.