Family Life - Mrs Sue Ellen Milne

·37 min·2 clips

Hi there, and welcome to Military Histories, a podcast from York Army Museum. Each week we share an ...

This episode features an interview with Sue Ellen Milne, the daughter of a soldier in the 5th Royal Innerskilling Dragoon Guards, conducted by Ben Robinson from the regimental archives. Sue Ellen recounts her childhood as an army daughter, moving with her family to various postings across the world from the late 1950s to the early 1970s. Her father, Warrant Officer 2 Victor Ronald "Charlie" Chester, served in the regiment, shaping her nomadic upbringing. Her earliest memories are from age five in Sennelager, Germany, where she lived in married quarters and attended a German kindergarten. She recalls a family friend, "Uncle Eddie" McGinty, once mistaking her for another child named Bernadette. The family moved to Tidworth, England, in 1962, where a soldier named Sam Houston from her father's troop was their trusted babysitter. In 1964, her father was posted to Aden for a year unaccompanied, so the family stayed in a modest two-up-two-down house in Oldham with a tin bath. He returned on R&R with gifts, bringing Sue Ellen a toy telephone set. His next posting was to Benghazi, Libya, in 1966, where the family initially lived in a town-center flat and were restricted to playing on the roof due to safety concerns. After moving to a camp, she traveled to school in a ten-ton truck and sometimes had to sleep at school overnight due to dangerous conditions between camps. The posting to Cyprus as part of a UN contingent was a highlight, with mornings at school and afternoons spent on beaches like Lady's Mile. Her father famously packed their family of five and all beach gear into a tiny bubble car for outings. In Cyprus, he had to wear his blue UN beret even on the beach, which the children found amusing. Later, in Münster, Germany, a band called Skin Deep played at her sister Elaine's wedding reception in the Sergeants' Mess, where her father offered a free bar until he "nodded" but forgot to do so, running up a large bill. She describes her father as a strict "old school" disciplinarian who inspected nails and shoes. The family's final posting was to Herford, Germany, where they lived in quarters with large cellars used as playrooms. At a Christmas roulette game, her father bet and lost his car keys to Sue Ellen herself. He suffered a stroke around age 42 in Münster but recovered, eventually leaving the army in 1972. Sue Ellen found the transition to civilian life and a non-army school in England shocking due to the lack of discipline. She values the vast "Skins family" network and attends regimental reunions, maintaining lifelong bonds with other army families like the McGintys and Raymonds. The interview is conversational and nostalgic, driven by personal anecdotes and sensory details like the taste of liver after a tonsillectomy or the sight of tortoises in Libya. The tone is warm and reflective, emphasizing community and adaptation over the hardships of frequent moves. Listeners interested in British military family life, post-war social history, or personal narratives of childhood will find this episode deeply engaging. Those seeking analysis of military strategy or political context might find the focus too personal and anecdotal.

As heard by us

An army childhood remembered through beaches, mess life, and the small disciplines of family routine.

Sue Ellen Milne’s memories move from an army childhood through postings, beaches, mess life, and the strict domestic routines of a service household.

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You want a warm, firsthand account of growing up as an army child.

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