Early Years
Pat Smythe was the last of three children, the other two being Dicky and Ronald Smythe. Sadly, Dicky died from pneumonia at the age of 4. Her parents were Eric Hamilton Smythe and Frances Monica Curtoys, who were born in the early 1900s. She lived in London, on the outskirts of Richmond Park. Later she was a boarder at Talbot Heath School in Bournemouth.
Pat nearly died when she was nearly 5 from diphtheria. Although she recovered fully, it meant that she had to learn to walk again. Hardship and suffering were to feature predominantly throughout her professional and personal life. Her father died when she was in her late teens, and her mother when she was 23.
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Famous quotes related to early years:
“If there is a price to pay for the privilege of spending the early years of child rearing in the driver’s seat, it is our reluctance, our inability, to tolerate being demoted to the backseat. Spurred by our success in programming our children during the preschool years, we may find it difficult to forgo in later states the level of control that once afforded us so much satisfaction.”
—Melinda M. Marshall (20th century)