This is Leila Rendel talking to someone whose name I do not remember on the front steps of Mersham-le-Hatch at the 1964 Reunion. It was understood that she did not welcome being photographed, so I was lucky to take the photo without her noticing.
My first recollection of Miss Leila dates from the short period I spent at New House, Caldecott's reception centre, in September 1950. We would be taken up the road to play on the lawn at 'Hatch' now and then, and on one of these visits I was asked to take something to the office. I walked up the front steps into the hall to see Miss Leila sitting majestically in a chair in the centre of the room, and she said "Hello young man" and asked me where I was going. Years later I released that this had probably been stage-managed so that she could inspect me. She would have been 84 at the time of this photo, but did not appear to age throughout my 9 years at Caldecott.
Barry Northam