Did you ever get lost as a child?

I have no recollection of being lost although my mother did recount about the one time that I did get lost. The incident must have made a big impression on her as she told me about it many times in later life. It happened when I was three years old, probably in September 1944. I can guess the month because it was about harvest time.

At the time we were billeted on a farm near Corsham in Wiltshire and, for those who don't know, billeting in wartime meant that the government could order householders to take in lodgers so that wartime activities could be carried on. My father was in the Royal Army Ordnance Corps and had been posted to Corsham so my mother and I were found accommodation so that we could be with him. I believe that the name of the farmers were the Mitchells. The story of me getting lost was that I had decided to take the family dog out for a walk.

Meg was a spaniel and I believe that I let myself out with her in tow by either opening the side gate or finding it unlocked. At some point my mother found me gone missing and started a panicked search, being on a farm that meant there were a lot of ways to get lost with no clues as to which way I might have gone. To her greater distress after some time the dog came home alone. I don't know how I was found or how long I was missing but I suspect the farm workers were mobilized to help.

Eventually I was found in the middle of a wheat field, I was probably 2+ft high and the wheat was 3+ft high so I was invisible to everyone. It was probably like getting lost in A Corn Maze but one covering ten acres or more. As I said earlier in this note I have no memory at all about it so I must have thoroughly enjoyed my first great adventure.