George Petty was born on 18 January 1910 to Alfred and Ruth Petty who kept the tobacco and sweet shop at 44 Pound Street, Bitterne. In his youth he helped on local farms and became a milk roundsman for the dairy based at Benhams Farm, Witts Hill. He and his wife moved into a house in Bromley Road, off Witts Hill when they were first built in 1939.
Around 1986 he recorded these memories of the time when he was growing up in Midanbury. He was a member of the BLHS from 1984 until his death in 1996.