MAGICAL memories of receiving a Christmas present as a poverty-stricken youngster spurred businessman David Jones to back the Echo's Toy Appeal.

The successful industrial property contractor - who today controls most of the Granby Industrial Estate - has donated £100 to the Echo campaign to help ensure every needy child in the area gets a special gift to open on Christmas Day.

And he says he knows from personal experience the joy that a special gift can bring to the life of a child - having grown up in dire poverty on Portland just after World War II.

He said: "I was given a toy cowboy gun which is the only present I can ever remember receiving as a child. It gave me many hours of enjoyment, which I can remember to this day. I know there are children around today who won't get a present at Christmas - and that's why the Echo's Christmas Toy Appeal is so important."

David, aged 62 of Wyke Road in Weymouth has spoken of his penniless childhood - remembering how he and his disabled mother and younger brother and sister were thrown onto the streets when he was eight-years-old.

He said: "When we were evicted from our home in Fortuneswell we were just put out on the pavement and that was it.

"There was no help for us. The only way was down - and we ended up in Chiswell squatting in a house which was full of puddles downstairs - so we had to live in a couple of rooms upstairs.

"Our heating came from the beach and the lighting from an oil lamp. We were squatters there for about five years. I'm still haunted by some the experiences of those days."

But he said the Echo appeal has brought memories flooding back of the kindness he received through a very special Christmas present.

He added: "Since then my prosperity has improved, so I would like to donate £100 to the appeal."

Friends of David say they remember clearly the desperate poverty he lived in as a child.

Former Mayor of Weymouth and Portland, Alan Martindale said: "As a youngster David could always be seen pushing his mum around in her wheelchair.

"He never wore shoes because they couldn't afford them. Their living conditions were very bad - I remember once the ceiling fell in on the family at their house in Chiswell."