大象传媒

Explore the 大象传媒
This page has been archived and is no longer updated. Find out more about page archiving.

15 October 2014
WW2 - People's War

大象传媒 Homepage
大象传媒 History
WW2 People's War Homepage Archive List Timeline About This Site

Contact Us

Early War Memories of Joan Ward

by West Sussex Library Service

You are browsing in:

Archive List > Childhood and Evacuation

Contributed by听
West Sussex Library Service
People in story:听
Joan Shepherd (nee Ward)
Location of story:听
Reading, Berkshire
Background to story:听
Civilian
Article ID:听
A4678400
Contributed on:听
03 August 2005

I remember the day war was declared, I was 16 at the time. I was in Church and someone came up into the pulpit with a note and it was announced that war had been declared. We sang a hymn and then the service ended. We were not sure how we would get home as all the buses had been stopped. We lived between Reading and Wokenham.

The next day I was starting work for the first time. I took my gas mask in. everyone sat with cardboard boxes beside them with the masks in the them but no-one was sure whether they were supposed to bring them in. During that week lots of evacuees turned up. We took one evacuee in.

I worked in the Ministry of Food which was a reserved occupation so I was not allowed to volunteer to sign up. I had to fire-watch all night but still had to work the next day. I nearly fell asleep. One night I was fire-watching in a Church and started to play the organ. A Fire Warden came in to see what was happening. On another night, with an aerodrome nearby, I saw a low flying German aeroplane on its way to bomb Reading, I鈥檓 not sure what happened to it.

Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.

Archive List

This story has been placed in the following categories.

Childhood and Evacuation Category
icon for Story with photoStory with photo

Most of the content on this site is created by our users, who are members of the public. The views expressed are theirs and unless specifically stated are not those of the 大象传媒. The 大象传媒 is not responsible for the content of any external sites referenced. In the event that you consider anything on this page to be in breach of the site's House Rules, please click here. For any other comments, please Contact Us.



About the 大象传媒 | Help | Terms of Use | Privacy & Cookies Policy