大象传媒

This story has been submitted to the People's War website by Liz Andrew of the Lancshomeguard on behalf of Alan Smeeton and added to the site with his permission.

I was born in Castleford in Yorkshire in 1936. My Dad worked at a glass bottle manufacturer's and my mum worked as a nurse at a local mental hospital. During the War my Dad became a Special Constable and patrolled the town.

My mother had three brothers - one in each of the Services. I used to spend a lot of time at my gran's while my mother was out of work and my uncles were more like brothers to me.

My uncle Kenneth Evans was a warrant officer in the RAF and worked on Catalinas. He used to bring me back all sorts of things from Africa. My uncle Claude was on the torpedo boats. And my uncle Kitchener was in the Royal Corps of Signals in Egypt. All the time they were coming and going - and I wanted to go with them.

There were lots of coal mines around Castleford and there was loads of bombing but we didn't get it too badly. There was an Air Raid shelter in the school yard and the whole school would take shelter down there along with many mums and dads. Ans there were shelters in the streets too.

Sometimes we'd go to my auntie's - she had a cellar and we'd sit down there drinking tea while the bombers went over. When it was all over we'd get back to bed.

For me it was all exciting - we had some good times and we made our own fun.

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