大象传媒

When War broke out, my Father, William Spears moved with his firm to Mitcham, just a couple of miles from our home. So he was able to cycle to work instead of going by train. One day he brought home a ginger kitten which had been born on the sand bags around the factory. We named him Sandy of course.

Father had been with the Royal Flying Corps and then with the R.A.F. during the First World War. Now he took turns with the other men at the factory to stay the night thee to watch out for Incendiaries and unexploded bombs. He also took on another duty which few seem to know of - he was an 'animal warden'. If a family was bombed out or had to leave home for other reasons, and had to leave their pets behind, we looked after them until more permanent arrangements were available for them.

We once had a dog from a house where the whole family had been killed except a ten year old boy. My Sister Margaret and I looked after him along with Scottie who had been given to the local Doctor as a present but he couldn't look after him.

The Doctor knew about our love for animals as he used to come to us to get fresh eggs from the hens we used to keep in our back garden. With his egg coupons my parents were able to get a special 'meal' which was added to the Kitchen and garden scraps, and smelly boiled potato skins, to feed the chickens. We also grew most of our own vegetables and fruit.

After an Air-Raid we would go out into the garden to look for Shrapnel. One day an exploding bomb brought down our bedroom ceiling - the only damage was to our dolls cot. We spent a lot of time at school in the shelter but enjoyed the 'serial' story the teacher used to read to us there. At home we slept in our shelter at night.

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