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This reminiscence was related to Ken Otter and entered onto the website by Catherine Dawson of Woodhouse Close Library.

Born in 1928, Tom lived in Coundon and was educated at King James Grammar School, Bishop Auckland. He remembers being in Woolworths, Bishop Auckland, when the air raid siren sounded. He and the other children sheltered under the counters. His brother was in Etherley at the time and he took refuge in a sewer.

At school the pupils were issued gas masks which they were told to keep with them at all times - the girls decorated their gas mask cases soon afterwards! Tom also recalls a ‘Spitfire Fund’, with a thermometer showing the amount saved, outside Bishop Auckland Town Hall.

At school Tom was very good at football and became captain of the school team. The whole of the school only had one football to play with. Such were the war time restrictions that there were no badges for the prefects other than cardboard ones made by the teachers. Professional football continued throughout the war, the teams being made up of professional footballers serving as soldiers, and stationed at local barracks. Tom went to watch such matches at Darlington and recalls seeing many famous players playing for Darlington.

Although food was scarce, Tom says his family supplemented their diet with pigeon eggs and rabbits, which, he says, cost 4d (1½p) each. He also remembers an occasion when word went round that a shop in Ferryhill (Harris and Meeks) had cakes for sale and he walked to Ferryhill to queue for the cakes.

At 16 Tom had to register for conscription and war work. He remembered that some of the older boys had to go to work in the mines under the Bevin Scheme (as Bevin Boys) instead of joining the services. In particular he remembers a boy called Alan Temple resenting this as he had looked forward to joining up as he had served in the voluntary Air Training Corps as a boy.

In Tom’s back yard an Anderson shelter was constructed to be used during enemy air raids although he recalled that it wasn’t used as it was too cold and damp. From his home in Coundon, Tom could see air raids over Teesside and says there was a search light unit near Leeholm. Some of his friends were given the stick on one occasion for throwing coal at some soldiers. One night a bomb hit a house in Coundon but happily the family survived the ordeal.

Tom’s mother and sister worked at the munitions factory at Aycliffe and were proud to carry the title of ‘Aycliffe Angels’. After some time his sister was ordered to Staffordshire to carry out war work and, he says, she told him she had ‘the time of her life’ being away from home for the first time!

Tom’s older brother, Nick was a pilot in the RAF and flew Lancaster bombers. He was married in Bishop Auckland and brought many RAF friends to the wedding and Tom recalls how he thought they looked a magnificent sight in their uniforms. Nick survived the war.

Tom still lives in Bishop Auckland.

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