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GRANDAD’S RECOLLECTIONS OF THE WAR YEARS

The Second World War was declared on Sunday, 3rd September 1939. In January of that year I would have been 4 years old and probably started at Westminster County Primary School following the summer holidays. I can remember little of my introduction to learning. Very early in my school days the Primary School was commandeered by the Auxiliary Fire Service (A.F.S.). This meant that our education continued by using the houses of the pupils in the class. Each week we moved to a new house and used their ‘front room’ as a classroom. The ‘front room’ in Liverpool was always kept as the best room and used only on special occasions. And so I started to learn to read from a book which had a dog called Rover in the story. One day when I was walking home from one of the houses I met a man who had a puppy which he said had been bombed out of it’s home. Much to the surprise of my mother and father I took the puppy home. Why they were surprised I don’t know because that’s what people did with the bombed out victims. I named the dog Rover which was completely inappropriate as it was a lady dog who became a much loved pet and remained in the family for some 17 years.

THE BLITZ

The first air raid siren heard in Liverpool was on the 25th June 1940. People ran to their shelters but as the street where we lived had not yet been supplied with shelters we had to all get under our stairs and hope that that would give us some protection from the falling bombs. The children had all in one siren suits to wear. Our only source of light was a very small paraffin night light. It was quite cramped under the stairs with my mother, father and older brother. Grandad lived with us but didn’t bother leaving his bed which was just as well as there must have been very little space left. I don’t think any bombs were dropped in that first raid but the raids continued for the next few months and started to cause a lot of damage and loss of life. I can’t be certain but I think it was probably at this period that my Dad and a Mr.Pope began using the lorries that they drove to transport people out of Liverpool and into the surrounding countryside. Each evening people from my street would climb onto the open back lorries and travel out to a school hall where we would sleep over night and return home early the next morning for school and work.

Eventually my mother, brother and I were evacuated to a place called Winsford. I have no recollection of going to school there. However we only stayed for a number of weeks as Dad had an accident and was admitted to Walton Hospital so we returned home to Liverpool. A bale of leather had fallen on Dad and fractured some bones — I think he had broken ribs and perhaps a punctured lung.

November 1940 saw the introduction of land mines by the Luftwaffe. These gigantic land mines floated gently down to earth on large green parachutes and one night one floated down at the back of our house and completely demolished some eight to ten houses and a corner shop in Brock Street. At the same time it blew out the back of our house, 10 Humber Street. The house could not be lived in and as happened in these cases we were ‘taken in’ by a relative. We went to stay with my Auntie Cissie who lived in Vicar Road in a house that was almost opposite to the house where my brother and I had been born Auntie Cissie had an Anderson Shelter in the back yard complete with a pet canary, which may have been kept to detect the feared gas attacks. For the rest of November and December there were some very heavy bombing raids over Liverpool and many hundreds of civilians, men, women and children lost their lives. There was a great deal of damage to the docks and city centre. However to us children the fun was searching the streets for shrapnel and parts of incendiary bombs the morning after the raids.

MAY BLITZ 1941

The May Blitz lasted from the 1st to 8th May 1941. Thousands of bombs were dropped by many hundreds of German bombers, hundreds of streets were demolished and buildings destroyed. More than 1700 people were killed and just as many seriously injured. When the all clear was sounded on the 8th May it was to mark the end of the worst bombing that Liverpool would experience for the rest of the war.

2nd EVACUATION

Not surprisingly, following the May Blitz my brother Ken and I were evacuated again, but this time without Mum. We were taken down to the station complete with gas masks and labels tied to our coats. Mums and Dads couldn’t come and wave goodbye. We eventually arrived at Ludlow station in Shropshire and walked up the hill to a café called De Grays which is still there. We were given some food and a drink. Then we were put on a single deck bus called a charabanc and started off on the Ludlow to Bridgnorth road. Because of the war all the road signs, village names and all other direction signs had been taken down. We stopped at each village and people came and chose which child they wanted. We arrived at Munslow village and somebody chose me but Ken, who was 4 years older than me, said they couldn’t have me without him. They took us both but we were only with the original people a few weeks and they decided that they didn’t want us. Dad arrived one Sunday and we then ended up with a family called Bengary.They had a boy and girl and we were quite happy but knew it was only a temporary place until the billeting officer found us somewhere more permanent.

We started school at Munslow Church of England school on 15th May 1941. After a short time we were transferred to Aston Hall in the next village. Aston Hall was a very large house and had a very big farm attached to it. It was owned by a Major Benson and his wife. We stayed at Aston Hall until 20th October 1944 and we were both very happy and well looked after, but the bombing of Liverpool had finished and three years, 5 months to be away from Mum and Dad was quite sufficient.

However, as I said, we were both very happy living at Aston Hall. The farm was a great place to live for two town boys. They had 4 shire horses for ploughing, hay making etc., 2 tractors which were a Fordson and Fordson Major, both of which I eventually used to drive as there was a shortage of manpower. There was a herd of milking cows (hand milked which I learnt to do), a herd of beef cattle, a big flock of sheep, pigs, hens, a pony and a hunter horse. I was not allowed to ride the hunter but I learnt to ride the pony. It was such a different world than it had been in Liverpool and it gave me an interest and insight into farming and country life which I still have and I suppose is one of the reasons I took up riding again when I retired. I used to go back for my summer holidays every year and eventually took Grandma back to Aston Hall before we were married.

My brother Ken and I transferred to Diddlebury Church of England School on the 30th October 1941. The Headmaster of the 3 classroom school was a Mr. Leach and he had a daughter who was my age and in my class. Her name was Rosemary Leach and she became an actress appearing on television and radio. Every day we walked to school across the fields and I suppose it was about 2 miles each way. We used the fields because it was nearer but we could have used the roads quite safely as there was absolutely no traffic. Mum and Dad used to visit us and in the summer Mum would come and stay for the summer holidays. She sent us parcels of sweets and things which were hard to get hold of. Sweets were on ration and remained that way until the 1950s.

As the war proceeded and the Army were getting ready to invade France the American army had a very big camp on the Ludlow Race Course. At the same time ammunition dumps (stores) appeared in the fields alongside the road. They consisted of a corrugated steel half round hut with just camouflage netting on the front and back. There were no guards and we used to lift the netting and open the ammunition boxes and find bullets, shells and bombs. They were all shiny brass and steel. It was like an Aladdin’s cave! Having taken some of the smaller bullets we would throw them on to the fire at school and thus get the cane. Rather a stupid thing to do when you consider that we had been sent off to live ‘safely’ in the countryside away from the German bombing.

When I arrived I had a Liverpool accent and had to hold my own in the play ground until I was accepted. However when we eventually returned to Liverpool I had acquired a Shropshire accent and the same thing happened all over again!

I thoroughly enjoyed my evacuation and my time living at Aston Hall. I learnt a lot and could do lots of things that town children couldn’t. However it must have been a very frightening and unpleasant time for my Mum and Dad and it must have been a great relief when the war finally ended and we could all live together again in safety.

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