大象传媒

It was September 1939 and I was 15 years old living at home with my Mother and Father and two sisters when I heard the announcement on the radio that war had been declared with Germany. Being a teenager this did not sink in until my mother, who was a member of the Territorial Army was called up for Service in the ATS(Auxillary Territorial Army), the womens section of the Army soon after war was declared but only for a short while because my youngest sister was born in July 1940. She spent her baby years with my Aunt in Barnet when the bombing started in London.

I was working in Fenchurch Street as cashier in tailoring establishment learning bookkeeping. I used to get there by bus from Green Lanes,Newington Green which used to cost me tuppence each way. My wage at that time was twelve shillings a week which in this day was equivalent to 60p. One morning after a bad night of bombing I found I had to walk to work. The area around Old Street and Finsbury Circus was so badly damaged that no public transport was running, we had to wend our way over hose pipes to get to our place of work.

My friend and I still used to continue with our dancing

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