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When war was declared I lived in Birmingham, with my Parents who owned a café, and I was 9yrs old.

Because Birmingham was one of the places to get badly bombed I was sent to live with my Grand-Parents in Northampton. They also took in some evacuees, and we all went to the local school.

I can remember hearing Lord Haw Haw (whose real name was William Joyce), spreading propaganda on the radio.
My Parents eventually joined me at my Grand-Parents because they lost their business due to the bombing in Birmingham.

It seemed as if nature was on our side when Hitler invaded Russia, because they couldn’t tolerate the severe cold weather.
I can remember that Churchill, Stalin and Roosevelt were known as the ‘Big Three’, and also remember some the speeches on the radio

Rations varied from little to very little, and the ‘black market’ was rife. People who bought from the ‘black market’ kept very quiet about it, because they didn’t want to jeopardise themselves...

My Gran died and I went to live with an Aunt, who lived in a very old-fashioned house. The local teacher wanted me to go to a more modern home, but I didn’t go because it would have upset my family.
The Home Guard and the Air Raid Wardens used to patrol the streets at night.

We celebrated the end of the war back in Birmingham — the church bells rang out again — they had been silenced during the war, and I got into trouble because I came home late from the celebrations. Parents were strict in those days.

This story was submitted to the People’s War site by June Levell-Woodhouse (volunteer) of the CSV Action Desk at ´óÏó´«Ã½ Hereford and Worcester on behalf of Donald Mead (author) and has been added to the site with his permission. The author fully understands the site’s terms and conditions.

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