大象传媒

This is an extract from an interview with Stan Hook taped on 14/07/03 and added to the site with his permission by Byron Whitehead of the Folkestone Heritage Team. This account has been added to the site with Stan's permission. Stan fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

Stan Hook was also a motorcycle messenger boy in the Auxiliary Fire Service. His account of the London Blitz, especially the bombing of Docklands and the City of London, has been published in "We Remember the Blitz" compiled by Frank and Joan Shaw.

They sent us to a recuperation hotel in Brighton, just before V.E. day this was.
And we were there for 3 weeks. We were treated like Lords, never seen the food like it! They really looked after us. We were given a new uniform.... I think they burnt [our old uniforms.] All of a sudden they declared V.E. day. I said to another officer.
"I'm going up to the Smoke, how about you?"
He said "Yes, come on"
So, about 8 O'clock that morning we set out. We didn't get any further than Brighton station. The crowds, they absolutely mobbed us! All the buttons, my cap went, everything went! All the badges and everything. And everyone was the same. Servicemen were running around in their singlets!

Eventually we did get up to London and, eventually, back to Chatham barracks. Then came V.J. day. They just demobbed us in '46, gave us a suit, said "Thank you very much." Patted us on the head, and I think I got about 拢36 which was a princely sum in those days. They said, "On your way."

After the war I went back to the Isle of Dogs, that's where my family were. There was no work in the Docks because they'd all been bombed. There were no cranes working or anything. Stevedores were laid off. We had a really tough time. There was no food. Sweets, everything was rationed...

I didn't find work in the Docks. I worked for a company in the city... I decided that I didn't have an education. My mother had always made us "talk proper" as she says. She made sure that we spoke nicely. All the local kids used to call us "The family that talks posh" which was funny because where I lived it was a tough neighbourhood. Kids used to run around and go to school in the middle of Winter with no socks, no shoes. A chap next door to me, Adams, he sat there with his bare feet. There was snow outside, about 3, 4 inches of snow! As children we didn't think anything of it.

We came back to the island and they put us in a Prefab because our house had been bombed. I thought it was lovely! We had a bathroom, a proper fitted little kitchen. These were made of asbestos. They were very nice. We thought they were wonderful after what we'd been used to... Everything slowly came back to normal, buildings went up. I got married in 1950 and went to live in North London. London was still decimated...

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