大象传媒

I was born in Clerkenwell London in, July 1933 but as a baby moved to Highbury London the youngest of 7 children , so any mathematician will know that I was 6 years old when WW2 started .
At the outbreak of WW2 , we were straight away issued with gas masks, of which we had to carry around with us at all times.
We even had a gas mask register at school, and you were sent home to retrieve yours , if you had left it behind.
Food was rationed and everyone was asked to DIG FOR VICTORY i.e. grow your own vegetables
.Black out curtains had to be bought or made and used. All windows were not allowed to show the slightest chink of light.
ARP wardens checked the windows whilst patrolling streets. and occasionally they would bang on windows and be heard to shout GET THAT LIGHT OUT.
No street lights were used, and road nameplates were removed and also road directions were taken down .Later on, all metal gates railings etc were taken to be melted down and remade into ammunitions etc
It was expected that London and the docks and ports on the south coast of England would be bombed first, so most mothers in these areas were advised to have their children evacuated.
My evacuation was arranged through my junior school , and we had to meet at the local train station.
I had an older brother and sister evacuated with me, so there we were on the station, I had 3 gas masks hung round my neck, whilst my 2 siblings had our small cases and our issued brown paper carrier bags with food inside. We had labels with our details on them , tied to our coats .I can remember crying buckets of tears. Everyone was issued with an identity card and no and I realised that later it became my national health no.

As a mother and a grand mother now, I cannot begin to imagine how the parents then felt, sending off their offspring to somewhere unknown to them.
We ended up in Great Glen Leicestershire. My sister and I stayed with Mrs Hubbard, and my brother with the local baker of what was then a small village. we were lucky , as we were treated real nice.
MY HUSBAND AND MYSELF WENT TO FIND MRS HUBBARD 45 YEARS LATER.WE FOUND THE HOUSE AND THEY STILL LIVED THERE. MRS HUBBARD REMEMBERED MY SISTER AND ME, AND ASKED IF MY SISTER STILL HAD THOSE TERRIBLE NOSE BLEEDS,WHICH SHE SUFFERED FROM AS A CHILD. WE ALSO MET MR HUBBARD FOR THE FIRST TIME, AS HE WAS AWAY IN THE ARMY WHEN I HAD BEEN EVACUATED THERE.
Back to WW2
We stayed a few months and then came back to London, as it was still (all quiet on the western front ) which was a popular saying at the time.
Gradually most of the street kids had come back home, so we had our friends to play with. Not many people had cars in those days, and as petrol was rationed, it was quite safe to play in the roads .we played with whip and tops, everyone went about on roller skates, We played whatever the in game was at the time. Tap dancing was the in dance in musical films. Us girls in the street would spend hours making up dances and then we would go the bus stop at the top of our road and sing and dance to the queue.
The queues were always very long as buses were. few and far between, we did not do it for money, just as well , as nobody ever offered us any lol WERE WE THAT BAD !!!!!!!!
One of the songs was
鈥� you are my sunshine, my only sunshine,
you make me happy , when clouds are grey.
You鈥檒l never know dear , how much I love you.
So Please don鈥檛 take my sunshine away

Our local train station had from time to time , trains arrive , full of soldiers which were then parked stationary in a siding. These trains would stay for hours and us kids saved magazines and all sorts of stuff to give to the soldiers when they came. My mother even made cakes for them sometimes. We would all rush down to the station and the soldiers would throw onto the platform pennies or half pennies. We thought it was great.
My father was too old for call up in the armed forces as he was born in 1888, but 3 of my brothers enlisted in the army and 2 of my sisters joined the WAAF鈥檚
My Father was in the ARP and during air raids he had to patrol our street, checking for incendiary bombs or fires etc.My father was an electrical instrument maker , and was then doing war work, to do with radar. We had a Morrison shelter erected in our dining room. We had a very large dining table and it fitted underneath this. It was a metal cage with a solid metal top. We had not had the cause to use it as yet, so some of my friends when in my house would play in it. We played hairdressers one day and one of my plaits got cut off. My mother went potty and I cried for days.
Air raids at night started, and at first we would use the brick built shelter in the street, with neighbours. Then it seemed we did not bother and slept in the house in the hall which was at ground level. We always had a spade and a pick axe near to hand , in case we got buried in.
When the raids were very local to us, guns on wheels were brought out of the tunnels at the railway station and fired, so we heard all this .Us kids collected shrapnel in the streets, which had collection places for it , then to be taken and melted down and reused. Another hobby was collecting cigarette picture cards. Packets of cigarettes then had cards in each packet, and we would ask people in the street if they had any.
We would go scrumping for fruit in peoples gardens( don鈥檛 tell my grand children this lol ) When the yanks came , we would ask them Got Any Gum Chum. They always could buy sweets in the PX on camp. As we never had sweets at home as they were rationed .My mother had sugar instead which she used for cooking. We all had to stop taking sugar in drinks, and to this day, I have still kept it up The Yanks would always give us sweets if we asked them. They were very popular with us kids..
At school, one of the halls was used for people that were bombed out and had nowhere to go. They would stay here for a few weeks until a place could be found for them to live .We called these people鈥� refugees 鈥�.Little did I know that one day , my family would take on this鈥� name .鈥�
At school , each day we would have to wear our gas masks for a short period in the morning and afternoon, so that we got used to wearing them.If pupils did not turn up for school, nothing was said . at one time when the bombing was real bad during the day time, my mother kept me home from school for weeks .
Schools would put on concerts , mainly pupils singing and dancing, entrance fee for adults being the purchase of saving stamps, all to help the war effort.
The girls were provided with wool, and we knitted scarves and gloves , which went to the navy for sailors on the Russian Convoys.
Schools then had the 11 PLUS exam taken at age of 11 ,mmmm ????????/ the results of this exam denoted which senior school you could attend. Lowest grade being Elementary, next came Central and top marks Grammar .Later in life , my Mother told me , she was not interested in which schools we passed for, but her main aim was keeping us alive.
February 1944 we were bombed out. at 2 o鈥檆lock in the morning and it was snowing.
Opposite my house was a church, with a very tall spire. It was used I believe not as a church but for storing ammunitions .My Mother and I went to the outside street shelter, as the gun fire was heavy that night and my father a sister and brother said they would follow. Bombs were dropped at the back of the house and then the planes came over and dropped on the front , mainly the church. Our house was a right off. My family got out alive.
In the shelter , my mother lay on top of me, to shelter me from the blast.
All of us that were then homeless, walked in a file to the local police station, where names and addresses were taken. I will always remember this, Walking in the dark , snowing and worrying in case the church spire which was on fire, was going to fall.
We were then taken to my school , and we lived for 3 weeks in a hall as refugees with about 100 other people.
Whilst living here , I had to take my 11 Plus exam, and I think that later my family were surprised at my pass marks. !!!!!!!!!
We were rehoused in Pentonville prison which was still in London..
Most of the prisoners had been evacuated, but some still remained. A man was hung whilst we were there .I think now that after having been bombed out , I was then scared. The prison had an underground shelter with toilet and washing facilities, and for 3 weeks I lived down here. My mother would cook my meals and bring them to me in this shelter.
We had all learned to recognise the drone of German planes as against English planes. Then came a different aircraft noise, which we did not recognise
It was the V1鈥檚 or doodle bugs as we called them. They would fly pilotless and then when the engine cut out , would drift down in a spiral to the ground and then explode. These were really scary, as they could be seen in daylight and people did not know when exactly or where they would explode.
I was open air swimming with my dad and one came over the pool. We all ran for shelter, and though I had never before heard my father swear before , he was saying鈥� Keep going you bugger, keep going 鈥�
The flying bombs( V1鈥檚) kept coming day and night, so my mother said we will evacuate again, this time she came with me .We went to Morecambe in Lancashire. My mother saw someone in local council, and they gave us a key for a room, which they said we could have as from that evening .When we arrived , the room was filthy with just a bed and chairs .My mother made me sit on the chair all night . Next day we were back to the council for somewhere else. When I was an adult , my mother said that this place was used as a brothel lol.
We were billeted with a middle aged married childless couple, We stayed 2 weeks, we were given tea and biscuits in the morning and we had to be out of the house by 9am and were not allowed back till 7pm. We roamed the streets and saw the same films over and over , . It was winter and we tried to find places where we could be warm.
So back to London and the bombing
My sisters who were in the WAAF鈥檚 when they had 24 or 48 hr passes they usually brought a couple of either girls or guys from the air force home with them. People that could not get to their own homes . It was fun as it seemed we were always having a party in our house .All my mother demanded of these people was their food ration chit. My mother would never have alcohol in the house, so nobody was ever drunk
The V1鈥檚 never stopped day or night, so people just went about as normal.
One mid morning , my mother said we will go to shops , so off we went . The bombing was so bad, that my ma made me lie in a gutter, and she lay on top of me. We did not get as far as the shops that day.
My mother said we will have a break from the bombing , so with her and my brother we went to Sunderland in co Durham and stayed with an aunt. Prior to going , we left 2 RAF guys in bed and my mum said she had left some food in the frying pan for them to cook, and would they make sure they turned the gas off and locked front door, before they went back to camp. My WAAF sister had already left as she was due back on camp before them.
Whilst in Sunderland , my dad had an accident , so my ma went back to London and left my brother and me behind.
Whilst she was away ,Sunderland was bombed and a land mine dropped a few streets away from my Aunts house. All the soot came down the chimney and she was screaming to us to put our gas masks on , she thought we were gassed. All our lights went out, and when we had them on again, we looked like sweeps , as we were covered in soot. Whilst in Sunderland my 11 plus exam results came, and the school we had chosen , part of it was evacuated to Kettering. I had to wait 6 months for a billet there, so went to school in Sunderland. As I spoke with a London accent , all the kids said I was a foreign spy , so I then started speaking with a northern accent , I was then accepted .
I was billeted with a Mr and Mrs Brown in Kettering, they did not have any children, and they really spoiled me. The house was opposite Wicksteed鈥檚 park, and my friend from London was billeted near to me. So we at least had each other .
By now the rockets had started in London. School hols I went home, and was real scared .We moved from the prison to a large flat, and a land mine dropped fairly near to us. All our windows were blown out, and our cat went missing .My eldest brother who was married with 2 very young children was reported missing presumed dead. He had gone over with the D Day landings.
His unit was cut off and he lived in the Ardennes forests for 6 weeks living on berries etc, He was picked up by a Canadian unit and flown home. He had tetanus. What a great day that was , when we heard the news that he was alive He came to see us wearing royal blue suit with white shirt and red tie. This was what military wore if they were wounded.
Just to let people know that they were not skiving out of being in the forces.
One of my sisters had concussion and was taken to a military hosp and another WAAF with number similar to my sisters no and of the same name , she died and the hosp mixed them up and my mother got a telegram from the air force telling us that my sister had died The worries that my mother had. My sister was fine after, and she wasn鈥檛 told about the mix up.
VE day came and I went to Trafalgar square with my sisters and there were masses of people there singing , dancing , cheering.It was great.
At home , we had a street party, all the mums had organised the food.
We danced and sang , how happy we were.
BUT
Some were sad as they had lost people in their families both in the armed forces or civilians.

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