大象传媒

My memory of the beginning of the war is of collecting our gas masks from Squarey`s Yard (the outbuildings of Belvedere House). We did it alphabetically - everyone from A to F, say, and we were all fitted for different sizes. I remember the air raid shelters behind the school too - in School Field which is the Rec now. I remember being in there for a whole day once - there were buckets behind sacking half way along and a very strong smell of creosate. There was an ack-ack gun and searchlights on the cricket field and the little building that was put up as an officers` mess became the cricket pavillion after the war.
In Saint Andrew`s Road where I lived we had concrete blast walls built to protect the front windows. At Highbury School we had sandbags as protection and there was a barrage balloon in the school yard which was hoisted when there was an alert. Part of the school was taken over by the Red Cross too.

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