大象传媒

This story was submitted to the Peoples War Website by Jenny Norton of the Stoke CSV Action Desk on behalf of Peter Haynes and has been added to the site with his permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

On the September Sunday in 1939 when war was declared, our family,with the exception of our father,sat around the radio and listened to Neville Chamberlain declare war on Germany.
Father was conducting a service in Shelton Church and my sister Joyce was immediately sent to tell him the news.She remembers walking alone down the central aisle aware that as she passed each pew the sound of her footsteps had already conveyed the message no one wanted to hear.
The anticipated immediate blitzkrieg from the well prepared enemy forces did not materialise,but by Christmas 1941 as we sat down for our evening meal,especially prepared to welcome my sisters home from college,the sirens sounded.We ignored them,determined to enjoy our first family meal together for many months.
Little had been eaten when a bomb whistled down and blew our Anderson shelter out of the ground.We spent that Christmas with four feet of sewage in our cellar and the 'spice' incense burning throughout our home. The combination of those two conflicting odours was unique and perhaps explains our long term lack of a sense of smell! In the most unconventional way,our Air Raid Shelter saved both our house and our lives.
Throughout the early war years i travelled by bus,of which there were many,to school in Longton before joining the Royal Navy.
My sister Joyce,who by then had qualified to teach at nearby Canon Street School and also worked three nights each week at Hanley Fire Station, was an officer in the Girls Training Corps and still managed to participate in her favourite sport of netball.
My father had amazing vitality,working at Shelton Church and their two satellites Broad Street Mission and Tinkersclough in addition to acting as Billeting Officer to the hundreds of families evacuated from the south who had to be found immediate accommodation. In his spare time he was an honourary Chaplain at Stafford Prison.
When life is so hectic real values are cherished. There were the black market traders,the Spivs that always had petrol coupons, blankets and booze avaliable at a price, but the vast majority responded to the truth within the saying,"It is better to give than to receive" and many gave their all.

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