大象传媒

The Tin Helmet was given to my father,by a soldier of the BEF after he was rescued from the beaches at Dunkirk.
In June 1940 I was 7 and remember seeing a crowd of soldiers at the bottom of my street. Householders were asked to 'take in' as many as they could until proper arrangements were made.
We took in two soldiers, probably from the Medical Corps. They had my bedroom and slept all night and all the next day.
They helped my father dig an air-raid shelter in the garden and he gave them half a crown for cigarettes and did a deal with one for his tin helmet for me to wear during air raids.
The soldier was very worried because this was 'casting aside his equipment' so Dad scratched off the emblems and painted it black with the lettering ARP in white on the front, and I had to wear it when the bombing was heavy. However as things became quieter during the raids Dad would put it on leave the dug out and tell us what was happening.
As the raids became less frequent the garden air raid shelter became my 'den' and I repainted the helmet because I thought khaki was much more impressive than a phoney Air Raid Warden's hat!
The helmet and this story are now in the Museum at Horsforth, Leeds, Yorkshire

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