大象传媒

My Memories from the 1939/45 War

At the outbreak of war I was seven years old, and attended Upper Wortley Grammar School in Wortley, Leeds. Due to the number of large engineering works in Leeds, which would have been a prime target for enemy bombing, my brother, two sisters and I were evacuated on the 1st September 1939. My brother and I went to Lincoln, and my sisters to Newark to live with my mother鈥檚 brother Robert who worked at Newark railway station. With hindsight Lincoln was a bad choice because seven airfields surrounded it and as a result of this we spent every night sleeping in the Anderson shelter. Due to the move and stress I started to stammer, and had to attend a special speech school.

When we first arrived at Newark we were lined up and people would come and take whichever child they thought looked the best; it was a bit like a cattle market. A family who already had two children of their own took us in. Fortunately we all got on together. Their house was close to a building site and after the workers were finished we used to go and look for bits of lead, which we melted down and made toy soldiers from. We stayed with this family for about eighteen months before being taken in by an auxiliary policeman & his wife.

A happy memory from our stay in Lincoln was the Woolworth鈥檚 shop, which used to sell penny packet of broken biscuits to the children. My brother and I would do any job to get a penny.

I also remember some council workmen in Lincoln laying new tarmac on a road, one day. Just as they were about to finish the air raid siren went off. Bren gun carriers were held in a compound half way down this road, which were used to deal with any possible parachutists. As a result large strips of the newly laid tarmac was torn up by the tracks of the vehicles.

While I lived with the second couple iced cake was brought out every Sunday. Each time we asked if we could have a piece the answer was 鈥淣o鈥�. It transpired that the cake was made of cardboard with just a thin layer of icing covering it, but it held pride of place every Sunday whilst we lived with them.

We eventually came back to Leeds to live with my parents who worked long hours during the war.

My father was an overhead crane driver at Crabtree鈥檚 engineering in Water Lane, Leeds. They used to make tanks for the armed forces. I can still remember my father coming home after a long shift; only to have someone knock at the door and find a Crabtree鈥檚 manager who would ask if he could go back to work, as they were short-staffed. I never heard my father refuse.

I remember that my parents were staunch members of the British Legion because my father had served in the Great War.

Our house always seemed to be full of either Americans, Canadians, Polish and French soldiers. They all came for one thing; my mothers Yorkshire puddings which they loved. Some of the soldiers would bring items that my mother could not buy due to rationing.

I remember that we kept a pig on our allotment and bred rabbits, not as pets but for food.

One weekend after we had returned to Leeds my friends and I decided to go camping at Farnley wood (Nan Wins Wood). During the night we were awakened by someone calling our names. It was my father who had come to take us home because a German aircraft had been machine-gunning the streets of Leeds.

I remember that we used to go to Hawksworth Wood in Horsforth, to look for spent bullets. The army had set up a rifle range in the wood for soldiers to practice on. We sold any spent bullets we found to other boys for a penny. If we could sell two bullets we used the money to go to the 鈥渢up-penny rush鈥�, as it was called at the Lyric cinema on Tong Road in Armley. The cinema had five rows of wooden benches, which had been placed in front of the main seats and as a result you had to bend your neck like an ostrich, to see the screen.

A vivid memory I have is when the Lord Mayor of Leeds arranged for every child to have a banana during the war. Most youngsters of my age had never seen one. I can remember the feeling when it was passed to me.

I also remember the day sweets came of ration just after the war. We stood outside this shop for over two hours waiting for it to open. But when we bought our sweets we found that they had been contaminated by the smell of soap.

Soap was not wrapped in fancy paper in those days. It had a strong smell, especially Carbolic & Fairy soap.

One of the things I remember from the war years was the dried food, eggs, potato, mincemeat etc, The worst food was the potatoes known as Pom, which tasted awful but we had to eat it because there was nothing else.

My elder sisters worked at Crabtree鈥檚 & Greenwood & Batley鈥檚 in Armley Road. On an evening they would go out, and if they did not have any nylons when they went out, their only recourse was to make Gravy Browning, which was made so that it was weak. They then painted it onto their legs and when dry a black pencil was used down the back of their legs to imitate the seam of the stocking.

Another thing I remember from the war was when the council collected any aluminium pots and pans, along with the railings of the house to help the war effort. It gave people the feeling that they were actually doing something for the war effort.

One of the fondest memories I have of the war was of a teacher called Miss Bullar, from my school. If I was fortunate to be in her class at milk break each pupil received a quarter of a sandwich. This all came out of her ration allowance. I still think of her with respect, especially for her kindness in thinking of the children, during such a stressful time.

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