´óÏó´«Ã½

Rowland’s first memory of the Second World War was he was six years old and was going to be evacuated to Canada because he had relations there, but unfortunately he had the measles and could not go. It was a good job he didn’t go because the ship that he was meant to go on got bombed and more than 300 children died. After this disaster, the Government stopped evacuees going to Canada.
One night Rowland was in bed and he heard sirens and a German bomber plane had dropped a landmine nearby and hit three rows of houses. It had blown the roof of his house right off, unfortunately with this disaster his mother died. Rowland’s father and brother luckily survived. That morning, 200 people had been killed with this attack. They were laying dead on the pavement. Rowland and his family then moved to a new house but had no belongings.
Before the war Rowland’s father worked in London, but came back when the war started and became a guard on the Home front. Unfortunately he died as he was on guard on Grosvenor Street in 1941. After his father died, Rowland’s Grandfather looked after him and his brother. After that there were many attacks so when there were the attacks, Rowland and his grandfather and brother looked out the window and their street was on fire from end to end. They were terrified.
Rowland had many experiences of the war and one of them were when they had been out once they were very close to getting bombed again overhead by a German but they had got in just in time.
Because Rowland was very young, he had never seen the town not getting bombed so they didn’t know what life was like without a war. To him it seemed normal that he and his friends would play on the search lights and it would be normal! During the war there were no evacuees that stayed with Rowland and his family. Only his uncle fought in the war, he got shot down twice and broke his nose during one accident. Before the war his uncle built clocks for engines.

Rationing
During the war there was a limited amount of food that people could buy because they were so short of food! Rowland experienced this and thought this was very hard. First of all they had to sign on with a butcher with coupons. This is some of the food that they could only have every week : 1 ounce of butter, 2 ounces of sugar 1 egg
Although they had plenty of fish!
One of the most memorable times was there were loads of blackouts. This was when it was pitch black because people were not allowed lights on and had to shut their curtains. People had black paper on the headlights of their car during a blackout to stop the German bombers overhead spotting where people were, so it always seemed pitch black. This was very frightening and must have been one of the worst experiences of the war.

For entertainment Rowland and his family had one radio between them to listen to, which had to be charged every Monday. Rowland did not have all the luxuries that we have today, but also things that we do now were very cheap then like going to the cinema for 2p.
Rowland’s school life was not a fond memory. They had air raids very often and had to be sent to the bomb shelters. He also had to carry a gas mask at all times just in case there was a gas attack. He couldn’t play with his brother at school because there was a gate separating them.
Rowland had many friends who unfortunately were killed in raids and bombing. Rowland’s opinion of the Germans was ‘ the only good one was a dead one,’ Rowland thought this because they killed some of his family and friends.
Rowland has no photos of his family and friends to remember them by. Everything was lost as a result of the war.
After the war ended they had a huge street party and everyone was having a good time for the first time since war began.
He then moved to Chester and met his wife, with whom he later had children.

© Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.