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My father was in what was called ‘reserved occupation’ so he was not ‘called up’ to go into the armed forces. Usually that meant the army. He had joined the ARP (Air Raid Precautions) as a volunteer. This later became the Civil Defence and he was a First Aider. Then later he joined the rescue service as an air raid warden and he used to have to patrol the streets during an air raid to report where the bombs had been dropped. There were no lights, as we had to put up ‘black out’ blinds each night when it got dark, so the enemy couldn’t see where the towns were to drop their bombs. Air Raid wardens would patrol the streets in pitch dark and shout ‘Put that light out’ and would knock the door if they saw a chink of light.

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