大象传媒

I was seven on the 9th September 1939. We lived in Gravesend, kent surrounded by barrage balloons and on the flight path to London.
My Grandfather's hair turned white overnight. He had come off work at short Brothers on the medway, he was a pattern maker. A raid was on and a policeman stopped him on Rochester Bridge to see if he was alright. Grandfather explained that his son was seriously injured lying in St. Bart's hostptal and in the other direction he could see that bombs were dropping on Gravesend, where my mother and our family was.
My father was in a reserved occupation as and engineerin a blue circle cement factory on Thamesside opposite Tilbury. He worked long hours but always tried to come home for lunch. His route home went down a short steep hill, under a railway bridge and a long climb back p the other side. One lunchtime durin an air raid he paszsed several people sheltering under the bridge including a mother and a baby in a pram. short of time he pedalled on up the other side. A german pilot dropped his bomb on to the railway and everyone was killed instantly. My father told us that he saw all the windows of the houses bow outwards and then smash inwards with the blast. He was blown right on top of the hill with bike. when he reached us he was slightly deaf and had a cut on his head.
early in the war my uncle was injured. during a night rade over rochester he escorted his pregnant wife across the road to a friends shelter.he turned and whent back into their house because he had left the rent miney on the mantelpiece. A bomb fell near by and received severe shrapnell in his back.
There were no anti-biotics in those days. My grandfather paid for a London specialist to advise and he organised a bath which had continual salt water and my uncle was suspended in the bath for many weeks. Sadly Alan died. His wife delivered a mentally handicapped girl, who died when she was nine.
I went to the local grammar school early because my mother did not want to spend coupons on my Convent school uniform for one year only. So she brought the grammar uniform and my parents paid the fees. For a short time the school was evacuated to Diss in Norfolk. Being an only child I had a tutor.
When school returned they had built baffle walls across each of thecorners of the rectangle shaped corridors. After heavy night raids those girls who needed to were beded down between the baffle walls in the short corridors.
The lady teachers took turns to spend the night on the roof doing fire watch duties.
We had brick shelters built outside which we had classes in.
The school adopted a Norwegian vessel called the Empire Norse and the Captain came one year to thank us for the money and comforts we had sent. He gave us a 3 foot long whale's tooth and one brass torpedo casing. This brass casing stood on a mantleshelf outside the Head's room on display.
One day one of the girls dropped an enamel bowl outside the cookery room. It rolled and bounced down the stone staircase to the ground floor making a loud clanging noise. The entire school evacuated as it sounded exactually like our airraid warning gong.
On sept 3rd 1939 it was a loverly sunday and i was filling sandbags with my seaside spade. The siren went oon after the 11 o'clock statement of war. I was rushed indoorsand put under the stairs.
We were near Biggin Hill so we had plenty of dog fights overhead, Mother did not like the barage ballons. She felt they would bring a plane down on us.
Anderson shelters were means tested at the beginning of the war so we shared with our neighbour for a while. When we got our own we used it alot. Mother cut down a pair of fathers grey flanels and when the sirens went i automatically got up, stepped into these trousers , pulled on a big wooly jumper, a wooly hat and scarf and wellington boots. In this atire i would climb into my bunk down the shelter. We always had flasks of hot drinks ready and lots of candles. But i found it very, very col walking back up the garden in the mornings.
In his free time my father was a captain in the home gard. Mother had to work for a short time in a factory making bomb casings out of brown
ticky paper. Then she volunteered for the WVS and finally ended up doing the clerical work for the home guard unit.
I remember dried egg was wonderful stuff. Spam was a special treat. Pepper and salt sandwiches. Parsnips were made into all sorts of dishes. Plates and plates of runner beans from the garden. Lord wootton on the radio and most clearly of them all I.T.M.A.

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