大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War site by Gillian Ridley for Three Counties Action on behalf of Mrs Audrey Bush and has been added to the site with her permission. The author fully understands the site鈥檚 terms and conditions.

I was five years old it was 1940. My brother and I lived in Highbury in North London. We were been evacuated five times during the war and for about six weeks at a time, my mother always insisted that we were placed together.

We attended a Church infants school that was attached to the Church. An incendiary bomb fell and set fire to the roof of the school and damaged the church. My brother and I had no school for nine months; my mother was pulling her hair out, but we thought it was great!

A land mine (a very powerful bomb) fell in the next street but didn鈥檛 go off. My father went to work the next day he knew there had been a raid in the night, the Police were in the street they stopped my Father and asked how many people lived in our house he told them four, he was then told to get them all out and not to go back until told.
We went to stay with my Grandmother a couple of miles away.
Mum remembered the ironing that needed doing and decided to return to the house to pick it up (keeping busy and doing normal things took her mind of the fact that she might not have a home soon). The land mine went off while she was in the house all the windows were shattered they were all blown in along with the tomatoes that were ripening on the windowsills. The house and my Mother survived and the house is still there today.

The iron railings were removed from the front of the house and given for the war effort, we weren鈥檛 asked they just told us that they had to go. Everyone was in the same situation; even the Park railings were taken.

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