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I was 5 when War broke out, we were living in Aldershot and I was boarding at St Anthony’s convent. And attending St Joseph’s school, one of my main memories is of walking to school, in our full school uniforms of blue and brown, we had to walk in ‘crocodile ‘ fashion two abreast, we were issued with our gas masks (with a very fetching green tape base).

Our school was a very nice older style building, with iron railings and double iron gates, I became more conscious of the war when we arrived one morning to find all the railings had been taken away to contribute to the war effort, not only our school but all the houses around the area were stripped of any metal (probably to help build tanks).

I can remember one real scare at school, and it was when school discipline really worked, the headmistress came running into the classroom and told us to get down on the floor and hide under our desks straightaway, we all heard an explosion from a long way away, we were told later that a bomb had been dropped.
Even though I grew up in Aldershot ‘The Home Of The British Army’ the one thing I can remember is the lack of troops around the town, they were all away fighting and most did not return until the end of the war.

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