大象传媒

This story was submitted to the 大象传媒 People's War website by Tim Ford on behalf of Margaret Greenhorn and has been added to the site with her permission. The author fully understands the 大象传媒 Peoples War Project and it's aim to create the largest online archive of stories of a nation at war.

My earliest memory of the start of the war was shortly after war was declared on the radio. My mother and I went along to a neighbour, Mrs Green, to talk together about these events. I remember them talking when a ARP man rode up on his bicycle, stopped and jumped off. He came running up the path, pushed the three of us into the hall saying "Don't you know there's a war on" and slammed the door shut much to our astonishment!

At the start of the War I was 8 years old and at school. I was in the juniors - Latham Road School - I remember the ground floor of the school served as a casualty centre and acted as a shelter as a purpose built one hadn't been built. One Friday afternoon I remember the school having what was like a mock air raid drill. We were all marched to the ground floor, 2 by 2, were we waited for the All Clear. To pass the time we all sang songs and then the "adventure" continued when the All Clear went and we left the school via a window which had been adapted and had stairs both inside and out. We gathered in the yard before being allowed home at 4pm.

The very next day, Saturday, at 4pm the school was bombed. I went with my mother and saw the damage the bomb had caused. The bomb had passed right through the classroom and the desks including mine were hanging out of the building.

I was supposed to be evacuated to Western Super Mare but refused to go. My Father suggested that my Mother and I keep going west, as we had friends in Hillingdon they agreed to put us up for a couple of nights. Then we went to Marlow in Bucks. We were taken to a collection point and we found that there were a lot of children there from East Ham that we already knew.Mam was not satisfied with the lodging arrangements, and decided to try for help from the local constabulary, by sheer coincidence a special constable at the station was married to a girl from Seaton Delaval and because we were from Newcastle he offered accomodation at his house. I was enroled in the local school, because of the influx of evacuees, the school ran a shift system, we only done half a day, much to our delight!

It was rumoured in the village that the King and Queen would be passing through at 3p.m. on Saturday to visit a school in the area, much to everyones excitement. As it happened while shopping that day the Royal's came through the village at noon. In the afternoon my parents and I were walking along the banks of the Thames just outside the village. We heard the noise of aircraft and it looked like the Luftwaffe were bombing Slough, one aircraft broke away and came in our direction with guns blazing, Dad pulled mam and I to safety behind a tree, the German plane flew on towards the village and dropped a number of bombs alog the line of Marlow High Street the exact route the King and queen had passed through only three hours earlier. One person was killed, the casualties of this attack would have been devastating if the royal Family had been on time.

Dad's job was at Tilbury Docks, as the severity of the Blitz increased and our home had the roof blown off, he decided that it was safer for Mam and I to return to Tyneside and live with Mam's parents in Byker, Newcastle. He followed at a later date to build gliders at Northern Coachworks, Teams Valley. We never returned to London.

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