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I was on the beach with my mother at Broadstairs in Kent at 11 o’clock on 3.9.39. There were no portable radios so we did not know war was declared until someone came down with the news a quarter of an hour later.
Almost immediately, by way of confirmation, the air raid siren sounded, and we became very aware that we were in one of the closest parts of the country to the borders of Germany. Remembering stories from comics and news reports from Abyssinia, China and Spain I had a vision of German fighters appearing and strafing the beach.
An Air Raid Warden went along the clifftop blowing a whistle and he leaned over the railing and shouted, ‘Will you people please take cover’. This was difficult; beach huts hardly seemed adequate and it would have taken a long time to dig bunkers in the sand with the tools at our disposal. Then someone suggested that there might be a shelter at the other end of the beach; but as we set out for it the All Clear sounded, so we made our way to our lodgings, arriving just in time to hear a recorded repeat of Mr Chamberlain’s speech.

The next day was my mother’s birthday, and I screwed up my courage to venture out to buy her a present. I ran all the way to the shops and back hoping I would not be caught in a raid.
I was surprised to find that the modest sum in my pocket was enough for a quite handsome box of chocolates. With the holiday season abruptly cut short the local shops were cutting their losses by selling off their stocks at heavy discounts.
We returned to London with a case full of cheap sweets and chocolates.

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