大象传媒

I was born in 1937 in Limehouse, my brothers were born in 1939 and 1944. We were bombed out of Tree Road Custom House in 1940 and went to live in Barking, Essex in a requisitioned house. My Dad had a reserved job at Barking power station. We were evacuated to other parts of England, including Lancashire, Leicestershire and Somerset where my youngest brother was born, near Ilminster in 1944. There was and ack ack emplacement in Greatfields Park, Barking and we were entertained by the dog fights over the Thames, the doodlebugs and the barrage balloons. Even when we were evacuated to Somerset we were near a fighter station. I started school during the war and there were brick built above ground air raid shelters in the playground. I believe it was about this time that we started to go to the hopfields in Kent during the summer holidays for a working holiday (that is for Mum and Dad, we had the run of the beautiful countryside). My Dad was injured twice while on ARP duties, luckily only minor injuries caused by bomb blasts on and by the River Thames at Barking Reach, once when the Germans air force tried to put the power station out of action. I can vividly remember the victory parade in Barking which finished up in the main park, there were many army vehicles in the parade, all of which I found fascinating. I can also remember catching a bus with the stairs going up the outside of the back of the bus. I believe these buses were brought back into service during the war. The trams also still ran in Barking at that time. There was bomb damage in Barking which claimed lives and devastated areas in the town. One of the bombs landed on a church in Ripple Road, and one on a store at Blakes Corner. We had a radio operated by an accumulator and my brother and I used to walk to the shop situated in Ripple Road where the accumulators were recharged. We used to go to the bombed church site, where there were little mosaic tiles which we used as gobstones (fivestones as it is properly known) Unfortunately at the age of 66 I am the only surviving member of a family of seven. I have some wonderful memories of my childhood however, especially connected with school and the local church

漏 Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.