大象传媒

This story was submitted to the people war Website by a volunteer from Tiverton Museum of Mid Devon Life on behalf of William Elliott.

WILLIAM ELLIOTT

The day war broke out I was playing in the street with my younger brother in Clerkenwell. I was 9 and he was 5. We heard the sirens and were rushed into a cigarette factory which was used as a temporary shelter.

We were evacuated to Luton in 1940 for a few months and following a short time back in London we were evacuated to Redruth, Cornwall.

We were there for about a year and were looked after by a lovely lady but we had to come back to London when her mother was dying. The lady鈥檚 husband owned a local bus company called Marigold Buses and I used to go on trips with him on Saturdays.

I stayed in London from 1941 to the end of the war. I experienced all the bombing although I was not in London when my mother was bombed in her home (I was still in Cornwall then). Luckily she survived. W had to move to a flat in Finsbury where we were safe. My Dad was in the Irish Guards throughout the war.

I remember an incident when I went to the pictures, past a row of shops in Islington. When I came out the shops had been completely wiped out!

My Mum gave me a clip around the ear for going to the pictures!

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