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In February 1945, I was due to leave school the next month and start work. My friend Bill Blackham who lived next door but one — number 39 Priors Croft, and had been at work at least 18 months before me and he already worked at Gilson’s in Billet Road near Roger Asham School, Walthamstow. One early evening he asked me if I would be able to go to the pictures with him. I asked my dad if I could go and he refused — he was worried about the doodlebugs and rockets. He had a wider picture than me of what was going on. I then asked him if I could go with Bill to his place of work as they had a room with a snooker table and other recreational pursuits. He agreed saying we had to be home by a certain time. Off we went and when we got there the place was full and the games were occupied and fully booked all evening. So there and then Bill suggested that we should go to the pictures anyway as my dad would never know.
We went to the Dominion Cinema in Buxton Road just off Walthamstow High Street. I don’t recall how long we had been in there when a name and address flashed onto the screen, then another and another. The names were all around the area where my friend’s factory was. He walked to the back of the cinema and asked what had happened and was told that a rocket had dropped virtually on the factory. We both rushed home running all the way. It must have been about 4 to 5 miles to home. I was frightened out of my life because my dad had refused me to go to the cinema and I had disobeyed him and he was very strict. When I knocked at my front door, my brother opened the door and said dad is going to kill you. My dad had found out that the rocket had fallen only yards from the factory. My mum said that I should go to bed but I though that if I was going to get a good hiding I would rather be dressed. When he came in he laid in to me and then told me to go and get my friend and report to Roger Asham School.
This as luck would have it for the rescuers were one of the main rescue centers and was only a few yards from where the rocket had fallen. When we got there the whole area was blocked off but we were allowed in because we were on a list of the missing as people who the wardens had talked to had remembered seeing us there.
Quite a few people were killed there and many houses and factories were destroyed.

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