大象传媒

鈥淭his story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War site by Jan Hewett, a volunteer from 大象传媒 Three Counties Action at the British Legion, on behalf of George Cansdale and has been added to this site with his/her permission. The person fully understands the site鈥檚 terms and conditions.鈥�

George Charles Cansdale

Title
How I got to be a pair of eyes for the blind

My father was a full time serving army soldier. He had done 21 years in the army when war broke out, and was ready for demob. That is demobilization. He was in the Royal Artillery at Shrewburyness. My mother went to serve troops coming back from wherever with food in the Southend-on 鈥擲ea YMC. She then went into the ATS because father was called back because of his experience.
When I was 4 years old I was in India with Mum and Dad. Dad was in peacetime service. Then we lived in married quarters in Shrewburyness. I was then sent away to Dad鈥檚 father and his unmarried sister in Laindon in Essex. I didn鈥檛 understand country life and I cried a lot, so I was sent to the other Granddad and maternal grandmother in Arthingworth Street in Stratford E15.
I finished school and got a job in the soapworks at 15 years old.
Grandfather and myself went to join up.
鈥淵ou鈥檙e too young and you鈥檙e too old鈥� They said, so I went as an air raid warden. I went through all that bombing. After that I did 1or2 more jobs and then worked in a Blind Workshop in West Ham Lane run by the council. They were making wartime signal baskets and I was the only sighted person so I helped to finish them off. They used to sit 4 to a table drilling holes to take the bristles and they dipped the string in the pot of boiling pitch in the centre. I bought a tandem and used to take the blind men out in turns. We used to go over the Woolwich ferry. They lapped it up.

Chapter 2 Called up and sent to the Middle East.

Then I got my calling up papers. I went north to join a six-week course of physical training and I learnt a lot. A lot of the blokes cried a lot in the evenings and I used to think what a thing to come to You see I used to wear kids uniform when I was in India so it didn鈥檛 come hard to me.
I was sent to the Middle East, to Syria and Beirut and Suez. I was made up to a Sergeant and became a store man. Then I was made up to Staff Sergeant and had German POWs working under me, doing jobs for the army. I was on a disposal unit. The name of the unit was 5 BOD

Telekobin. This sold obsolete British equipment to local people. This was a big unit in Egypt.
Demob came up whilst I was there and I came to Bedfordshire. Dad had moved this way because he had a brother working at Cranfield in the Air force. We hadn鈥檛 got a home to go to because we had been in the forces. Dad鈥檚 brother got us a house in Wootton.
Dad got demobbed in the No1 group because he had been in so long. Mum was demobbed from the ATS. All of us came back to Wootton. I came back from the Middle East on Relief, that鈥檚 holiday break. I was back for 2-3 weeks leave. We had no furniture. We sat on orange boxes. Mum was waiting for coupons to buy furniture.
I went down to the pub at Wootton, The Cock, and there I met Dolly my wife now.
I was smoking and burned a hole in her frock. So I said to her 鈥淲ould you like me to buy you a new frock? How do I go about it?鈥�
She said, 鈥淵ou鈥檇 have to go to Bedford Market.鈥�
鈥淵ou come with me and choose it then鈥� I said
It was all black market stuff. She chose it. I paid for it.
After that we went to the cinema during my holiday. She lived down Field Road near Mum and Dad, and she kept in contact while I was away in the Middle East. It was a long time to wait.
When I came back -Demob Group 60- I said to her鈥� What about getting married?鈥� and that鈥檚 what we did and have been married 60 years.

Chapter 3 Doodle Bugs and Dustbins George Charles Cansdale

I was about 16 or 17 years old. Down the bottom of the street my uncle had a butchers shop. A doodlebug floated gently down n a parachute and settled in the dustbin and blew things to pieces. It completely destroyed the butchers shop. A Doodlebug was like an airplane but unmanned. You were OK as long as you could hear it. When it ran out of fuel down it would come.
I was working as an air raid warden. Every night was very noisy.
Incendiaries came down every night. These were carried by plane. Everything seemed to be alight. We had to let a lot go. London was on fire. I was in Fire Watch. When there was an air raid warning all the people came down and went into these metal shelters. Then came the all

clear. There wasn鈥檛 much panic. Down in the Underground at Stratford there were crowds of people. There was singing, dancing, and music, even concerts.

The bomb down the ship鈥檚 funnel George Charles Cansdale

My dad told me that there was a ship at Dunquerque that was packed with soldiers and a bomb came down the funnel of the ship and blew it to pieces. There were blokes getting onto whatever they could to stay afloat. I couldn鈥檛鈥� believe this could happen.

Sleeping through the Shrapnel 鈥� George Charles Cansdale.

In my Granny鈥檚 house a piece of shrapnel came down. It went through the roof and through the pillow I was sleeping on.
When we were out looking for fires and everyone was underground we used to hold hands we were so scared.
There was no stealing or looting because we were all facing the same thing. We didn鈥檛 lock the house.
We didn鈥檛 feel anti German. We just knew they had to fight us and we had to fight them.
We鈥檝e got a cigarette case made out of the waste material from an aeroplane and a picture I painted.

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