大象传媒

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I was born in November 1939. I lived in the East End of London and we were caught up in the Blitz. Our house received the results of a bomb along the street. Our house was shored up for many years after, maybe 20 years in fact. What I do remember that when I was two years old I had a throat and chest infection. I was in bed at home and about 2 o鈥檆lock in the morning my father wrapped me up in blankets and carried me down to the shelter. The shelter was in a drink鈥檚 factory next door to our house. Many times we were backwards and forwards to the shelter. My grandparents use to live opposite us. We sometimes stayed there because of the state of our house after the bomb. One night there was a very very loud bang. At the end of our road was a main railway line to Hertfordshire. I was in bed, I think I was about four years old. I said to my aunt 鈥淲hat was that?鈥� 鈥� this was again late at night. She said 鈥淒on鈥檛 worry, it was just a train falling over鈥� and I said 鈥淥kay鈥� and that was that and I went back to sleep!

I was evacuated. I was born in Hertfordshire in Welwyn Garden City, actually in Brocket Hall which is a stately home near Welwyn Garden City because the East London maternity hospital sent all the pregnant mothers when the war started up there. So I鈥檓 now known as a Brockett Babe! We lived in Welwyn Garden City near the famous Shredded Wheat factory which is still there today. We lived there for two and half years. Welwyn Garden City was lovely, it was all countrified and living there was great. I still go back there sometimes to visit, though no one I know lives there anymore. The house is still there. We came back to London in the middle of the Blitz. Then in late 1944 I think, towards the end of the war, I was evacuated to Cardiff where I was educated partially for two and a half years. It was awful being evacuated. We lived with my aunt and it was very crowded. My sister who is 6 years older than me and my mother were with me in Cardiff. We came back to London in 1945. I was happy to come back. My father needed to work in London. While we were in Cardiff my father worked in London.

Because of the state of the house in the war I had a weak chest and that carried on in to my teenage years. I lived in the same house for 20 or 22 years.

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