大象传媒

I was 6 yrs old when war was declared. i lived with my parents, and had 2 sisters, agred 4 1/2 and 3 yrs old. my parents had a typical corner shop, although my father worked full-time for shell mex petroleum co. and was therefore in a 'reserved occupation'. out of a family of 16 children, three of my father's older brothers and sisters had emigrated to canada in the 1920's. i'm not sure of the precise date, but his sister louisa roberts had written to ask 'if your government will allow it' for my sisters and i to evacuate to canada for safety. my sister, 4 1/2 yrs and i were told we were going to a place where we would go to school on ponies. Hazel, at 3 yrs, was to stay in england, as she was thought to young to make the journey. i remember the cases standing packed in the hall, and the various labels attached to packages. suddenly all talk of canada ceased. in later years i learned that as Ivy (4 1/2) had caught measles and i was a close contact, we were not allowed to travel as planned. what had seemed a lost opportunity proved to be a miracle for us. the ship we should have sailed on (i think it was 'The City of Benares') was torpedoes by the Germans, and about 400 children lost at sea. The government had cancelled all further sailings.
The corner shop was the centre of all news and contacts during the war years. it was the air raid wardens meeting place, the message exchange, the place to get help if any was needed. so few homes had telephones that the relaying of information was often necessary and urgent - where bombs had dropped, which bus routes were still running, which shops had had deliveries of unrationed foods. My mother had to deal with sharing out fairly the things not on ration and sometimes challenge people who had altered the cancellations in their ration books. it must have been a most difficult time for her. She eventually had to rely on a very elderly uncle and a disabled hunchback lady to keep the place going. i don't know how wives, at thome were paid while their men were away, but i recall my mother funding a local lady to get her husbands civvy clothees out of the pawnshop. the solder had been given 48 hrs leave, but his wife had been forced to put his clothes in hock in order to survive. she was desperate to get them back in the wardrobe before he arrived back. another time a young woman knocked on the door, late at night, asking for us to look after a suitcase while she looked for lodgings. this was agreed, but the woman never returned. the case was taken to the police station, opened, and found to be full of baby clothes. there was nothing in it to identify the owner. we never knew the truth of the matter - had the lady been killed in an air-raid? had she forgotten where the case had been left? was she dumping the evidence of an illegitamate child?
School continued as normally as possible, except for the return of elderly retired teaches, called to fill the places of staff who had joined up. paper was scarce, so chalk and slates were used. lessons sometimes had to continue in the reinforced school corridors if an air raid started. we left home for school each morning my mothers daily chart was 'have you got your 1/2d for school milk, have you got your gas mask, have you got your hanky, have you got your knickers on?'. we also had to be checked for our 'ration tin'. this was a metal oxo cube tin, which would have held 6 cubes orginally. in it we had 2 biscuits, 2 ovaltine tablets, and some squares of chocolate. these were to keep us going if we were unlucky enough to be trapped for some time in the air-raid shelters, the tins were sealed with tape, but every so often were opened, the contents eaten and new supplies put inside.
As my father was in a 'reserved' occupation he continued his work with shell-mex. his war years were spent delivering tankers of oil and petrol to various air bases and depots in the south east. During air raids he was often given priority to get through towns quickly, in case the tanker was hit. roads that were blocked off for various reasons were open to him, with an escort. he related his arrangement at the usa air bases, and the quantity and quality of food available to their men. he was taken aback to be served a huge steak with peaches on top, after a stressful night-time delivery. we could hardly imagine such luxury.

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