大象传媒

My Brooks family lived at 18 The Green, East Acton in West London. John Perryn School was our local school, which was just five minutes walk away on Long Drive. It was close to Taylors Green, where my mother鈥檚 Ames family - parents and sisters, lived at no.16.

In 1940, aged five, I joined the junior school. My big sister Beryl, aged ten, was in the seniors and was far head of me, I thought of her as an adult. Like the adults all children were issued with a gas mask; it was kept in a small cardboard box with a long piece of string as a shoulder strap. We had to carry our gas mask everywhere, if we didn鈥檛 have it we were in big trouble.

One day there was excitement at school when we heard that we were to have air raid shelter practice. But where was the shelter? When a whistle was blown the whole class had to form a line (called a 鈥榗rocodile鈥�) and walk quickly to the school鈥檚 main entrance. There we went into the Janitor鈥檚 Room and down open wooden steps into the floor. There was a strong smell of damp earth. At the bottom of the stairs there was a long line of wooden boards to walk on, and forms to sit on. It was all patchily lit by a string of bare light bulbs fastened to the beams overhead.

It was a trench dug into the school foundations. Above the banked earth on one side we could just dimly see a brick wall, and on the other side it was just dark beyond the banked earth. Someone said that we were underneath the School Hall. Now the musty smell of old garden sheds and cobwebs mingled with that of damp earth.

We sat on the forms and recited some Times-Tables and other sums, then put our gas masks on. The gas mask 鈥榳indow鈥� quickly steamed up and the smell of rubber was very strong, but at least we were protected from 鈥楽tinky Billy鈥�! We boys mainly enjoyed the experience, the brave ones sneaking off and climbing the earth bank, getting dirty and told off.

The girls mainly didn鈥檛 enjoy it, complaining about the smell; the dark; splinters; spiders and worms and their dresses getting dirty. Some complained about the gas masks spoiling their plaits, and crying for their Mums. I could see that war really could be hell!

The teachers seemed quite pleased (or at least 鈥榬elieved鈥�) with the practice run but were probably worried about the real thing, with sirens and shouting and panic. In fact, I recall air raid shelter visits went smoothly - we children being more excited about skipping lessons!

Although Germany mainly switched to night air raids from late 1940 there could still be many daytime alerts (often false alarms) during school-hours. These, plus air-raid practice, and the later Doodlebugs, kept the school shelters in use. My young sister Jasmine and cousin Adrienne Ames were both enrolled in John Perryn in time to use them.

Many of John Perryn鈥檚 pupils, including my sister Beryl were evacuated from the school. With a luggage label tied to her coat, and a bag with clothes and sandwiches, she joined the others and boarded waiting London Transport buses. They left for a railway station and unknown final destination. It must have been hard for all the mothers to see them go. My mother missed Beryl, especially as we now had a baby, Jasmine. Beryl was evacuated with the school several times but I was only ever evacuated with my mother and Jasmine. I wonder what I missed.

The teaching staff became all female, or if we did see a male teacher he was usually quite ancient (to me!) and probably temporarily out of retirement. My sister Beryl had talked about going swimming with the school but all swimming baths were closed during the war and used for other purposes, such as storage depots. We wouldn鈥檛 see inside Acton Baths at the Town Hall for years.

It must have been extremely difficult for the school and teaching staff with constant changes. But school work went on 鈥� somehow - fitted in between air raids; my family鈥檚 evacuation trips to Wales; my frequent trips to Mr. Jones, the optician鈥檚, at Ealing Broadway (my glasses were often repaired with sticking plaster); Ration Book Office at Acton Park; various children鈥檚 Clinics (including a very battered one down Oldham Terrace, off Acton High Street); bomb damage to school and home and all the many things that filled busy wartime life. Of course, it was all 鈥榥ormal鈥� life to me and seemed to work very well.

With the end of the war male teachers started to return, and try to adjust to civilian life. One enthusiastic returnee from an overseas posting was Mr. Hatfield; he would much later become Headmaster of John Perryn. Another, ex-RAF, who became our PT (Physical Training) Teacher, hadn鈥檛 made the adjustment at all. He was gruff and always shouting orders at us. He had all us boys, wearing just vests, shorts and plimsolls, exercising out in the playground in winter鈥� and we ALL caught colds! Another stiff letter from my mother (and many others) to the Headmistress told her to 鈥渢ell him he鈥檚 not in the RAF now!鈥�

Many had to adjust to no longer having 鈥榤ilitary rank鈥� and instant unquestioning obedience (including my father!).They also had to adjust to the fact that parents were now less in awe of professionals and easily fobbed off or patronised. Many women, as my mother, had spent six long war years fending for themselves, babies and families - a toughening-up experience.

For most adults peace meant 鈥榞etting back to normal鈥�. But for my generation war and war-time school WAS 鈥榥ormal everyday life鈥�, our life now became better than 鈥榥ormal鈥� 鈥� no one was trying to kill us! One change being proposed was raising the school leaving age to fifteen. My sister Beryl had left at fourteen; my class would be the first to stay the extra year.

KING鈥橲 MESSAGE
Thirty-five years later I came across references to a certificate supposedly given to school-children by the King to mark the official end of the war in 1946. This puzzled me as we had never heard of them. I found an illustration of the certificate in a book about the Home Front, and have since seen two examples in exhibitions. They were printed on card with two holes at the top and string to hang up. Topped with a large and colourful Royal Arms, this is the text:

鈥�8th June 1946. TO-DAY, AS WE CELEBRATE VICTORY, I send this personal message to you and all other boys and girls at school. For you have shared in the hardships and dangers of a total war and you have shared no less in the triumph of the Allied Nations.

I know you will always feel proud to belong to a country which was capable of such supreme effort; proud, too, of parents and elder brothers and sisters who by their courage, endurance and enterprise brought victory. May these qualities be yours as you grow up and join in the common effort to establish among the nations of the world unity and peace.鈥� It ends with the simulated signature: 鈥淕eorge R.I.鈥�

鈥溾�� to you and all other boys and girls at school.鈥� That statement is simply untrue. We at John Perryn School didn鈥檛 receive any copies of this display card. With three family members of differing ages in school in June 1946 we couldn鈥檛 all have been missed 鈥榓ccidentally鈥�! So why were we ignored or discriminated against? We had been in the war, as the air raid damage to John Perryn School, our homes and East Acton amply demonstrated. We all had fathers and family members on active service, so why were their children excluded?

New post-war era but old pre-war 鈥榗lass鈥� discrimination? Just what WAS the official distribution of the King鈥檚 celebratory message display card?

Revised extracts from 鈥楢 Sheltered Childhood ~ Wartime Family Memories of an East Acton Child鈥�

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