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I was 13 when the war broke out and living in Clifton Road in Sparkbrook, Birmingham. My father had his own small business — painting and decorating, which he ran from our home, which was directly opposite Clifton Road School. I think I always knew that war was coming, my mother and father were always very much involved in the anti-fascist anti Nazi movement and my early memories were of the talk of the Spanish Civil war and Abyssinia. We collected food for the Spanish Republicans and the Basques we thought that Munich was just a break and even at my young age I knew eventually that war would come. My remembrance of the day when Chamberlain made his well-known speech - about not having received an answer to our ultimatum to Germany and that this country was now at war with Germany — was that it was a beautiful morning we all sat and listened to the radio. When the announcement was over my father my father said ‘that’s it then’ and my mother said ‘The swines’ — which was something that she seemed to say at regular intervals throughout the war! We had already put the fibreboards over the windows to act as black out — we had anticipated the declaration of war.

My first memory of anything warlike concerned the garage next door where a party of the AFS (it was the AFS then and not the national fire service) arrived. They were all in uniform and they carried out some sort of drill with the fire pump and they mounted a guard with one of the fire officers standing there with a pick handle — to protect them from what I’m not sure, but it added a little bit of excitement!

Our house was really old and had an arched cellar and we were assured by someone in the building trade that it was very strong and would support the house dropping on it — so that’s where we intended to go in the event of air raids. In retrospect I realise that we would have drowned, as the water mains were right on top of the cellar — but we lived in ignorance!

This was the beginning of the ‘phoney war’ all the schools had been closed and the children evacuated. My mother insisted that we would not be evacuated — if we were going to die then we would all die together. Nothing happened for a few days and then the teachers came and said that they were starting groups in private houses and that it would be a good idea for me to attend. There was a science lab in the school opposite the house in Clifton Road School and that’s where I went — we had good instruction and it continued on until they realised that Birmingham would not be flattened and some sort of order came back and the schools were re-opened and I finished my final year at Dennis Road School. I finished in August 1940 and started work in my father’s business at the end of August.

This story was submitted to the People’s War website by Diana Wilkinson of the CSV Action Desk at ´óÏó´«Ã½ Hereford and Worcester and has been added to the site with Mr Harry Devy’s permission. The author fully understands the site’s terms and conditions.

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