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In 1939 when the probability of war was a real thing, I remember we were asked to devise some form of Blackout curtains so that no house lights could be seen by aircraft. We had to have a ‘Dummy Run’ and Air Raid Wardens went around looking for visible lights. If they saw any light they through a bag of flour at the house we had a bag thrown at our house!!
My High school days were all during the war. My school was near the centre of Plymouth when I went to school I travelled on an ordinary service bus there were no school buses then. Many children from Plymouth were evacuated to country towns during the war but I stayed in Plymouth and went to school during some of the worst periods of arial bombardments (1941). The air raids were invariably at night, so often I wouldn’t know until I got off the bus whether my school was still there! I was always disappointed it was never bombed!
I remember one morning after a bad night of air raids, the church at Charles Cross had been hit by incendiary bombs and destroyed by fire. Before I went into school I went and looked at the ruins and saw the wood still smoking. The shell of that church is still standing as a memorial to those terrible times.
A sister school to ours was destroyed and we shared our building with them. My school day was from 8.am until 1.pm and the other boys went to school from 1.30pm until 5.pm. We would alternate those time week in week out, but we got used to it.
Many restrictions were in place for instance farmers were not allowed to grow flowers all land had to be used to grow food. Therefore florist shops couldn’t get flowers to sell or only in very small quantities from local gardeners. My grandfather had a small dairy farm near Penzance and had a patch of violets which he picked and bunched. My Mother and I went from Plymouth to Penzance by train with a large empty suitcase. We packed this case with the bunches of Violets and returned to Plymouth on the next train. I remember watching the case up on the luggage rack and seeing water dripping from it onto another passenger’s head. We had to move it quickly and apologise. My Mother was very worried that some official would query what was in the case and we would be in trouble. The next day my Father took the bunches of violets to a flower shop and sold them for a very good price!
My Grandparents lived at Nancegollen, not far from Helston so in the school summer holiday I was sent down there to be safe and away from the bombing. However it was not as simple as that. We were not that far from Falmouth Docks, which were of course a target for some quite heavy bombing. On one occasion the bombers decided to loose their load right over Nancegollen I ended up trying to comfort my Grandmother because I was the one who had experience of bombing from Plymouth, Granny had never experienced anything like it and was very scared.
On another occasion a couple of years later I think, I set out, on my own, to cycle all the way from Plymouth to my Grandparents home for a visit not a journey a 12 / 13 year old would attempt alone today! I started out alright but as it began to get dark I got lost and ended up riding round in circles. The problem was that all the sign posts had been removed, to confuse the enemy if they invaded us, and everyone was told that ‘Careless words cost lives’ so I was frightened to stop and ask the way in case someone thought I was a spy! There were very few telephones in those days so there was no way I could contact my Grandparents, or my Parents! Eventually I did find the way, my Grandmother was very worried because it was quite late, but my Mother knew nothing about my adventure until I got back home by train!
I can remember that I used to watch the huge Sunderland Flying Boats taking off from Plymouth Sound a very spectacular sight, and also see the big warships entering and leaving Devonport Dockyard, including HMS Hood- which was lost early in the war.

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