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Mum was a chambermaid at the Strand Palace hotel during WWII from 1939 onwards. Her husband was at Dunkirk with the Royal Artillery regiment. Americans, Canadians and Aussies stayed at the hotel and mum was always trying to get nylons and Hershey bars.

We lived in Waterloo, Stamford Street, and were in the shelters at Waterloo Station. Parents sheltered in the staircase in the flats. A bomb fell but didn’t explode in Aquinas Street so everyone was evacuated into the shelters. A bomb dropped on Great Suffolk Street, and Gran and an aunt died along with forty to fifty other people in 1940 in the major Blitz. A bomb dropped where the Young Vic theatre is — people are still buried there.

After Dunkirk father was sent to India, Malaya and Burma unitl 1946, guarding arms dumps. The son, Trevor, was born in 1943. Waterloo was flattened, and he played in the ruins amongst the debris and bombs — there wasn’t a recreation area. Trevor was born in the boiler rooms in St Bartholomew’s hospital during an air-raid, and was named after the Welsh Doctor who delivered him as he was going to war! Father was not happy ‘bout that!

We found out about grandma’s death date from the Imperial War Museum.

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