大象传媒

Cricklewood, London, Circa 1939

My war was spent with my younger brother and both parents at our home in London at 150 Tanfield Avenue, Neasden, Cricklewood. Herewith my account of our life and times as they impacted on us boys aged around seven and nine years old.

At the beginning of our tale, I was a boy of about eight and naturally the war was on! At this stage in my life, expectations were few and a sense of mediocrity hung somewhat in the wings of life. Distracted by the very real presence of gunfire and bombs, I hadn't thought too much about 鈥榯hings鈥�. There was nothing unusual in all this. It鈥檚 just the way it was. It was all that me and my gang鈥� had ever known in our seemingly uneventful eight or nine years.

Our Wykeham School took a direct hit from one of Herr Hitler鈥檚 V2 rockets at one stage and was a source of some excitement: mainly because the school had gone. It never occurred to any one of us kids that, had it not come down on a Saturday morning, we would have been in it - and gone with it too. It is only now that I realise the anxieties that Mum and Dad must have wrestled with in those uncertain days.

Dad, we rarely saw, though we were luckier than some. We were luckier than those whose dads had actually gone to war. Our dad, labouring long hours in the factory at the top of our 鈥楾anfield Avenue鈥�, was in a 鈥榬eserved鈥� occupation, making what were loosely called munitions. We saw him neither night nor morning except for a couple of hours on a Sunday when he would take my bother and I to the 鈥楻ec鈥� as we called a small park down by the Welsh Harp reservoir. Mum meanwhile prepared the Sunday lunch. This was the big meal of the week and I never thought it odd that Mum had always 'had her's earlier鈥�. Sitting here now, my eyes genuinely fill with tears as the truth behind that poignant tableau sweeps over me. To say that food was scarce would not convey, in these days of total surfeit, the very lack of what now is as normal an expectation as the air we breathe.

I find it interesting to recall that, some ten or so years after this time with the slow recovery of both the economy and our general expectations, that my new wife and I regarded a half pound of mushroom stalks as the luxury of our week! Whole mushrooms being totally outside our means, and this as a newly commissioned officer in the R.A.F I might add.

And so, nightly, in the dusk, we would hurry up the rise of Tanfield Avenue towards the safety of the 鈥榃orks鈥� underground air raid shelters. Mum, pushing Gerry in the old wheelchair. She striding, urgent, hunched against the deep red flashes of the A/A shells exploding overhead. I trailing behind, head cricked back, trying to see what was going on. I wanted to scuff around to find the add chunk of shrapnel that went ringing off the road but Mum was always urging us on. It was really a waste of time as the only bit I came across was too hot to touch anyway! Pity really 鈥榗os such gems had great barter value amongst the rag-bag mob that were my 鈥榞ang鈥� at Braintcroft and later Wykeham Schools.

The final and perhaps, the most formidable hurdle for poor Mother was at the guarded gates to Addressograph. Not long since, a worker, late for his shift, ran through the gate dismissing the challenge with a friendly wave - and was promptly shot to his death as he ran up the yard! Mother鈥檚 bete noir was the huge black Alsatian guard dog which attacked all and sundry who ventured inside. What with the slavering hound, the guns going off all around and Gerry in his pushchair, oblivious to the dog but in terror of 鈥淭he MUNE Mummy, The MUNE鈥� she was glad indeed to reach sanctuary in the concrete caverns.

This story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War site by Becky Barugh of the 大象传媒 Radio Shropshire CSV Action Desk on behalf of Raymond John Lawrence M.B.E and has been added to the site with his kind permission. Mr Lawrence fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

Continue reading Mr Lawrence's story by clicking below:

• 2) Life in the shelters
• 3) 鈥極ur Gang鈥�
• 4) We barely made it
• 5) We kids were all pretty well behaved
• 6) We had our fair share of attention from the Luftwaffe
• 7) The 鈥楪olden Couple鈥�
• 8) An evening鈥檚 entertainment
• 9) The 鈥楿nderpant鈥� Episode
• 10) Where did I fit in?
• 11) The School Song
• 12) I wonder鈥�

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