大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War site by Vijiha Bashir, at 大象传媒 Scotland on behalf of S. Ferguson from Johnstone and has been added to the site with the permission of Johnstone History Society. The author fully understands the site鈥檚 terms and conditions.

I remember the 3rd of September 1939 quite vividly. It was a lovely sunny Sunday morning and I was in the front garden with my father when my mother came to the front door and said something about the news being broadcast on the wireless. My parents stood in the front hall listening and I heard my father say 鈥淲ell that鈥檚 it then鈥�. Of course I had no idea what he meant but within a few minutes my uncle my uncle (Father鈥檚 Brother) arrived and the two men stood talking at the gate. Uncle Harold asked if they would be 鈥渃alled up鈥� but my father didn鈥檛 think so because he said they were miners and as such were in reserved jobs but if they wanted to join up they would have to volunteer.

I was only 8 years of age at the time and of course had no idea of what war was about, but very slowly you became aware of the changes taking place. We had to carry gas masks at all times, wear identity bracelets, black out curtains were hung at the window so no light could be seen outside. We had to save water and of course there was the rationing 鈥� everything was rationed 鈥� food, clothing, household items etc.

We lived in a small English village which was very pleasant and we had a large garden which my father had turned over to grow vegetables and he grew pretty well every kind of vegetable you could think of. He had 2 greenhouses which sat at the bottom of the garden and in there he grew tomatoes and cucumber and other stuff as well. There was a farm just up the road a bit from our house and my father bought some pigs which he was able to keep on the farm. He didn鈥檛 pay the farmer lodging for the pigs but instead he wheeled a couple of barrow loads of coal once a month up to the farm house. (Miners received concessionary coal then) the farmer鈥檚 daughter Cynthia was my best friend and we often played at the farm and were allowed into the orchard where we could pick wind fall apples. I took mine home for my mother to make fruit pies. Then sometimes the farmer would slaughter a pig for my father so we had plenty of bacon, pork and lard for a while although my father shared the pig equally with his two bothers there was plenty for everyone.

I know we were in luck living where we did and I was never hungry, nor did I ever go without. The small amounts of sweets which we got was enough as we were brought up on lots of salad stuff, plenty of vegetables and loads of milk so we didn鈥檛 get many sweet anyway. I did have to give up my bedroom once to a Bevin Boy. He was billed with us and was a very nice man whose name I can鈥檛 recall but my father took him under his wing and watched over him at work. At that time I had to share my brother鈥檚 room.

The village where I lived was only a few miles from Sheffield Yorkshire. Sheffield was the centre of the Steel industry and was a prime target for German bombing raids. We had lots of air raids and spent may nights under the kitchen table. My mother would sit by the fir knotting or darning for she flatly refused to go into the air arid shelters which were in the field behind the house.

Sheffield suffered a great deal from the bombings, but just before Christmas 1941 it was particularly bad. My bother and I and the boy next door were under the table our mothers were by the fireside when flight what seemed like hundreds of German bombers flew overhead in the direction of the city. We could hear the bombs exploding. On and on it went, seemingly endless when suddenly there was an enormous bang, the house shook and all the ornaments and china rattled, there was dust everywhere and as you can imagine, we were terrified. My mother and Mrs Wallace 鈥� Franks mum, went out to have a look around and it soon appeared that the only damage done to the house was that of some of the upstairs ceiling had collapsed. Then everyone went outside to have a look and we saw that there was a huge light in the sky at the end of the street鈥� the schools been hit鈥� went up the cry. Sure enough it was burning that was the cause of the light in the sky but the children were not unhappy about it.

The Education Department commandeered the local Methodist Chapel and this then became the school for the youngest children with the older children Primary 5 鈥� 7 having their schooling in the pub. What a laugh, every morning after breakfast I got ready and said to my parents 鈥淐heerio then, I鈥檓 off to the pub鈥�. It had a good effect on us I think because most of us passed our exams.

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