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15 October 2014
WW2 - People's War

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Denis remembers the war years

by Hillhouse (C.E) Primary School

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Archive List > Childhood and Evacuation

Contributed by听
Hillhouse (C.E) Primary School
People in story:听
Denis Mansell
Background to story:听
Civilian
Article ID:听
A7560632
Contributed on:听
06 December 2005

On Monday afternoon 11th July 2005 Denis came to talk to us about World War II.
Denis was born on 6th August 1927. The war started on the 3rd September 1939, he was 12 at the time and he was not evacuated, he was 17 when it ended.
When he was at school they sat in rows and in the juniors there were two classes, one for boys and one for girls. The only thing he remembers learning was the times tables.
All they got for Christmas was home grown fruit and trains made out of tin, the girls got fruit and dolls. His family had no pets but they kept chickens and rabbits for their roast dinners. Bacon and eggs were rationed.
They dug deep holes in the garden and put Anderson Shelters in the ground as it was safer in the garden. When the bombs came the safest place in the house was in the cellar, or under the stairs if you didn鈥檛 have a garden shelter.
Denis worked as a lab assistant at Enfield Technical College in the war and to avoid losing too much time running to outside shelters each time an air raid siren went off, the lab assistants took it in turns to climb up the water tower when the sirens went off. If a doodlebug approached they would ring a bell and everyone would get under tables to protect themselves from broken glass as the building had large windows.
During the war his dad was ill. His mum was scared and upset about the bombs.
When Denis started work at 16 his weekly wage was 拢1.20 in our money nowadays and he worked hard for this money at a school.

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