大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War site by a volunteer from Regents Park library on behalf of Jeanette Pearce and has been added to the site with her permission.
Jeannette Pearce fully understands the site鈥檚 terms and conditions.

During the War I was only 2 yrs old on September 3rd I remember hearing Down Mexico Way playing.
The first place I remember when the bombs started dropping was down the crypt at All Saints Church in Camden Town. (It is now the Greek Church)

As soon as the bombing started people slept at Camden Town Station. Didn鈥檛 have beds to start with and had to sleep on the floor. Eventually had bunk beds the bottom had wooden slats, the above had wire mesh. Later they opened a deep shelter off Camden High Street. This became a small village where we would make our own entertainment. Provided our own entertainment, we had drinks, food etc. We had chemical toilets which were smelly and disgusting.

Met a lot of people from different walks of life

Gas Masks. As a child under 2 yrs old, I wasn鈥檛 given a Mickey Mouse gasmasks because I was too old (had to be under 2) They had to be carried every where. I didn鈥檛 have to use it.

Identity & Ration cards
This had to be carried all the time. It didn鈥檛 have a picture on it but had a number on it which was used to identify us, also we had to have a ration book which if we didn鈥檛 we would have no food.
My father had an old Georgian house. The garden was used as a chicken run, we also had rabbit hutches, and sometimes we had ducks. The wash house was used to kill the chickens and to skin the rabbits.
We would go to Pages Butchers in Camden High Street, who would shout out the latest offal (liver etc) that we could. This would not be on our ration books and was an extra perk.

Evacuee
I was evacuated about 4 times. 1st time when I was 2 to Luton with my mother all the time. We only stayed there 3 months.
Then we went to Hinkley, Leicestershire where we lived with the family Jacques. He was a master builder and we lived in a beautiful house, which had a shop in it. It had a beautiful garden. However we didn鈥檛 get much food. They were very nice people but they did not give us much food. We were very hungry. My mother lost a lot of weight. Being church people they felt that our boys were fighting in the war and we should all suffer. My mother and myself would walk the streets of Hinckly looking for food. We were unable to buy food, because the Jacques kept the ration book.
My mother had to work for them such as cleaning and ironing for the Jacques without payment.
We would go back to London when the bombing stopped but as soon as the bombs started again we would return to Hinkley.

My father was a fire man at Haverstock Hill (Chalk Farm) which he found traumatic.
Sometimes I would want to stay with my father at home because I could watch and the Blitz going on like fireworks which was very exciting.

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