大象传媒

I lived in Penzance during World War 2 and attended the Penzance County School for Boys. What follows is a selection of the (to me) more memorable experiences: anyone who lived through this period could write at least a short book.

1. The first bombs that fell on Penzance killed three young sisters returning to the house of my (later-to-be) wife's aunt and uncle, Mr and Mrs Harry B______. These young Belgians were killed in Wells Fields. I can't remember their names at the moment but can find out from my (now late) wife's cousin, Mr and Mrs H.B.'s daughter, who now lives in Clements Road. This bombing had a profound effect on a town which could seem a long way from hostilities.

2. Another event that brought the war close was the sudden exploding of a bomb which for weeks had stood as a kind of emblematic prisoner in the front garden of a house where army personnel were billeted in Tower Road, near the County School. It happened during the school lunch hour, when many of us were playing soccer with a tennis ball on the steeply sloping side pitch above the tennis courts. The noise of the explosion was shattering and I think some soldiers were killed: I don't remember how many. When I looked down, I saw what appeared to be a little leather strap from a wristwatch and part of a finger. Gruesomely, I kept the strap for some time afterwards but lost it later.

3. There are, of course, memories of the railings and iron gates of our houses being taken to be turned into munitions though later we learned that they had never been used for this purpose and I've often wondered what happened to the quite enormous pile of scrap metal this unnecessary exercise must have produced. Memories, too, of War Weapons Weeks and watching the pointer getting higher and higher towards the financial or other target erected under the town clock and by the Humphrey Davy monument. Memories, too, of trying hard never to miss a radio broadcast but also of being aware, even at the age of, say, 13 or 14, that stories were circulating whose credibility might be questionable: e.g. did Lord Haw Haw (William Joyce) really say what someone claimed to have heard him say? One story I remember was that a man seen in Penzance in a long, brown cloak and wearing Jesus sandals had been heard speaking German and was obviously a spy! In truth, the innocent man was the brother of then Bishop of Truro.

4. I remember sitting with the girl who later became my wife in the dining room of her parents' house in Kenstella Road, Newlyn, after lunch and watching a clearly German plane fly down over Penzance and drop a stick of bombs far out in Mount's Bay. Rightly or wrongly, one had the impression that some German pilots, having attacked, say, Cardiff Docks, would fly due south to avoid going back on the route they had taken to reach the target and would discharge any undropped bombs in the sea. This was much later in the war and was a topic of conversation.

5. The stories of life at Penzance County School for Boys, when all the male younger members of staff had been called up and we were 'taught' either by elderly men, long since retired, or by women teachers from the County School for Girls (at the top of 'our' school field) who had no experience of boys in a classroom, are legion and one day I may write them for publication! In the senior school two boys would be fire-watching with either an elderly member of staff (whose knowledge of the school was much less than that of the boys) or with "Robin", the groundsman, who, as soon as he signed on, took himself off to his dugout halfway up the school playing field, leaving us with the free run of the school. 'Mayhem' might cover this period.

6. Later in the war, Devonport High School for Boys was evacuated to Penzance, and PCS and DHS alternated: one week they would have classes in the morning and we would go in the afternoon; the next week we would go in the morning and they would go in the afternoon. A DHS boy, Roy F_____, was billeted at No 28 Bay Terrace with us and in the summer holidays I went up to stay with him and his parents for 10 days. While I was there, I went shopping one morning and was caught in a heavy air raid. I was walking back to where Roy lived when lots of bombs started to fall. I was utterly scared and started to run, not knowing where I was going, and after a while became aware that people, men and women, were called to me to "Come here, son" etc. I stayed with a white-haired lady and her daughter until the raid was over and the all-clear sounded.

7. With a great school friend, Henry C________ (who was later killed in a flying accident) I was walking up towards Mount Misery one Saturday afternoon when a British plane came down over the hill from where we were. We ran in its direction but it was much further away than we thought. I think it came down far past Madron.

8. School football and cricket profitted from the wartime situation. At the age of 17 or 18 we were playing RAF and Army teams whose sides often included men who, in peacetime, had been professional players for Third Division South or North teams. Perhaps because of this the ATC (Air Training Corps) South-West Command got through to the final against ATC, N.E. Command at Leeds United ground at Griffin Park, Leeds. On the Saturday morning before the fame, three of us were walking near the hotel where we and the ATC officers were staying, when two elderly ladies stopped and handed us a white feather each!

I hope that the selective accounts I have given here make it clear that a) war was never far away but also b) life went on as normal.

漏 Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.