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My lasting Memory of World War II is………the war started on 3rd September 1939. We had some air raids but on the early evening of Sunday 22 December 1940 Salford had its first big raid. Incendiary bombs were falling before the sirens started. My family lived near Ward and Goldstone factory on Fredrick Road. My older brother was home on leave from the RAF at the time when he looked outside the bombs were falling. So he decided that our own shelter was not safe. He took my parents and sister to the shelter at Ward and Goldstone. Just as we got inside a landmine dropped near to where we lived. It was a bad night. People being brought in covered in soot. The next morning about 10 am we were allowed to go out of the shelter it was a horrible night. Most of the houses around were badly damaged. When we got to our house we were told we could not go in because it was unsafe. Just around the corner where my two married sisters lived the ARP were digging at one house to try and rescue those that were trapped, one of these was a friend aged 12. She was dead when they got her out. After wandering around hopelessly for the rest of the day we went back to the shelter. That night was just as bad, another heavy raid. My sister and I went to London Street School and that got a direct hit. So we also lost our lovely school. After which we had to go to another school for half days. We spend many long hours in the shelter at that time and in the shelter many new babies were born and people joined together looking after one another as most of the men were away in the forces. But we all got on with our lives and perhaps it made us stronger.

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