大象传媒

I am the youngest brother of eight. My brother was in the Navy before the war started, his name was Gilbert but everybody called him George. The reason he joined the navy was because he was interested in boxing and he one the West of England Flyweight Championship and it was broadcast on the radio. This was very exciting.

Every year they would go on training out to sea for two weeks. When we saw him off at Temple meads Train Station (Bristol) the Commanding Officer told my father that he would be away longer this time because there was trouble brewing up in Europe.

The next thing I remember was the evacuation of Dunkurk, France. Only to hear on the radio that my brother's ship had been bombed and beached. There were four dead and two wounded. My brother happened to be one that was wounded.

As the war progressed all my 6 brothers were called up one by one, which was a terrible strain on mother. I was 10 years old when the war broke out and was still in school as my brothers were called up.

Before air raids started father used to talk to the neighbours about how long the war was going to last. Father built an air raid shelter for us in the garden and the neighbours were surprised at this. Then the first air raid that we had, the neighbours joined us in our shelter.

When it came to evacuation, my father would not allow my sister and I to leave because he already had six sons away from home. He was such a wonderful family man, he wanted the rest of us to stay together. So you could well imagine the excitement for us all to know that we will soon be a family again, on the victory day.

We still had the war with Japan. My brother Len was still in Burma. My brother Frank was in the Medical Core and he met my brother Les, who was in the fleet airarm, in Bombay, India. Frank was one of the first to land in Hirishima, where they dropped the atomic bomb towards the end of the war, and was devistated at the sites he saw. He brought back many pictures and souvineers, which not known at the time could have been radio active.

When it was time for them to return home, being the youngest, I made the "welcome home" banners with their names on. We put these on the front of the house and decorated the street. So you could imagine the parties we had, knowing we would all be together again.

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