大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People's War site by the Dunstable At War Team on behalf of the author and has been added to the site with his permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

I was 10 and living with my family in rented accommodation near where my father worked in Hazelmere, Surrey when the war started. My father was in charge of guarding various districts of the Royal Naval Establishment. During the war one of my father鈥檚 men caught a boffin with vital information, which was possibly going to be given to the enemy; he was arrested and charged under the Official Secrets Act but he got off with a reprimand from the Captain of the site. I remember seeing a slogan on the walls, which said 鈥渃areless talk cost lives.鈥�

There was a land mine, which landed at the Hazelmere Royal Naval Establishment. I went with my father to have a look before it was dispersed leaving a great big hole in the ground.

Father was an army man in the Royal Horse Guard鈥檚 Artillery for approximately 15 years as a regimental Sergeant Major. When I was young child, I remember being in the back of my father鈥檚 car; a limousine followed us with no flag on the bonnet for security reasons, of course. After the war, to my surprise, I was told that the VIP visitor was the late George 6th visiting and inspecting the area. The Duke of Edinburgh also visited.

Father would take me to the allotment; we would collect manure, dig trenches and bury our seeds. We grew all sorts of vegetables, lettuce, cabbage and tomatoes, which helped create a bit more food for us. During the war at Christmas we always had chicken for dinner and made our own hats and crackers and put things in them. We had cakes and roly-poly pudding that mother made herself. She would get fine linen from the butchers, wash it well and use it to make the pudding adding sultanas soaked in brandy or whisky, (given to us by my uncle who ran a pub) to make them swell. Her rice pudding had a very thick layer of skin on the top; it was delicious.

The stove in our house was a black kitchen range, which I had to polish; my father would make me do it several times as he was very particular. Sometimes I had to go out and collect wood for the fire; we had no central heating but did eventually get electric light. We had to go up the garden for the toilet, can you imagine it, with your dressing gown on! It was so cold.

When I left school I went to work for the grocers in Hazelmere. We had to deal with rationing - 1 egg, 1 slice of bacon, a quarter of margarine, butter that had to be cut up and divided into 2 oz packs and wrapped.

Sometimes we would go out and pick wild strawberries and chestnuts, which were very small. I had chicken pox and a mild form of TB and I remember that we had to pay a penny a week to go and see the doctor. He rarely called, as he would charge a lot. Before the war we lived above a dentist who looked after our teeth and I still have my own today.

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