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I was born in 1932 in Bolton.

This is my recollection of the war years.

I was just seven when the war started.

For some time our school was closed because we did not have an air raid shelter. I went for lessons for one hour per day to a lady’s house until I moved up to the big school when, if the siren sounded, we went to the cellar of a public house nearby.

I had plenty time to play. We always played at spies and soldiers etc. Being the youngest I was always a German or a bad person and the lads were always the heroes of the day. We had lots of fun pretending to catch spies and German pilots out of aeroplanes shot down (by us of course).

I spent a lot of time queuing. Coal was in short supply. We had two cwt (abbreviation for hundredweight) per month which lasted two weeks. We walked to Hunger Hill pit at 4.00am my stepfather was with me, he had borrowed a handcart to collect the slack and they sold tickets at 9.00am. We got what they called ‘slack’ and there was only a certain amount available. We also queued at the Gas Works for tickets for coke. I was only too pleased to help out by queuing as I was always cold. We also bought coal bricks and coal eggs which were made from coal dust. I queued for food. We queued for gravy and beef and if you saw somebody in a queue you would tap them on the shoulder to find out what they were queuing for and run home to get some money and then run back to get whatever your mum or dad needed. At night we used to play dominoes and card games and go to the pictures.

One night we were all asleep and we heard a whooshing noise that woke us up. We got up and my mum and step dad had soot on their faces so we told them and they tried to get it off and then they saw it on their hands.

Our windows had gone. The shop window which was very large had gone. Our clothes were found on the railway sidings nearby. Food had gone. Furnishings ruined along with the carpet which was placed over the space left by the empty shop window. There was a hole in the roof above mum’s bed in which there was an alarm clock which still worked and a large poker along with many other items.
When the siren sounded mother insisted that we went down into the cellar, which was very damp and dark. My stepfather refused to go down so we (my sister and myself) stood behind and refused to go as well (which was very brave as we always had to do what my mother said). We were arguing when the sound of a falling bomb sent us falling over one another to be first down the cellar, we did not argue after this happened.

I missed the celebrations for VE day and VJ day. I took ill with rheumatic fever in March l945 and was in hospital until just before VJ day. Something I have always regretted.

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