大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War site by Ken on behalf of William Cox
and has been added to the site with his permission. William Cox fully understands the
site鈥檚 terms and conditions.

William Cox was born in London in 1930 and lived there, in Salterton Road, off the
Seven Sisters Road, Holloway, in the north of the capital.

Soon after the start of the war the family evacuated to Stevenage, Hertfordshire,
except that his father remained in London at his job with one of the railway companies.
The splitting-up of the family became a great strain, but they were able to come
together again when Mr Cox senior got a transfer to a job at Wolferton Station, in
Norfolk.

So William Cox鈥檚 life was changed by the war from the hurly-burly of a big city to the
tranquillity of rural Norfolk, and on leaving school, before the end of the war, he
started his working life on the Royal estate at Sandringham.

The area saw little of air-raids or war activity, except for an occasion which remains
vividly in William Cox鈥檚 mind. Once, when he was standing by the rail track, a stray
enemy aircraft seeing a train standing near the station shot-it-up with machine gun fire,
causing some damage but luckily no casualties. That is if his Dad鈥檚 tomato plants are
excluded - they were completely ruined!

In London, at Salterton Road things had not gone so quietly. The house that William鈥檚
family had left for evacuation was taken by his uncle, aunt and cousins. Towards the
end of the war, during the V1 and V2 terror weapon raids, it was demolished by a
direct hit and all his relations there were killed.

William Cox was too young to serve in the forces during the second world war, but
when he was 17 years old he joined the regular army, by falsifying his age. He served
in Cyprus and Suez during the emergencies in those places.

______________________________

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