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I lived with my parents and my brother on Louisville Road in the Upper Tooting area of London and, my father being a transport engineer, I was around fourteen years of age during the latter stages of the war. I had been evacuated to Devon in 1940 for several months but was then removed from the farm at which I had been placed and spent the next few years living in various parts of the country with my family before we returned to Upper Tooting. Most council run schools had been closed as a consequence of the war and so I attended Upper Tooting High School (a local private school known informally among its pupils as ‘Uncle Tom’s Hot Sausages’!) To this establishment I journeyed every day.

A large area of Tooting had been laid waste one night under the indiscriminate impact of a V2 rocket fired from mainland Europe. Having heard the cacophony, I was well aware of this the next morning as I made my way to school. Walking along a main road, I saw the extent to which some of the more minor side roads had been decimated when the rocket had hit. Although any corpses or wounded had been cleared away I saw the ruined buildings that had been heaved into rubble as the V2 had exploded.

Although a little apprehensive, being young I never thought that the V2 would catch me. I didn’t personally know anybody who had been caught up in the blast (although perhaps my parents did) and so I didn’t think of the dozens of dead and injured in any depth – it had all happened to someone else from whom I was removed. Thus I continued on my way to school.

This story was submitted to the People’s War website by Toby Farmiloe, of Heathfield Community College, on behalf of Grace Richardson, and has been added to the site with her permission. Mrs. Richardson fully understands the site’s terms and conditions.

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