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This story has been entered on to the site by Josie Hodgson (14) on behalf of Florence Hodgson, who fully understands the conditions.

As I was only four years old when the war broke out, I can’t really remember much other than what I was told by my parents and older brothers and sisters. When the war first broke out I was evacuated to Beamish with my sister. Two of my brothers, Billy and Jackie, were evacuated to Pelton. I was only at Beamish for a short while, as my mother decided to bring me home when the family who were looking after me thought that they could keep me there for good!

Our home at Clyde Street narrowly missed being bombed one night. I was walking home with one of my sisters and suddenly there were hundreds of balls of fire in the sky. We ran home screaming, the air raid sirens ringing as we ran. We hid in the air raid shelter in our yard. When one of the bombs fell, I was blown out of the air raid shelter and across to the other side of the yard. The Germans must have been trying to bomb the railway line, but instead they hit the street next to it, Sheldon Street, and the school on the other side of it, Dunstreet School. Fortunately nobody was in the school at the time as the bombing happened during the night. I can remember seeing Sheldon Street the next day; it was just a huge crater filled with bodies.

Another low point of the war was when my mother received a telegram informing her that my 20 year old brother, Thomas Greaves, had died in battle as his ship, the S.S. Fort Athabasca, was torpedoed off the coast of Italy. She had been planning for his 21st birthday which was only weeks away.

After the bombs had been dropped and the air raid sirens were over, my brother and I would go out and look at the bombed houses. It was strange to see houses still standing, but with all their windows blown out. One time my brother picked up something like a piece of shrapnel or a bullet and he put it on the fireplace. He hit it with a poker and it blew the end of his little finger off.

I remember the food rationing that occurred know during the war. I will always remember that the ration coupon ‘E’ was for ¼lb of sweets and ‘D’ was for 2 oz of sweets.

When the war was declared over I can remember the fantastic street parties that we held in the back lanes.

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