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When war broke out my family consisted of eight people. My parents, Charles Thomas and Annie Henderson had six children: Vera, Eddie, Jessie, John, myself, Mary and Charles Thomas Junior, who was born on 3 September 1939, the day war was declared. By the end of the war they had seven children, with the addition of Alistair Winston Henderson who was born on 15 August, 1945; V.E. Day.

At the time we lived in North Shields, at 57 Grey Street. My Dad worked at Swan Hunters Shipbuilders and, as he was in a ‘reserved occupation’ he was exempt from going to war. Mam stayed at home to look after the children, but as more and more of the men folk were needed to support the war effort, she went to work for Henry Irving on North Shields Fish Quay, where she made fishing nets. My eldest sister Vera looked after us at this time and she ‘knew the drill’….. if the siren went off, it was her job to get us into the air raid shelter in our back yard as fast as possible.

When I was older I remember Vera telling me how, on one afternoon when the siren sounded, she got all the younger children; those of us who were too young to attend school, into the shelter. After a while she realised that she had forgotten something — me!! I was in the scullery, in my pram, screaming my head off. According to Vera, that was all I ever did when an air raid was on……..

People carried on with their lives as usual; working, shopping, going to school, always taking care to carry their gas masks with them. Neighbours chatted about everyday things and helped one another out whenever they could.

One night, on his way home from work, my Dad got off the train at North Shields to find that the station had been bombed. When he got home there was another blast which blew him through the glass door in the hallway. Up until then we had used the shelter which Dad had built for us under the stairs in the house, but after that night Dad told us that in future we would always have to use the shelter in the back yard because things were getting too close.

Just as well he did as soon after four houses in Grey Street, including ours, were hit and completely demolished. Debris from the houses fell on to our shelter, trapping us there for seven hours. The shelter had been built with a few loose bricks and a piece of metal jutting out, standing on an area of about one foot square. I don’t remember anyone being injured, but I do remember my Mam praying and crying softly. We found out later that people had been frantically searching for any signs of life.

Eventually, after what seemed to be an age, we were rescued by a Mrs Brannen, an A.R.P. Warden. We were all covered in dust. My sister Vera told me that everyone had been taken into the Coburg Pub and given lemonade as the gas pipes were all sealed off, so there were no cups of tea that night!

As we had nowhere to go we were given ‘chitties’, like raffle tickets and told to go and sleep in King Edward School. We only spent one night there as our Aunt Mary, who lived nearby insisted that we stayed with her till we were re-homed.
Dad wanted to find us a new home and furniture as quickly as possible. He was told to report to the Tasker Hall in North Shields where, after queuing for quite some time, he was given £100. This may not seem like a lot of money by today’s standards but at that time it would have been considered a substantial sum.

The next day we went with Mam to look at the place where our house had stood. Mam seemed to be searching for something. She said that she was looking for the clothes which had been on the washing line. My brother Eddie, who had kept a pet rabbit in the yard put up a notice on a piece of cardboard saying ‘Billy the Rabbit is trapped’. Sadly, by the time Billy was found he was dead.

Shortly after that we all noticed that Mam’s hair had gone white over night; it must have been the shock.

When my Dad went to tell my Grandma and Grandad, who lived at 36 Nelson Street, that we had lost our home, my Grandma was crying. When Dad asked her why she was so upset she said it was because part of their roof had been demolished in the night. When she heard our story Grandma soon stopped crying….. Luckily for us we were re-homed very quickly.

Four houses had been demolished on the night of 2 October 1941 in Grey Street, North Shields. In time, after the war, four new houses were built on the site. My Mam was offered one of the new houses there but by that time my Dad had died and she refused it saying that it held too many memories for her.

I don’t think my parents ever really recovered from the war, neither wanted to talk about it. Sadly they both died quite young; Dad was 57 and Mam died a year and a half after Dad, aged 56.

This is my story.

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