大象传媒

I was born in South Wales in 1932, so I was seven when the war started and 12 when it finished. We came to London when I was two, but my father died in 1939. He was only forty. He had cancer. They鈥檇 passed him A1 for the army, but six months later he died. That left my mother, who was only 36, with four children to bring up. My brother was the eldest so he decided to put himself into the forces. My oldest and youngest sisters went to live with my grandmother in Swansea for the war.

I wouldn鈥檛 go, I wanted to stay with my mother, Selina, as she was on her own. She had to work as a cleaner to keep us going. Early on she worked in a cigarette factory in Mornington Crescent (the art deco building with Egyptian cat statues), but she couldn鈥檛 stay there because of health problems. After that she worked as a cleaner. In the morning she cleaned shops, in the afternoon she would go to clean privately. The people she cleaned for had a nightclub in the west end, and she got extra money to send to my brother and my grandmother. My brother was called up in 1942. He was a mechanic in the RAF in Egypt, but I never saw much of him.

After 鈥�41 I sometimes went to my grandmother but when I was in London in 鈥�40-鈥�41 I was usually down the shelters. If I wanted to see my mother I had to come up from the shelter at six in the morning, because that鈥檚 when she went to work. If I didn鈥檛 see her then, she would leave my things for breakfast, then she would be home while I was in school. Then she would get my dinner ready when I came out of school. She would go off to work again and I would then go to my friends and their family and go down the shelters with them.

Although there was a war on, you lived an ordinary life. We were healthy, and ate well. Things were a bit different though, for instance bread was an off-white colour because of the flour they used. And my mother used to get butter and margarine and mix it all together so it would last longer.

There was rationing of course, and I used to spend next month鈥檚 sweet coupons, which wasn鈥檛 allowed. One day I lost my gloves, and my mother left some coupons on the table and I took them and went out and bought new gloves. Then I went into a phone box and phoned her at work but then walked out of the phone box leaving the gloves and the rest of the clothing coupons there. She wasn鈥檛 too pleased!

As a child you know something鈥檚 happening but at seven you鈥檙e not much interested except what鈥檚 going on with you. It didn鈥檛 dawn on me that something serious was going on 鈥檛il something happened to someone close to me. It was only when someone got killed that I realised. When I was in Wales there was one young boy who would fix my punctures on my bike. One day I went over to his mother鈥檚 and she was crying鈥攈er son Billy was killed on the beach at Normandy. And when I was at school (in Wales) there were three children who didn鈥檛 come in one day鈥攖hey had been killed in bombing with their family. The bombers went for the docks and steelworks, and they flattened Swansea in three days.

I was very unhappy in Wales because I didn鈥檛 get on with my grandmother. I was like my father鈥檚 family who she didn鈥檛 like. My sisters were clingy and 'ladylike'. And I was worried about my mother. I was much happier in London where I was in a bit of a gang-I was one of two girls and half a dozen boys. The things we got up to! Our playground was the bombed-out buildings. One day we went up to Regent鈥檚 Park on our bikes which we weren鈥檛 really allowed to do. I came home, and a great crowd had gathered around a bombed building. We asked 鈥淲hat鈥檚 happened?鈥� and they said 鈥淒avid鈥檚 not here!鈥� But he鈥檇 been with us at the park鈥攁nd when they found out!

Although I had an auntie and cousins in London, I didn鈥檛 go to them much. I went with my friends and their mothers down to a deep shelter. We lived in Arlington Road, NW1, at the back of Camden High Street. The shelters you had at home were holes dug out with corrugated iron over it. But we usually slept in the underground: the Camden Town or Regent鈥檚 Park shelters. My mother told me, 鈥楲eave me a note to tell me which shelter you鈥檙e at鈥�.

There was one shelter in the car park at Marks and Spencer鈥檚. It had about six beds each side, and we used to have our own bunks. The older children knew there was a war, and the mums chatted together about it, but they tried to keep it away from the children. We had cards, snakes and ladders, dolls, and a pram down there鈥攚e had arguments about who was going to have the pram! I even had a pair of skates. One of the mothers asked: 鈥榃hy have you got skates on?鈥� and I said 鈥榠n case I have to get out quick鈥�! We got on well. Some of us who couldn鈥檛 get on at school, never carried it on in the shelter. The older ones would help the mothers and look after little ones to give the mothers a break.

The doodlebugs arrived towards the end of the war. They came every day. A warning would go, but I didn鈥檛 take much notice as I was a bit of a daredevil. It made such a noise and all of a sudden it stopped and if you couldn鈥檛 hear the noise then you knew it was coming down nearby. If you were in a crowd talking, and the engine stopped, everyone went quiet and scattered. There were also incendiary bombs dropped but that was mainly down in the East End.

In Wales I could see the bombs dropping over the hills. They got the docks and the town, but not the steelworks which they were aiming for. I went to the pictures with my sisters and if an air-raid was on they said we had to get out, but I didn鈥檛 want to go鈥擨 was interested in the picture! I had paid my pocket money and didn鈥檛 want to miss it. I was in trouble with grandmother again for that.

One day, at my grandmother鈥檚, there was a knock on the door and there was an American standing there. He was our cousin who was stationed nearby and had looked us up because his family had told him we were in the area. He was in a unit driving supply lorries down to Swansea docks. Well, it was a different time then and the American troops were segregated. The whites were in comfortable accommodation, and all the coloureds were billeted up in the park in temporary buildings. My cousin was up in the park. My grandmother in Swansea came from Laugharne and married a merchant seaman, an American from the Virgin Islands, and my cousin was from that side of the family. My Dad鈥檚 mother was also from Swansea. She married a merchantman from St Lucia. Father had two brothers living in Swansea, both in the army in the Royal Engineers.

At the end of the war I was back in Camden and for the big VE party there were tables on both sides of the main road in Camden High Street.

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