大象传媒

I was 6 years old when the war started and therefore about 12 when it finished. I lived for the whole of the war in Feltham Road in Ashford, Middlesex. I recall most vividly my father, who I think won the First World War single-handed and proceeded to do pretty much the same in the Second World War! In the former he was a private in the Middlesex Regiment, and in the latter he was in the Local Defence Volunteers (LDV) and then the Home Guard. He guarded Clock House Lane which now runs on to the corner of Heathrow Airport, and as he pointed out, the Nazis never got down past him!

Ashfprd was on the edge but was a still a bombed area, particularly over Kingston and various places. There were lots of aircraft factories and they used to drop land-mines on parachutes which was quite exciting in a way. You could see them dropping down, but they weren't very efficient weapons. The searchlightsd used to pick them out and they would be shot down by the ack-ack, the anti-aircraft guns. When they were shot they exploded with a big bang but they weren't big enough to do any damage then. I slept in the bedroom at the back of the house so I could hear everything that was going on. I remember one night my father was out - he was a corporal in the Home Guard - and next door was my godfather, Mr. Porter. He was a captain as they used to take their First World War rank. Down came a land-mine, at which stage Captain Porter ordered my father to go and get his Lee Enfield rifle and shoot it down, to which my father said, "No, I'm not going to." "Jim, get your rifle and shoot it down." "No, I'm not going to." "Corporal Willis, this is Captain Porter giving you a direct order to get your rifle and shoot that land-mine down." "No, I am not going to." (They used to come down very slowly, these land-mines!) "Jim, why won't you?" "Charlie, I signed for 5 bullets and they told me I have got to hand 5 bullets in after the war!"

The Home Guard had a pillbox down Clock House Lane with a Sergeant Wood in charge and one morning when dawn came, they found there was a large crater alongside their pillbox where my father had been guarding aginnst the Germans. Sergeant Wood and the others said he must have gone to sleep because otherwise he would have heard the bomb dropping ( well, you would, wouldn't you!) but he denied that and was adamant that no bomb had dropped there. There were references to court martials and things like that because although the Home Guard was a volunteer force, once the volunteers had made a commitment, they were under military discipline. If they didn't turn up for duty or practices they were in trouble. It was a bit of a grey area - for grey-headed people really! My father was very indignant at being accused of falling asleep and eventually he went and examined the hole. It wasn't a bomb crater at all but an old sewer. The Germans had been bombing all that night and the previous nights in the distance and the vibrations had caused a collection of the old bricks of the cesspool tosink down. The Home Guard was often thought of as being a bit of a laugh but I once read somewhere that Hitler took a serious view of the force and that was one of the reasons that he didn't rush into invading Britain.

I suppose my biggest complaint against the present gavernment is connected with their decision to give free passports to people born before a certain date (I've forgotten the exact date.) It's in recognition of their efforts during the war, which is a good idea except that I'm not of an age to qualify for one but my brother, who is older than I am, is. During the war we had to collect rose-hips (for vitamin C, I think). I had a great collection of rose-hips and my brother's collection was absolutely rubbish! I don't think he took it as seriously as I did but he is going to get a free passport and I am not!! BUT - he hasn't got a magic lantern! At the VE Day fair in Ashford, Middlesex, I won the raffle and got a Victorian Magic Lantern with a collection of slides, including some of Lloyd George and a man jumping on and off a donkey. I still have them and I think they could be worth a fair bit today. I nearly lost out though. I had bought 3 tickets and I lost the middle one which was the winning ticket! My dad went to the organisers and told them that as I had the ones on either side, I must have had the one in the middle, and their common sense prevailed!

I'd like to say one last thing. It was a very brave time. People went off and fought, and when they returned home on leave almost the first thing that was said to them when they opened the door was, 'When are you going back?' That was a kindly request as people needed to know but it must sometimes have sounded a bit unwelcoming and and an unwanted reminder of what they would have to return to. And peoole like my dad would go off early in the morning, work all day, and then defend their country at night with no financial gain. But they had a sense of making a contribution to the war effort. And ordinary people did extraordinary, wonderful things, whether it was fighting or making do or just trying to carry on as normally as possible. I seem to remember a scandal once when a woman won a WRI competition for an eggless cake and had put an egg in! Shock. horror! She said, 'That was a perfectly proper eggless cake - I just added an egg.' She should have been in charge of our propaganda!

There were lots of tragedies. I lost a brother-in-law, and you knew lots of people who died or whose relatives were killed. It was a time of sadness and a lot of people wept but it was also a time when the people of Britain were all very united and that felt good. Winning the war was good too!.

I've lived in the same area ever since and later, as General Secretary of the TUC for 9 years, I travelled around a great deal, especially during the miner's strike.

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