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At the start of the war I was 6, and here in Coventry at the really bad bombing. Father brought me up to see what had happened. We lived in Hillfields, and used to go to the air raid shelter in the park. I was too young to really take things in.

I was evacuated to a chicken farm in Meriden, and was very happy. One Sunday after 6 weeks I was in the yard and could feel that someone was watching me. I turned round- and it was my Mum and Dad! I thought the world of my Dad, and I ran to him, threw my arms around his legs and cried ‘Take me home!’ And they did.

Soon afterwards, there was an incendiary bomb on our house, so we all moved out to my Grandma’s in Arley, where I stayed until our roof was mended. After another bad bomb, I was evacuated once again- this time to Borsall Common. I was terrified of the woman we stayed with. I know it’s awful to say- but she had a really bad squint and being a child of course I thought she was a witch. I didn’t know which eye to look at!

One day we had porridge for breakfast, with no sugar. I wouldn’t eat it, so when I came back at dinner time it was still sitting there, cold. And when I came back at tea time- there it was again, waiting to be eaten! I was so hungry that I had to- I’d had nothing all day. Then, I went into the pantry and there were 8 sausages hanging up. I was still so hungry that I pinched one and ate it, raw. Well, she’d counted all the sausages of course and knew it was me. I was to be sent to bed with no supper- ‘but before you go’ said the woman, ‘just pop out and get me some vinegar, will you? And hurry up!’ In those days vinegar used to be sold out of a barrel, and you had to take your own bottle and some money. So I started to run. I must’ve tripped and fell- I cut my knees, lip and hand on that glass bottle- I’ve still got the mark.

When I woke up, I was in a big double bed (up until then I’d shared a room with about 8 other children). The woman says ‘Tell your Mum this is your room’. My Mum wanted to take me home. The woman says ‘Tell her how much you like it here’. I just lay there, with the covers pulled up to my chin, wishing my Mum would just take me home. Well- she did. ‘If we’re going to die’, she said ‘We’ll all die together’. We went back to Coventry and if there was a bomb, we’d just go down to the shelter again. For a time, I was too scared to tell my parents exactly what had happened. When I eventually did, my Mum said I should’ve told her earlier- that no children should have to live like that. But I was still scared that witch would get me.

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