大象传媒

I was 6 years old in 1939 and I well remember Sunday 3rd September - the day war was declared. My father, a Church of Scotland minister, had advised my mother, sister and I to stay at home and not to go to church as usual. He, of course, had to go and take the service. It was a beautiful morning and I was playing ouside in the garden.

As I hadn't seen my mother and my sister for a while, I went into the house to look for them and found them sitting crying in one of the bedrooms (my sister I suspect in sympathy with my mother as she was only 9 years old and would not have fully comprehended the situation). When I asked what was wrong I was told we were at war with Germany and not to play out in the open or away from the house for fear of aeroplanes. Most people didn't really know what to expect at first. In the event we had what became known as the phoney war.

Nothing much happened until later - 1940 became bad for people living in some of the towns and cities with bombing etc. The consequence for our family was that many of our relations from London, on my mother's side, came to stay and I remember enjoying the company of my cousins. We also had evacuees from Glasgow for a while as well as Army Officers billited on us, and visits from uncles in RAF uniforms on short leaves. For my parents it was a very busy time.

Sometimes during this period, when playing outside in the garden, we children would spot a convoy in the road and there would be a race up the drive to see who could get to the gate first to wave to the soldiers in the lorries. We watched our planes high overhead in 'V' formation and also heard an occasional German aircraft which was identifiable by its much harsher engine noise. All in all we were lucky really to live where we were, and get off so lightly.

漏 Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.