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I'm a pupil from prudhoe community high school, Northumberland, entering Eric Proctor's story onto the website, and fully understand the website terms and conditions of use.

SO YOU WERE IN SCHOOL IN WORLD WAR 2?
Yes, i was 9 years old when the war started

AND HOW DIDTHE WAR AFFECT SCHOOL LIFE?
On september 3rd, start of the war, the school closed for a mounth. Then in the next 4 mounths, we only went to school 1 hour per week and were given homework in the time we were off. In the next 4 mounths we attended school only half a day, alterating between mornings one week then afternoons the next. The reason was that the air raid shelters were not constructed for our school, Holy trinity, because the playground lay on the grave yard which was consecrated ground and permission had'nt been give prior to war.

DID YOU STILL SEE FRIENDS?
Yes we met in local park and played games such as cricket and football and especially tennis in all the free time.

DID YOU HAVE A GAS MASK?
Yes gas masks were issued before the start of the war. It was compulsary to bring them to school and if forgotten, you were sent home to collect it.
Every morning we started with assembly and prayers and lined up with our gas masks in front of us. One unfortunate incident happened to me. I fainted and hit my face on my gas mask tin and cracked my the front adult teeth.
To check if people had gas masks with them, the ARP wardens would release a weak tear gas into a crowd of people queing for cinema much to there discomfort and it was discovered only 1 in 3 of the crowd were carrying gas masks.

WHAT ARE YOUR MEMORIES OF THE FOOD DURING WAR TIME?

All food was rationed and in short supply. the butter ration was 4 ounces a week. the sweet ration was 2 to 3 ounces a week. the sweet coupons ment if you didnt have a sweet tooth you could barrter the coupons for other items such as comics etc.

WERE YOUR FAMILY INVOLVED IN THE WAR?
My father worked in the steel works, which ment he wasn't called up.

DID YOU HAVE AN AIR RAID SHELTER?
Yes we had a brick one with a conrete roof. My grandfather refused to come into our shelter during the air raids. He would wonder round the streets and bring back pieces of shrapnel which had fallen from the shells.

WHAT WERE YOUR HOBBIES DURING THE WAR?
We used to make models of all the war planes. We sold them to a store in the high street to make a little pocket money. After D-Day we made a huge model at school showing the normandy landings with mulberry harbour, airoplanes, tank landing craft and beaches. This was exhibited in the town and reported in the gazette.

FINALLY, HOW WAS LIFE TOWARDS THE END OF THE WAR?
In 1944, when i was 14, i joined the air cadets. We had lessons in navigation, air craft recognition etc. At weekends we could visit operational air fields and occasionally had flights in different air crafts. The highlight was a visit to the Canadian bombers squadren based at Gosse pool airport and i was invited to go on a test flight on a lancaster bomber. We flew for almost 3 hours the length of England and over the sea where the air gunners tested the guns. I was sitting in the nose cone which was the bomb aimers compartment and the pilot would pass me notes telling me the height, air speed and location of the plane. My final memory at the end of the war took place in stockton high street when one morning the Lancaster bombers were taking the crews back to Canada. They flew in line over Stockton high street, at a height of about 500 feet, to salute the people who had looked after them during the war.

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