大象传媒

At the outbreak of war I was aged 7 and attended Sale Junior School (headmaster was called Mr Bessent) followed by Sale Grammar School. My sister was born in 1930 and my brother in 1938 and we all lived on the Woodheys Estate between Sale and Altrincham in Cheshire, approx 7 miles south of Manchester. My mother was a housewife and my father, the manager of the Dolcis shoe shop in Manchester. A serious illness in 1938 had made him unfit for active duty, but he enrolled in the home guard as an ARP warden. He was soon promoted Sergeant and I learnt how to strip, clean, rebuild and oil a Lee Enfield 303 rifle.

We had a 鈥淏attleship鈥� steel air raid shelter constructed in our back garden. It was well equipped with bunk beds, heaters and stocked with food so that during air raids we could shelter. Most air raids occurred at night and so we often slept in our steel garden ship. Most of the heaviest raids were concentrated over Manchester although stray bombs and mines use to fall in our neighbourhood. We could often see the glow of fires in Manchester from our garden. The anti aircraft gunfire would also fall in our area spreading shrapnel. I remember one particular night when a land mine struck a fuel tank at Broadheath approx 0.5 miles away. Dad was getting us ready to go to the shelter and the blast broke most of the windows in the houses on the opposite side of the road. Luckily our house was untouched, but it was a close run thing. Sometimes when my parents were involved in community work my brother, sister and myself would spend time with relatives who lived locally. This was quite an adventure for us during these trying times. I am happy to say we all survived the war unscathed.

In 1945 my paternal grandfather died (natural causes). He had run a shoe shop with my uncle in Trowbridge, Wiltshire for all his working life and upon his death we all moved from Sale to run the family business. We celebrated VJ day in our new house in Park Street, Trowbridge. Life was different here and we soon got to know the American service men stationed in an old school at the end of our road and in exchange for US gum we would collect their fish and chips, of which they could not get enough.

Rationing made life very difficult for everyone and dad found it particularly tough as he would have to ration shoes, stockings, handbags etc all of which were sold in the shop, knowing that there was not enough to go around. Money by itself was no good, as you also had to have coupons to cover all items.

I went on to join the Royal Navy in 1949 and was drafted to Plymouth were I was appalled to witness the total destruction the local people had suffered. Rebuilding commenced in 1951 and I have lived in Plymouth ever since.

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