大象传媒

This story has been written onto the 大象传媒 People's War site by CSV Storygatherer Alison Lear on behalf of William Elliott. The story has been added with his permission. And William Elliott fully understands the terms and conditions of the site.

The day war broke out I was playing in the street with my younger brother in Clerkenwell. I was 9 and he was 5. We heard the sirens and were rushed into a cigarette factory which was used as a temporary shelter.

We were evacuated to Luton in 1940 for a few months and following a short time back in London we were evacuated again to Redruth in Cornwall.

We were there for about a year and were looked after by a lovely lady but we had to come back to London when her mother was dying. The lady's husband owned a local bus company called Marigold Buses and I used to go on trips with him on saturdays.

I stayed in London from 1941 to the end of the war. I experienced all the bombing although I was not in London when my mother was bombed in her home (I was still in Cornwall then). Luckily she survived. We had to move to a flat in Finsbury where we were safe. My dad was in the Irish Guards throughout the war.

I remember one incident when I went to the pictures, past a row of shops in Islington. When I came out the shops had been completely wiped out! My mum gave me a clip around the ear for going to the pictures!

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