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I was eight years old when war was declared on 3 September 1939. We were on holiday at Bognor Regis and I was playing on the beach when my parents told me the news they had heard on the radio and we immediately returned to our home in N W London. Shortly afterwards I was evacuated with my young school friends to a farm in Buckinghamshire because of threats of mass bombing of London. In fact this did not happen and we went home after a month.
However in the later war years Wembley was attacked forcefully and we suffered direct hits in our road and the local Church was completely destroyed. An incendiary bomb landed in our front garden but luckily failed to ignite. The anti aircraft (A.A) guns in the local park were constantly in use at night as we slept under the stairs awaiting the all- clear siren. It was all quite exciting for a small boy and one of the particular pleasures was picking up shrapnel from the A.A guns that littered the pavements on our walk to school and to trade the largest pieces with my friends.
Food rationing was severe and items like butter were reduced to only two ounces per week. We all survived and despite shortages of everything — long queues on a Saturday morning for a promised issue of No 8 batteries — we made our own fun with home made models as no toys were manufactured.
I attended Haberdashers Boys School in Cricklewood which suffered bomb damage and joined the Combined Cadet Force (CCF) for army training in 1944.Towards the end of the war V1s (Doodlebugs) and V2s (Rockets) threatened and we would wait in the shelters at school for the ominous silence which followed the stopping of the Doodlebug engine and to see how near the explosion would be.

Then came VE Day on May 8th 1945 and what a celebration we had. My friends and I manufactured home made fireworks to add to the street party — all very dangerous- but unforgettable and the likes of which would not be seen again.

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