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I was born in 1937 so by the time of the Blitz I was 4 and 5 years old. We lived on Hanson Street near Great Portland Street and New Cavendish Street in Central London. My main recollection of the Blitz was the dependence upon me of having to wake my parents up every time there was an air raid warning, because my parents had both been born profoundly deaf. I had to wake them as soon as the siren went off and we hustled ourselves to the air raid shelter, which I believe was Great Portland Street tube station where we used to sleep on the platform. When the sirens went for the ‘All clear’, the biggest recollection I have is emerging from the Underground and, from a child’s perspective, it looked as if the whole of London was on fire. The incendiary bombs would land in the rafters of houses, set them alight and the flames would then spread to set several other houses on fire. This happened to many blocks round the West End where we lived and to a child, it really looked as if there was no more London. Sometimes we wouldn’t be able to get a place in the shelter and then the kind lady in the basement of the block of flats we lived in would let us hide there. I also remember the sound of the V1s that came over and whined. When the whining stopped you would automatically cover your ears as you knew the bomb was on its way down, maybe on to you. You never knew where it was going to land.

I never felt it was hard to be responsible for telling my parents about the raids. A child of deaf parents usually feels very good about that situation because he has tremendous power. Normally the parents have all the power over the child who has very little control over situations that affect him, but for a child with deaf parents who are totally dependent on him to speak for them, tell them about air raid warnings and things like that, it is a very powerful and good feeling. I was very frightened of the bombs and to this day, if there is a loud noise, I get very startled. Although deaf, my parents were able to feel the vibrations when there were big explosions and sometimes in the basement everything would shake, and on occasions things would fall off the walls. So if they were awake, they usually knew what was happening.

I remember on VE Day the block party started late and my parents woke me up. I was in my pyjamas and they put my shoes on me and rushed me out for the party. It was the first time I was ever allowed out in the streets in pyjamas! And since then nobody has ever allowed me out in the street in my pyjamas! So that was a major event in my life!

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