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This story has been written to the ´óÏó´«Ã½ People's War site by CSV Storygatherer Coralie, on behalf of Edward O’Neill. The story has been added to the site with his permission and Edward fully understands the terms and conditions of the site.

I was born in 1933, so when the war started I was five. We lived in the country at Stobo, Peebleshire, in the Borders of Scotland and I didn’t know there was a war on. Rationing didn’t affect us at all, because we had our own cow, pig and chickens. When Dad killed the pig, I used to have a day off school.

The River Tweed ran past the door, and usually when you get a nice lot of rain, October/November, the salmon come from the sea to spawn. We used to go out at night with a carbine lamp — you shine it on the water and it attracts the fish in — and we used a four-prong spear to spear the salmon. This was technically illegal, but there were no bailiffs about because they had been called up, and nobody minded because we were getting our own food.

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