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This story was submitted to the people’s War site by Holly Fuller of Leicestershire Library Services on behalf of John Boyd and has been added to the site with his permission. The author fully understands the site’s terms and conditions.I was born in 1935 and lived in Leeds, there were very few airraids but lots of alerts. This was because of Liverpool and Manchester being so close and the heavy bombing that took place there. My father was a doctor and manned the first aid posts quite oftyen. With three children my Mother was kept busy and I could tell she was very frightened about out safety. We would sleep down in the cellar, where we had an iron hospital bed. I was confused to why we had to sleep under the bed on a matress rather than on the bed. Itself. My mother had been in London during World War One and could remember the Zeppelins bombing, she was very scarred.

My sister was only a baby, she was born in 1940 and was give a special baby gas mask. My other sister was bit younger than me and was given a Mickey Mouse gas mask. Myself, being older had a normal gas mask. I can’t remember carrying it around everywhere but I’m sure we did.

I can never really remember being aware of rationing or food shortages but I have a very vivid memory of a children’s birthday party and being very excited about having ice cream for the first time. It was home-made and unfortunately I was left disappointed, I didn’t like it because it contained Cornflakes!

One of my earliest memories was of a soldier who came to stay in the family home, I didn’t understand why a strange man was walking around in a ‘green suit’. I can remember him and my parents listening to the wireless and telling the children to ‘shh shh’. They seemed very concerned and worried. Looking back they were probably listening for news about Dunkirk.

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