大象传媒

My memories of the second world war:
Events took place in the first days of the war which were to transport me into a completely new environment to that which I had been used.
My father, who worked for the Gas Company, was working in the area where the first bombs fell, which was the town of Jarrow, about four miles from South Shields. His team of gas employees had to ensure all gas fractures were taken care of, and in doing so my father saw some very distressing scenes. In most cases at the time there were no proper shelters so most of the families had gone under the stairs for safety. Unfortunately, the gas meters were positioned in the same place as they were, most of them fractured when the bombs fell and whole families were killed. When my father got home, he and mother decided after some discussion to send the five youngest of their children with the evacuation which the government were organising. My older siblings were either in the forces or doing war work. Mary, who had just left school, was allowed to go with my two younger sisters, Margaret and Lynda, and off they went to Westmoreland to the town of Burton. While my older brother Tom and myself went off to the market town of Egremont in Cumberland, and we were billeted with a Mr and Mrs McCullough in the village of Thornhill a mile and a half from Egremont.
We quickly got to know the McCullough's as Uncle Charlie and Aunty Etta. They had children of their own; Charles (junior) and Philomena (Phylis for short) and we were treat in the same way as their own children, and I can honestly say those four years I spent with them were some of the happiest I spent in my life.
Being transported from the industrial North East to the lush green meadows of Cumberland was wonderful. I felt that this was as if I was finally settled in a place where I felt happy.The green fields I had seen prior to this had been very few. In Thornhill, about one hundred yards from 29 Thorney Road was one of those wonderful meadows and I could stand in that meadow and the views were wonderful; inland were the fells on which I enjoyed many happy days and I could look the other way towards the coast(Toward Nethertown, where Sellafield Nuclear Power Station was built) you looked over the valley where the river Ehen meandered. To me, through my young eyes, these views are something I will never forget.
I must admit, the icing on the cake was being lucky enough to be welcomed in the home of such a lovely family, for there were many who were not as lucky. Winter nights were spent mainly reading, listening to the wireless and doing puzzles and all the family joined in doing those.We were treat in the same way as their own children and were never made to feel out of place.
Uncle Charlie would help us in everything we undertook and Aunt Etta mothered us as if we were her own.
Uncle Charlie was born in the market town of Larne in Northern Ireland. His father was a farmer but as the family grew, the younger ones had to look to what they were going to do with their life, for the older son was to inherit the farm.So Uncle Charlie came to Cumberland to work in the iron ore mines.He loved his garden; he had been out in the countryside and when the family went for walks, which was quite often in the wonderful spring and summer period, he would try to explain everything in answer to all our "whys and wherefores."
Our school holidays were spent withwith different aunts and uncles in Cleator, Cleator Moor and Frizington and I will never forget those happy times; my love of the Lake District stemmed from those days spent at Ennerdale and Wasdale Lakes and those walks in the fells made it a struggle for me when the time came for me to leave,I must confess. I did not want to go.
I sometimes feel guilty that I enjoyed my war, especially when I think of what my brother, Bruce, endured going through Dunkirk and later on the years he spent in the prisoner of war camps, and my brother Ralph's Aircraft Carrier was twice hit by suicide planes. I console myself with the thought that it was because Uncle Charlie and Aunty Etta did such a good job of looking after us so well that leaving Thornhill was quite a wrench to me.I missed the hills and the lakes so much, but as you know, life goes on and with the resilience of youth it wasn't long before I settled back into life in the North East.
But you can be sure of one thing - I will never forget those four happy years I spent with the McCullough family in Thornhill.

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