大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People's War site by Lesley Bowell of Leicestershire Library Services on behalf of William Farmer.

At the age of 9 when war was declared I lived in Knightsbridge Barracks, London with my mother and sister, (my father was a sargeant in the Life Guards). We had to get out of married quarters and were allocated a flat in Stamford Street by the Council. At the age of 11 I was evacuated with my school to a village in Devon called Grinacombe Moor. We went to the local school for distribution to foster parents. My friend and I went to a farm. We could not get used to the primitive way they lived so we decided to leave not knowing where we were going. Eventually we were allocated to two houses in the village. After two uears my mother decided to have me home in London.
When I reached the ripe old age of 14 I left school to work in a book publishing firm in The Strand. Then the V1 rockets started to appear regularly. My sister who was eighteen along with her friend decided to join the WRNS on June 18th 1944. They went into Westminster and into the Birdcage Walk. There was a service in the Guard's Chapel, so they decided to join. Then a V1 rocket fell on the chapel and they and 119 others were killed. The following day we had a telgram from the War Office telling us what happened. We went to my mother's parents which was a mile away in Souwark. We had things to do so left them. Apparenty they needed a stiff drink so went round to the pub. They too were killed by a flying bomb so my mother lost her daughter and parents in two days.
My father decided we should move out to his home in Marston, Lincolnshire.
Three years later when I was 18 and conscripted into the army and posted to Palestine to keep the peace. It was hell. I have slept in a camel shed in Beersheba, also in a police station in Gaza and got attacked by 2 spitfires killing two of our men.

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