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A YOUNG LAD’S WAR

My family were on holiday in Kingston in Devon when war was declared. My Mum and my Stepfather returned to London but my brother, sister and I remained in Kingston and went to school there. When we did rejoin our parents in East Finchley we went to bed each night in the air raid shelter as London was bombed frequently. My Stepfather was a Fire Warden so had to leave our house every time there was a German air raid.

On the way to school in Muswell Hill, I remember collecting shrapnel and the occasional ‘nose cap’ from a shell. The swings in our school playground had had the wooden seats removed and replaced with straw filled sacks — the Home Guard used these sacks for bayonet practice.
Each lunch time we used to walk the Civic Restaurant which was about a mile away from our school, but if the siren sounded we had to run for cover. At the Civic you could get a bowl of vegetable and meat soup for one shilling and sixpence (7.5p in today’s money), but, you had to take your own bowl. If you paid for a desert as well, it was put on top of your soup!!

We were all required to test our gas masks in the back of a specially adapted van. My brother and sister tested theirs, but I was too frightened to go in the back of the van.
I still remember my Identity Card Number — WHMJ497. Also, how horrible custard and scrambled egg tasted when made with powdered egg. No one explained how to cook with it properly and it always tasted burnt.

Towards the end of the war I lived with my Grandmother in South Norwood. Again we slept in a Morrison shelter each night. Sometimes we stood on her back door step and watched the Doodle Bugs fly past.

Before the war had finished I returned to live in East Finchley. I clearly remember all the family being in the kitchen — we all thought we heard the sound of a motor bike coming down the road outside — the sound of the engine cut out and then we realised it was a Doodle Bug — we all dived under the kitchen table for safety.

My elder brother did ‘join up’ and was sent to Palestine where he was sleeping under canvas. Sadly he contracted TB (Tuberculosis) and was invalided out of war service.

When the war ended we had a big Street Party.

Story written by Bill Greaves-Lord.
Edited and submitted by Paula Phillips.

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