大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War web site by Karen Elmes at the Building Exploratory on behalf of Lillian Smith and has been added to the site with her permission. She fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

At the beginning of the war Lillian lived in a flat on Richmond Road in Hackney. However, during the first years of the war Lillian did not spend much time there as she preferred to be near her husband who was in the forces, and consequently she moved around the country depending on where he was stationed. At one point Lillian lived in Wiltshire but was unhappy there due to the way she was treated by the people living in the countryside.

Not long after the Blitz began Lillian鈥檚 family home in Holmes Street, Haggerston was completely destroyed by a bomb. She describes what happened that night, not long after her brother had brought a stray dog back to live with them:

鈥淢y mother lived downstairs and my sister had two children upstairs. In the night the dog kept pulling the sheets off my mother and she called up to my sister, 鈥榯here鈥檚 something happening - there鈥檚 no warning but this dog knows something, I鈥檓 going to get up.鈥� So mum got up out of bed and she said to my sister, 鈥業 can hear a plane, get the children out quickly!鈥� My sister half clothed them and they rushed out into the street to the air raid shelter. Our house got a direct hit and it sliced the house in two. My brother was in the back bedroom and he heard the bang and he got up and thought 鈥榳hat happened?鈥� Neighbours rescued him through the window. He only had a night shirt on. They lost everything and there was no help then, we did what we could and the neighbours gave some clothes for them, and then I took my Mum in and the dog, but the dog had to be put down because it had shell shock. But that dog knew鈥nd after the plane was heard then the air raid warning went came the sirens went and it was too late.

Some treasured things were lost because there was no air raid people and people were looting houses. They got in and stole lots of things. We had a set of Britannia Encyclopaedias, they were stolen, and my dad had brought a big accordion back from France that was stolen 鈥� all the photos and everything were gone.鈥�

Towards the end of the war Lillian moved to a bigger home in Richmond Road. The house had been damaged during a bombing raid but had been repaired because homes at that time were in such short supply. Lillian was able to rent the nine roomed house for 25 shillings a week. However, as Richmond Road had two railway lines running at either end, it was a constant target for the German bombers and suffered from more bomb damage. Lillian moved into this home just as the buzz bombs began and she and her son would have to go down to their Anderson shelter every night.

One Sunday morning a rocket (V2) bomb landed near her home, blasting out her windows. Due to glass shortages at the time, they were replaced by black cloth called blackout, damaged flooring was replaced with oil cloth. Lillian felt lucky not to have suffered from more severe bomb damage:
鈥淚t was an everyday occurrence you just thought 鈥榦ther people are losing their lives,鈥� you came back, you got up in the morning, you thought 鈥榳ell the house is still there!鈥� and that鈥檚 the way it was.鈥�

Lillian remembers the kindness of folk during the war. People were always willing to help out in an emergency. Everyone helped each other through the difficulties. Lillian, who was particularly good at sewing, would mend the butcher鈥檚 clothes in return for slightly larger rations of meat.

This story was recorded by the Building Exploratory as part of a World War Two reminiscence project called Memory Blitz. To find out more please go to ^{About links}

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