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We lived on a small holding with my parents Mr. and Mrs Taylor in the countryside before coming to Leicester permanently. As children we ran freely in the fields, sometimes we had sufficient to eat and sometimes we had nothing. One day whilst running and playing in the fields a group of us saw a parachute falling from the sky. It must have been a German we thought. One of us ran to get the local village Bobby ( policeman), whilst the rest of us surrounded the pilot who had now landed and struggling in his parachute harness.
Hands up German or words to that effect, I suppose a load of screaming kids surrounding you after you have just had the wind knocked out of you, would be rather daunting.
We were all pleased with ourselves that day, as we ran home and declared to our parents that we had captured a German Pilot.
We celebrated with the Half-A-Crown reward money we received from the local Bobby. ( Half-A-Crown = 2 shillings and sixpence = 12 and a half pence of 2005 money. )…… ( 1 shilling = 12 old penny’s = 5 new pence of 2005 money). 1 old pound equalled 240 old penny’s or 20 shillings. 1 x 2005 pound equals 100 new pence.

Many items could be purchased for 1 old penny and even in 1950’s to late 1950’s a pint of beer could be purchased for 11 and a half old penny’s , less than 5 new pence in 2005 money.

This story was submitted to the “Peoples War Site by Rod Aldwinckle of the CSV Action Desk on behalf of WINIFRED ALDWINCKLE and has been added to the site with HER permission. The author fully understands the terms and conditions of the site.

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