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Margaret was born in 1938. She was four years old at this time — she lived in Ash, a small village about nine miles from Canterbury.

She remembers she had gone with her father to the shop to buy sweets at about 2pm. Three German planes were on their way back from a bombing run on Canterbury, firing as they went. She saw them swooping up the High Street, one down the middle of the street and the others either side of the road - behind the Church and behind the houses. The siren went and Margaret and her father ran for the bomb shelter but they didn’t quite make it. One plane fired at the shop and took the corner of the roof off. She looked up and saw the German pilot and the gunner very clearly as they had the cover drawn back. Her father pushed her down to the ground and lay on top of her, shielding her. She heard the bullets pepper the wall above their heads.

She learned later that all three planes were shot down and the Germans taken prisoner.

‘I don’t recall being frightened at the time' she said 'but my parents were worked up about it.’

She also remembers the painted wooden toys made by the local Prisoners of War — four chickens pecking up and down on a piece of wood, and tumbling clowns. She remembers the church bells ringing when the war ended, and the first bananas — ‘revolting!’

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