- Contributed byÌý
- Severn Valley Railway
- People in story:Ìý
- June Flavell
- Location of story:Ìý
- Birmingham
- Background to story:Ìý
- Civilian
- Article ID:Ìý
- A6190058
- Contributed on:Ìý
- 18 October 2005
Oh, very much so! cos my mum and dad had got two grown-up sons away so they were never going to let me go and be evacuated, so I had to stay in Birmingham.
And, er; it er; that's why I don't like thunder and lightning.
And I think … I was nine when the war started and 14 when it finished.
And when my eldest brother came back home 16 years on, I think; and I didn't know who he was because I'd never seen him since I was nine. And then I was 14; he was a complete stranger to me.
The other one was in the Navy so he must …And the worst thing that ever happened to me. .
And the worst thing that ever happened to me was, just before I was 14 years of age my mum said a telegram man is coming up the path. And she said, "you're reading"; wasn't quite 14, and I had to read out this telegram to my mother that her youngest son was missing presumed dead at D-Day.
And she died, you know; she just stood there.
And that was, you know, the war, really. You think it's all lovely, but it's all remote, you know. Well I mean, I love it that young people are learning about it. Well, If you grew up in the …
I mean; the night that Coventry was bombed, my dad heard Lord Haw Haw say he saw Hitler. They came and told us to go into the shelter at six o'clock in the evening; and we didn't come out of the shelter until seven o'clock next morning. And my dad, love him; he said to me,
"Walk down the path." So I said, " But it's still light." He said, "Put a cushion over your head, and if there's a bomb dropped you'll be alright." So then, I'm about 11 years of age; in my, you know; wartime stuff; little dressing gown, walking with a …; cushion …; We were, er, survivors. But the worst, was really my mother's …I had to say that … later I heard him calling me, erm; and I thought I was dreaming; young girl, 14; mum and dad devastated as one of their sons was … so they were a little…
And I could hear this voice; and my dad was very strict, and you didn't go down stairs, and this …
but I could hear my brother calling me my name and I went down there; and he was on the front step, and then he had his naval officer's hat on; his collar and tie; no shirt …; though he was a Navy officer.
And he'd got his shoes on with no socks and he had a terrible burn on his head.
He was mentioned in dispatches …All this lot brings back memories, really.
… Oh, well; where I was born was devastated by a landmine. And my younger brother who was missing came home on leave and he said someone told him during the war the city centre had been destroyed; and the only thing that survived was one of the neighbour's piano and a tree that was in our back-to-back house … to the outskirts of the city.
This story was submitted to the people's war site by a volunteer from Wyre Forest Volunteer Bureau from a recording made by June Flavell and has been added to the site with her permission
© Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.