大象传媒

When the war started I was on holiday in Sheerness with my family. I was 3 陆 years old and I remember being carried out of Woolworths on my dad鈥檚 shoulders with a new bucket and spade. Dad joined the Royal Artillery in 1940.

When the bombing around Clapham Junction where we lived got bad Mum took Dorothy Peter and me to stay with a distant relative in Presteigne, Radnorshire. She rented a cottage, two up two down. The toilet was at the bottom of the garden and we shared a water pump with three other cottages. In the winter the pump froze and we had to break the ice to get the water. To make us comfortable for the duration of the war Mum had electricity and water piped into the cottage to the amazement of the locals. We loved Presteigne, paddling in the River Lugg, hiding in the Quarry. The American Soldiers drove by our school and would throw us chocolate when we shouted 鈥淕ive us some gum chum鈥�.

Sometime in 1941, Dad came home on embarkation leave, I remember him polishing his big army boots and the smell of the Brasso when he cleaned his brass buttons. We waved him off from Presteigne Railway Station.

In 1942 Mum had a telegram to say Dad was missing. As she could not bring herself to write to his mother we all came back to Clapham Junction to tell her. There was a lull in the bombing so we stayed for a few months. When there was an air raid we would run into the Anderson Shelter and I remember being terrified as we listened to the bombs dropping, but in the morning what fun we had looking for shrapnel and jumping over broken water mains.

After a very bad raid when the houses in the next road were bombed, I remember the sky was red with all the fires, Mum decided to take us back to Presteigne. Mum was notified that Dad was Prisoner of War in Thailand. After school Mum insisted we all did an hours 鈥淲ar effort鈥� and I was taught to knit 鈥淪ea Boot Stockings for Sailors鈥� with thick, greasy wool. Mum was always short of money and we went fruit picking and hop picking to earn extra money. We also collected Rose hips, Nettles and Dandelion leaves for tuppence a pound for a Pharmaceutical company.

Between 1942 and 1945 the only communication Mum had from Dad was three printed postcards.

War with Europe ended and we came back to Clapham Junction to get the flat ready for Dad to come home. Mum said 鈥淭he war isn鈥檛 over for us yet鈥�. The flat had been badly damaged by bomb blast and had been looted of all the best furniture and Mum鈥檚 wedding presents. War with Japan ended on the 15th of August 1945 but it wasn鈥檛 until January, 1946 that the letter came from the War Office to say that Dad had died of Beri Beri on the 15th September, 1943. I can still hear Mum鈥檚 scream to this day,

The War was over; the battle for the Brown family went on for a few more years.

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