大象传媒

Early June 1940, the Dunkirk evacuation, the fall of France imminent and our local MP, a certain Mr Winston Churchill, the new Prime Minister. He was to have presented the prizes at the school speech day and his apology got a laugh: 鈥淚 regret that I am rather busy at the present time.鈥�

His 鈥渇ight on the beaches鈥� speech to Parliament at about that time made a great impression on this fifteen year old and the rest of the school cadet corps, led by the patriotic sergeant-major, a veteran of the first World War. If invasion were to come, the cadet corp would 鈥渄o its bit鈥�, although with the War Office having commandeered our riffles and substituted them with out of date carbides, with no ammunition, it was difficult to see what could be achieved!

June and July were thus unusual months at school as whilst on two afternoons each week we donned our uniforms and practiced our military skills on two others we put on our cricket flannels and played our regular fixtures against the locals schools and clubs as if nothing had changed.

August was spent watching our RAF pilots, at least one of whom was a school old boy aged 19, battling it out in the skies above us, plus looking out for enemy parachutist. When the bombing of London started in September 1, aged 15 and being too young to join the Home Guard assisted my father in his duties as an Air Raid Warden.

Between September 1940 and May 1941 so many stories can be told. However, I will pick one at random. An old couple, a 鈥淒arby and Joan鈥�, would sleep in their 7.0ft x 5.0ft Anderson shelter in the garden every night. 鈥淒arby鈥� liked to smoke a pipe but was always confronted with: 鈥淚鈥檓 not having you smoking that dirty old pipe in my shelter. 鈥� So off he had to go to the basement of the house and when 鈥渢heir bomb鈥� dropped he was in the house with his pipe, his wife being the shelter.

While she was unharmed it took some time to extricate him but luckily he escaped with only minor injuries. As we tool them to temporary accommodation in the local church hall they were still arguing, she about his dirty old pipe and he accusing her of being responsible for him nearly being killed.

A typical story, with a touch of humour, of Londoners during the Blitz.

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