大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People's War site by Sarah Cooper at the AGC Museum on behalf of Colin Metcalfe and has been added to the site with his permission. Colin Metcalfe fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

I was born in June 1930, so was 9 at the outbreak of war, and 15 at VJ Day. Reigate, Surrey, about 25 miles south of London, was my home.

My father and his brother, my Uncle Tom, both Great War infantrymen, and life-long white-collar railwaymen, had married two sisters. The families lived next door to each other for some 25 years. My Uncle and Aunt had no children, and I had one older (7 years) sister, Jean.

Gas masks had been issued and fitted in 1938, and I was aware (though not greatly concerned by) the news from Europe. At that time, the stamp collection was my encyclopaedia and internet, and raised questions like the great German inflation and the Saar plebiscite. In 1938 we had a holiday in St Malo, and there was mysterious, serious conversation that I did not understand. The cellar of my Aunt's house was reinforced with timber to provide a secure shelter - we did not have an Anderson, though we did later have a Morrison table shelter.

In September 1939 Reigate became a reception area for London evacuees. We took a cousin, Peter, of my own age, and 2 official ones. A 5cwt van arrived, and my mother, sister and self went to make our selection. Jean picked a bronzed handsome young man, Gordon Smith and his younger brother, another Peter. Gordon did not stay long - with the 'phoney war' he soon returned to home and school. My maternal grandparents, both in their late 70s, lived at Balham, and they came to live with Uncle Tom and Aunt Norrie next door. On September 3rd I had been to church, and so did not hear Chamberlain's broadcast of the declaration of war. However, the walk home was interrupted by an air raid warning - a false one - and I took shelter in a tobacconist's shop that was open, until the all clear.

During the 'phoney war' period, apart from the blackout and protected windows on the buses, the major excitement was the arrival of Canadian troops. The 1st Canadian Division spent much of the war around Reigate. The church set up a forces canteen, where the family females helped. Jean had left the Girls County School in 1938 after School Certificate and some study at the local Art School. Now she was learning shorthand and typing (my father insisting that her undoubted artistic talents were all well and good, but she needed something "to fall back on"). As a highly attractive redhead, she caght the eye of a Canadian - Private Aldridge, RCAMC - who we 'adopted', or perhaps he adopted us - and we remained in contact for 40 years. Two regiments were prominent locally, Princess Pat's Canadian Light Infantry, and the notorious French-Canadian Vingt-Douze.

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