大象传媒

At the outbreak of war our family, mother father and we two children, were living at 67 Lansdown Road in Birmingham. Father was 35 and before he volunteered to join the army as an officer in the R.E.M.E., he acted as an ARP Warden in our locality.

Like most of the families in our street it was not long before we set about building our own Anderson shelter, and the whole family helped in the activity, although judging by the size of our tools I don鈥檛 think we children contributed much! Unfortunately the whole project was a disaster due to the fact that the shelter kept filling up with water, and we spent many hours bailing out! Eventually it was abandoned, and we took to sheltering either under the stairs, or the public shelters.

When father left to join the army, in early 1940, the bombing in Birmingham became more intense with daylight raids increasing the pressure. At this point our mother was so exhausted that one night she slept through a particularly heavy raid, and we woke up the next morning to find the house next door had been flattened! Enough was enough, it was time to get out, and escape to the peace and quiet of the countryside. Mother and we two children were evacuated to Eardisland in the heart of Herefordshire. We stayed initially on a farm owned by one of my father鈥檚 colleagues whom he met when they were both serving in the merchant navy in the 1920鈥檚.

It was an idyllic place for we children to live; there was an old water mill, orchards and open fields to play in, not to mention the animals. We were all terrified of the cows, we were convinced they were raging bulls, and mother insisted we never wore red!

We moved on from there to various other farms in and around Eardisland living like nomads, until our mother finally managed to rent a small house in Bridge Street in Leominister, where we stayed until the end of the war.

Father served in Africa, Italy and Greece, where he was captured by the guerrillas, and held for a few months before he and his Unit were eventually released. He returned home in the summer of 1946 with the rank of Major.

We had a marvellous street party in Bridge Street to celebrate VE Day. Tressle tables were put up in the centre of the street, and all the families brought out whatever they could in the way of eats, sandwiches, buns, jellies etc. We had a fancy dress parade, and street races, egg and spoon, three legged, sack, and sprints for all age groups. The happiest, most joyful day of our young lives.

漏 Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.