大象传媒

Bombed But Not Forgotten

I was born on 30th May 1913. I can still remember the First World War. I was five years old when Armistice was declared. My father did not go to war because it was discovered that he had lung trouble; so he did guard duty at what was then called The British and Colonial Aeroplane Company, now BAe and Rolls Royce at Filton and Patchway.

I was in the church when the raid on Bristol on November 29th 1941 decimated the centre of the city. I remember we all hid under the pews, but the organist carried on playing. When we came out eventually we could see the city in flames.

When I got home, our house had been damaged in the air raid. There was a large stone on the bed in the back bedroom, in our house in Longmead Avenue, Horfield, in Bristol. It had come through the roof. My mother was sitting with an elderly neighbour, comforting her.

The next day my father and I walked down to Stokes Croft, and we saw that the fire crew were lying sprawling all around. They were dead, from the explosions from bombing, and also the fire engine had been blown apart.

When we finally got down to the office, we found that the whole building had luckily been saved; and one of the fire watchers managed to persuade the fire service who had previously abandoned it, to save it as it was the new building of Allan, Davies and Company the Printers, Stationers and Box Makers. My father was what was known in those days as a Commercial Traveller. I worked there too. My role was as a costing clerk, and secretarial and administration clerk in the company.

When I got married during 1942, friends lent me some clothing coupons, and I managed to obtain enough to purchase a sky blue two-piece outfit from Alexandra in Whiteladies Road, Clifton in Bristol. We got married in St Michaels and All Angels Church in Bishopston during December 1942.

My husband had been an aircraft engineer in BAC engine works. He was born in 1909, and was at school with the famous engineer Frank Whittle at Leomington Boys College. My husband broke his service with the company in December 1939, and in January 1940 he went to college theological training at Stoke Hill. But it had closed for the duration of the war, as it had been bombed as John was fire watching on the roof and a bomb fell in the grounds.

Another memory I have which will always stay with me is that, we were on a bus going to Pembroke Road, and suddenly we could hear screaming noises of incendiary bombs as they fell. This was around 1940 to 1941. It was the night that the Bishops Palace was burnt down.

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