大象传媒

Aged 9 in 1939. Living in Totteridge, London, N. 20. Sent at once to a cottage in Gidden Morden, Hertfordshire.
Our grandmother looked after (and beat) us.

Nov. 1939 - sent to an evacuated school in Cockermouth, Cumberland. First experience of gas lighting. Local boys greeted us as unwelcome refugees. We were remote from danger; our headmaster showed us on wall maps the advance of the Germans into France, Denmark and Norway.

We enjoyed traffic-free cycling round the lakes. But every holiday we went back to London. Sheltered in a damp cellar. Collected shrapnel each morning.

The train back to Cumberland was often delayed; once it took about 24 hours. My parents were in their 40s: my mother did nursing duty at the First Aid post; my father was a special constable, an attended the East End docklands in the Blitz. My sister joined the A.T.S. and drove cars and lorries - then in 1945 went to drive in Germany (15 cwt & 3 tonners).

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