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My name is Ann Holden. Until June 17th 1944, Mum, dad and I lived at 41 Clivendon Road, Wimbledon. I can just remember playing in the garden. Mum was there too. Dad came out and said, ‘Well, things will change now.’ I now realise that must have been the speech about going to war with Germany.
A while later, Mum and me went to stay at a pub near Sandon, Hertfordshire, with my eldest sister. We only stayed a few weeks. Mum hated the country, too quiet, she said. She would sooner be in the comfort of her own home. Dad had worked at Old Street, making leather Sam Brown belts, gun holsters, anything in leather for the forces. I know when the blitz came because where he worked was destroyed. He then worked from home. Whenever I smell leather I think of that! I got whooping cough so we had an indoor shelter, not one in the garden. I remember a bomb exploding nearby. I went out to play and saw that the house at the bottom of our garden had received a direct hit.
Because I missed a lot of school with illness, Mum sent me to a private school run by ladies in a house, not far from where I lived, in Wimbledon Broadway. I went round after a particularly bad night and there was just a hole in the ground. Their car, which was outside, a Tourer, big green car, did not get damaged. The thing that frightened me the most was the ‘Ack Ack’ gun, which went up and down the road. When it went off, I thought the house would be shook to pieces.
When the blitz ended, Mum and Dad were so pleased. He was very concerned about relations and family in Aldernay, the Channel Islands, where he was born. We had maps on the wall and followed what was going on with the war. A lady and her daughter moved in with us as she was bombed out. She told us her husband was a POW in Burma. Life carried on and we were all excited about D Day. The grownups had a celebration. A few days later the lady who was staying with us gave birth to a son. Mum was not happy about it and she and dad rowed over her as an American was the father. Dad was one of those people who said about the Americans, ‘oversexed, overpaid and over here’.
We knew about the V1 and so it was back to the shelter. It was getting light and we thought we heard the all clear. Dad got out to make tea. Mum had followed him. The house just collapsed on top of us. Then it was so quiet and dark. The baby, his sister, mum and me were alive in the shelter. It seemed a very long time before we were dug out. I had wet myself and thought I would be smacked. When I was standing outside, I saw Mum laying there with a pool of blood at the back of her head. I did not have to be told. I knew she was dead. Dad was found under the rubble; he live for a few weeks.
My life changed completely. While I was waiting to be rescued, the Corgi next door was barking non stop. I heard bang, them silence. Half the street was destroyed. I went back about 15 years ago. I thought it was a long time, but it was not. I did go to a school in Wimbledon, but was called ‘fatty’ and was told I was too clever by half.

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