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Soon after the war started my Father like many other men too old for active duty joined the ARP (Air Raid Precaution) commonly call ‘the wardens’. The Wardens' local headquarters - officially named K4 - was an air raid shelter in a playing field called Bessingby Park (Ruislip Manor). The post was manned 24 hours a day which meant that those men on night duty came home from work had a meal then went and spent the night at ‘the post’ going out at intervals to walk the area looking for incendary bombs or houses that were not complying with the strict blackout requirements or generally giving assistance in the aftermaths of an air raid where homes had been bombed. I remember him telling us of an event that happened during an air raid early in the war where a house was showing a flashing light, the wardens and the police were convinced that someone in the house was signalling the pilots of enemy aircraft — the police broke into the house and found that the owner has rushed down to the shelter leaving an iron on the ironing board and the iron had burnt through the board — no terrorist caught but at least it saved a house being burnt down.

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