大象传媒

When the war broke out, I was 7 and my father was a footman at "Old Surrey Hall" in East Grinstead. Colonel and Mrs Anderson who lived there, decided that rather than the Army requisitioning their house, they would turn it into a maternity home for the residents of South London and Surrey. My sister was born there in early 1940.

Because all the men were called up, all the children on the estate were given jobs to do - my special responsibility was accompanying Mrs Anderson in dead-heading the rhododendrons and azaleas. We also picked potatoes, fruit and helped with the harvest.

As the war progressed and McIndoe was treating the patients at the Queen Victoria, Mrs Anderson decided to let the men use the outdoor swimming pool (which was filled with spring water and freezing cold!) in the afternoons.

As the children were also allowed to swim after school, we were quite often in the pool at the same time. Their favourite thing was to throw us back into the pool! As children, we didn't notice their injuries and because they were so young, that they were almost like children themselves.

Living outside the town, we didn't notice the bombing raids much, and it wasn't till we went back to school and saw the empty desks that it hit home. I lost quite a few friends from school, but I still remember them as they were then.

When London was blitzed, the sky in the north was blood-red just like a beautiful sunset. You knew that London was being bombed and even now, when a plane comes over low to Gatwick, I find myself thinking: "Is it one of ours?"

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