大象传媒

This story has been submitted by Stoke-on-Trent Libraries on behalf of the suthor. The author fully understands the rules and regulations of the Peoples War website.

My maternal grand father was working at the Woolich Arsenal at the beginning of the first world war.He was transferred to the torpedo factory at Battery Park bewteen Greenock and Gourock. I was born in Sept 1931 in Greenock and my parents moved to Bridge of Weir a small village halfway between Greenock and Glasgow. Being young when the war broke out my brothers and i didn't really realise what was happening.But as time went on and bombs started falling in our surrounding area we became aware that something bad was happening. We lived in a downstairs flat and my father's aunt Elsie and Uncle Jim lived above.When the bombs started falling my aunt would come down the stairs to the coal cellar which my father had whitewashed
and fitted out with little tressles at the back for my four brothers to lie down on and chairs for my mother ,my aunt and myself. It was lit by candles and we had a jar of boiled sweets ready in case needed. One night my father came rushing in saying "take to the hills they are dropping bombs" we all came out of the house,my mother pushing the youngest brother Peter
in his pram when an air raid warden came and ushered us back into the house telling us it was safer indoors. Sometimes you would listen to the drone of the planes and you got to recognise the difference between ours and theirs. Being so near to the Clyde we could hear all the bombs and the AKAK guns as the Clydebank and Greenock ship building ports were being pounded. My grandparents house in Greenock was bombed and they rented a house in Dunoon for a time. I rememeber my grandfather's brother Will and family came up from London for a time,I don't know if they had been bombed out but I wonder now how we all managed to live together in a two bedroomed house.
I was in the tap dancing troup and we used to go around various places giving concerts. I went for an audition to Greenock Empire ,I think it was for a concert for the troops and I can always remember one of the artists was a tall redheaded sailor who sang "Trees"(I think that I shall never see) I don't know why it sticks in my mind. I sang and danced to " the dark town Strutters Ball"
Sometime after the war we had a displaced persons camp built in our village and we had all different nationalities. My father befriended two Frenchmen and sued to bring them home for cup of tea. George Annear and Johnson. In later years my mother went to France and visited Mr Johnson and his family several times.
I met a boy from Czeckslovakia,his name was Igoe Tomes,we wrote to each other for a couple of years and I often wonder what happened to him. I stil have his address ans I am tempted to write and see if he is still there.
While at school during the war some of the older pupils would go on certain days and help the local farmers lift the potatoes. He would come round with a big tea urn and slices of bread and jam. We received a scroll from King George VI thanking us for helping the war effort.I 've stil got mine. Food was scarce and very basic . I can only remember corend beef,dreid eggs and sausages and only vegetable was turnip.Sometimes walking home from school we would go into the farmer's field and pinch a turnip . There was alarge rhubarb farm near to our school and our headmistress would send us to buy some for the canteen. Once we had a rare treat,we had an Italian family at the school( their father was interned during the war)they must
have given the school boxes of dry ice cream and cones and the dinner ladies made some kind of thick custard to put in them and they were distributed to the whole school.It was like manna from heaven. I don't remember any fruit and sweets were scarce,practically non existent. Once in a while the local shop would receive consignment of sweets and I can remember waiting in a huge queue,everyone dancing with excitement,but we were only allowed two itmes,maybe a mars bar and some other chocolate heaven. All the railins and metal gates were taken down to be melted down and used for the war effort

漏 Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.