大象传媒

Wartime memories of Edna Jackson (Nee Beackon)

I was coming up six and living in Walthamstow, I remember my Mum crying as war was declared on the radio.
After that we spent many nights in the shelter and the one night that stays in my memory was the night of 17th September 1940,. To try and make the shelter waterproof my Dad had cemented the floor and corner joints. On this particular night, with bombs falling all around, Dad was standing outside the shelter, suddenly he threw himself into the shelter saying" This one has our name on it", but in fact the bombs fell three doors away in the front and back garden of a house three doors away.
The bomb that fell in the back garden was a direct hit on the shelter, killing the family of four. With the blast the cement fell out bruising my face. There maws considerable damageto the houses in the street, windows, roves and doors blown away. Even today at the age of 71 the damp smell of brick dust and rubble, sets of memories of that night.

After this episode my brother and I were evacuated from school by coach to a very remote village near High Wycombe called Ibstone On arrival we were all assembled in the village hall, where we were selected like cattle in a market, my Mum had told my brother Sam, who was four years older, "to keep together", but we were separated and I was chosen with another girl also called Edna., and my brother with four other boys into a family in the same village. Sometime later bombs fell in a wood nearby, Sam and I played in the craters, and it wasn't until some days later an unexploded bomb was discovered. Signs were put up and the army duly arrived and detonated them. The unexploded bomb signs were left behind, these were then placed on the road into the village by the evacuee boys. Consequently, no one ventured into the village, and it was several days before it was realised what had happened. Subsequently because of the prank, my brother and I were moved to another village. This billet left much to be desired, we shared a bed and were served bread and lard for tea. When my Mum visited us and discovered the condition we were living in she decided to take us home. We gathered our belongings together for her to collect with us the following weekend. There was a considerable walk to the nearest main road to catch the Green Line bus to London, she complained about the weight of one of the suitcases and later discovered that it contained shrapnel which Sam had collected.

We were back in London until the Doodlebugs started. Previously we had made friends with a family who lived in the original village and so they agreed to take us as paying guests. Their home consisted of a homemade building clad with green painted corrugated iron no mains water only a hand pump in the kitchen, no electricity, cooking was done on a paraffin fuelled cooker, toilet at the end of the garden with no main drainage, Never the less we were very happy there and stayed in touch even up to today with one of the daughters.

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