大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War Site by Three Counties Action, on behalf of William Hayhurst, and has been added to the site with his permission. The author fully understands the site鈥檚 terms and conditions.

My name is William Hayhurst. I was born on the 6th June, 1936 in Lambeth, London.
I lived in Southest Street, Stockwell with Dad, Mum and sister Maureen. As Dad was a bus driver he was exempt from fighting in the war.

My first memory of the war was the sound of the air raid siren. When there was a raid we all sat under the Morrison shelter in the house.

My family and our neighbours, the Morritts, had to move out from our homes as we had an unexploded bomb in our back garden. Both families moved next door to each other in Stockwell Green.

Dad and Mr. Morritt erected an Anderson shelter and put a gate in between the fence of our back gardens. If need be, they could get to each other quickly.
Dad and Mr.Morritt grew vegetables and kept chickens, both families shared everything. People were more caring and kinder during the war.

Nan and Grandad Lewington came to live with us as their house had been bombed. We were lucky our house only had its windows blown out when a bomb went off across the road, but the blast affected my hearing. Thank goodness it only lasted a few days.
During the war we still had to attend school, but only in the morning because sometimes there were raids in the afternoon.
Mum made sure that we always had our gas masks with us. A game of mine was to put on my gas mask and chase my sister around the house. Maureen would scream her head off. Mum would come and give me a good telling off.

When the raids became heavy, Dad suggested that Maureen and I should be evacuated, but Mum wouldn鈥檛 agree to it. She said, 鈥淚f we get bombed, we鈥檒l go together鈥�. We never were evacuated.

The iron railings we had in front of our house were taken for the war effort. Coal was scarce at times, one of my mates would go to the bomb site to collect wood so that we could have a fire at home. One day we were searching for wood, we came across a broken gas meter. We were amazed to see money all over the ground. My mates and I filled our pockets with money. I couldn鈥檛 wait to get home to show Mum what I had found. I didn鈥檛 understand why Mum was cross with me when I told her where we had found money.

One of our games when we were lads was who could find the biggest piece of shrapnel. Ever day Mum gave us children a big spoonful of malt and cod liver oil (I hated it). Mum said it was good for us (Mum knows best).

The war ended on the 8th May 1945. We all celebrated with a big street party. We had a photograph taken sitting at the party tables (I still have the photo). There was a lot of dancing and singing and we all had a wonderful time.
And the lights went on again over London.

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