大象传媒

This is an edited extract of a recorded interview conducted by Adrian Green of Bromley Museum with Shirley Heath. It has been submitted to the People鈥檚 War website with her permission.

'My first recollection was the voice on the radio, saying that war had broken out and I rushed downstairs, out of the front door, looked at the sky and thought well wars broken out, where is it? Because at the age of six you don鈥檛 understand what it all means, you think it鈥檚 going to be different, it was a beautiful summer September day and I thought well where is this war? And then, I can鈥檛 recollect how long, but a siren sounded and from then on and even now I don鈥檛 like the sound of sirens. It stays with you, you wait for the all clear sound and then you feel safe. The siren sound stays with you always and that鈥檚 my first real fear and I鈥檓 sensitive so I think I felt fear a lot. I would wake up before the siren and be almost ready with my pillow under my arm to be first in the shelter in the corner, it frightened me that much.

As far as I can remember my mother was at home until the war started, she was looking after us, and then when the war started she did go into a factory. I can鈥檛 remember where, but from then on, she worked, she was never the housewife at home any more, she went back to work, and she worked right though until she retired, and it changed her life, from being mum at home to being mum at work. And that affected my sister and I as well, when we came home from evacuation things had changed totally.'

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