大象传媒

My name is Alfred George Hobbs and I was born seventy years ago in Marylebone Street, Portsmouth. I was born into a large family of six children and two adults all living in a small flat above a stable and would you believe that the stable was home to a family of elephants, yes elephants, that used to perform in the Hippodrome Theatre a short distance away near the Guildhall. Unfortunately, Marylebone Street no longer exists but the law courts now stand on the place where I was born. In fact, most of the district of Marylebone was destroyed in the war and during the subsequent redevelopment of the city.

So, in 1934 I was born into this very poverty stricken area of Portsmouth with dad out of work, as many were at that time, and the only money coming in to feed us all was Mum's meagre earnings that she would earn scrubbing floors in the local pub. We all knew what it was like to suffer cold and hunger in those very dark days and the quality of life was at a very low ebb. Things had changed very little by the time war was declared in 1939. I was five by tnen and well remember all of the excitement in the street with everyone out of their houses and shouting and carrying on and speculating on what was going to happen to us all. I remember the general feeling of fear among all the people in that street and, as a child of five, not really understanding what was happening. I too became very frightened.

As far as I can recall, nothing much happened after the outbreak of war. We were all issued with gas masks in funny little brown boxes with string threaded through for carrying around your neckand we were told that we had to carry them at all times or be gassed to death. People put sticky tape all over their windows as a precaution against blast and flying glass and I believe that air raid shelters were being built all over the place. A new sound soon became part of our lives: a wailing siren warning of an imminent air raid attack was practiced throughtout the day. I used to listen to grown ups talking about the war and asking why wasn't something happeningand constantly looking up to the sky but life went on as normal, it seems. All we had were rumours, as nobody knew for certain what was happening and none of us had a radio or anything like we have today for information.

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