大象传媒

In 1936 I was 3 years old and with my mother and my aunt (who was expecting a baby) wee evacuated from London on trains, to a town in the midlands that was deemed safer for us.

Unfortunately the house that we went to was cold and damp and the very next day my mother took us all back to London, preferring bombs to pneumonia!

A little later my father was posted to Cromford in Derbyshire to train soldiers to drive and maintain trucks, he was too old for active service. My mother joined him by renting a cottage in the village and the rest of the family from London was to spend time here during the war years. As this cottage had only one room up and one room down, it was ,at times , very crowded!

As the bombing in London became lighter we returned to Dagenham and a council house that dad had rented, leaving only one old aunty in the cottage. she was to remain here for the rest of her life.

It was not long before the bombing started again over South East England and we children, although at school, spent much time in a brick built shelter in the playground. In view of the bombing raids. the school eventually closed as the education authorities could not take responsibility for so many children in one place, should a bomb make a direct hit on the shelter.

Thereafter we spent most nights in a shelter in the garden of our home, many times I remember being carried from my warm bed to the sound of the air raid warning, down the garden and into the shelter.

Thank goodness we had a shelter, as one night we had four blocks of houses along the street flatterned by bombs. although the little brick air raid wardens hut remained intact outside.!

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