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I'm a pupil from Prudhoe Community High School, Northumberland, entering Margaret Armstrong's story onto the website, and they fully understand the website terms and conditions of use.

One Sunday in September 1939, while walking in the park, a friend came to tell me to go home as Mam wanted me. We lived in the outskirts of Newcastle, on Ferguson lane estate. Our house was quite small with only 3 bedrooms, one of which I shared with two of my brothers, a living room and a kitchenette. My 5 brothers were there when I arrived, along with the hens, ducks and our dog Rasper. Later on in the war my twin sisters were born, as war babies. I was upset as my brothers and I thought that the girl would have to look after girl baby, and the boys would have to look after a baby boy. Mam told us that war had been declared! I cried out 鈥渨hat do we do?!鈥� and she replied 鈥淲e just wait and see what happens.鈥� I was only eight at the time.
We were supplied with gas masks and identity cards to carry everywhere with us. Houses with gardens were given an Anderson shelter and every time the sirens sounded to warn us of an air raid, from the Germans, we had to go in the shelter. It nearly always happened through the night but after a while I grew less scared and liked going into the shelter. Dad put in a stove, and we always took water for making tea, there were also four bunks so that the children could sleep. We were made siren suits, which were large warm all-in-one suits. During this time Dad was a fire warden, so during the night he patrolled the streets looking for any fires that had been caused by the bombs, luckily my area had none. He carried with him a stirrup pump, which is similar to a bike pump, only bigger, his was never used. His daytime occupation was being a wire drawer, making large steel ropes for the big ships, he worked for the company 鈥淏ritish Ropes鈥�. At night when planes flew around if we heard one long drone, we knew the plane was British. However, if the drone was intermittent they would be German. The morning after an air raid the boys would go out to collect pieces of shrapnel. My Grandmother, who had a daughter with young children, used to help look after the children during the air raids. She would run to the next street. This night, while running up the street a German plane swooped so low that Grandmother could see the pilots face. A warden quickly pulled her into a doorway as the plane strafed the building with bullets. That night the goods yards in Newcastle were bombed and the next day we were bussed to Newcastle to see the big fire and destruction.
Our diet at home was fairly good for the area we lived in and people thought us posh for what we had, many children in that area did not even have shoes! As we had a large garden, hens, ducks and an allotment, we ate well. The allotment provided us with all the veg we needed and the ducks and hens provided us with meat and eggs. My favourite food was my Mam鈥檚 homemade soup, which I miss dearly now. Another bonus was that Mam was 鈥渋n鈥� with the Co-Op manager so I think we tended to get a little more than other families. When the sweet rationing started I was very upset, however as there were little children in the family we gave most of our rations to them. When the rationing ended Dad came home from work with pockets filled to the top with sweets, laid them on the mantle piece and said 鈥淭ake your pick鈥�. I also had a lot of toys, such as dolls and prams, and we had two really good board games. These were 鈥淏agatelle鈥�, a board game with marbles which is similar to the modern 鈥淧inball鈥�. Another of the games was 鈥淓scalado鈥�, this was a windup horse racing game, and we always raced for sweets. Every night at 18:00 we would listen to the news about the war, I guess most families did at this time. The war did not bother me much as I felt safe with Mam. When I was eleven my sisters were born and Mam was in hospital for a month. I had to do all Mam鈥檚 jobs like cooking, cleaning, and sewing, so I did not have much time for games. My social life during the war consisted of going to the pictures and the park with my friends. I also played tennis, netball and went swimming at the baths and river. I did not go to the dances as I was too young. We never visited the doctors during the war as any medication we needed was provided by the school nurses. To be on the safe side Mam paid 3p a week to the doctor鈥檚 panel, as a sort of insurance. The one time the doctor visited us in the war was when my brother got pneumonia, he soon got well though. If we ever got ill we were given aspirin and for sore throats we gargled salty water. We never visited the dentists either and my first visit was when I was 21!
At 8陆 years old 3 of my brothers and I were evacuated to Crosby-on-Eden, about 4 miles away from Carlisle, in Cumbria. It was horrible leaving my family as we had a really close relationship and both my self and Mam cried. My baby brother stayed behind as he was too young to leave and my eldest brother was now working. The people from the village came to chose who they wanted to live with them. My three brothers, myself and my teacher were chosen to live in 鈥淣ewby Grange鈥�, a mansion owned by a market gardener and his wife, now a country hotel. We were allowed to pick whatever we wanted from the trees, this was great as in the town fruit was scarce. He had servants and gardeners who also lived there, some in cottages scattered around the grounds. The house even had its own tennis courts! Mam made us bags to carry our things in however, the very same day that they were finished a delivery man brought us haversacks from Auntie Elsie, a manageress of a big shop. We walked a mile陆 to school and stayed for half the day, the local children were there for the other half. After 6 weeks the Government said parents should pay 6shillings per child per week for our keep. Mam could not afford this for four children so we were brought home. While evacuated I got nits, I cried and wrote a letter to Mam, but I was not allowed to send it. The teacher cleaned my hair with vinegar and a small toothed comb. I liked the teacher who lived with us even though I was still treated as a pupil at home. When we first went to the house I was scared at being in such a large house, in a room of my own. Bats flew past the window and screeched so I told the teacher, she told Mrs Pole, the lady of the house, and she granted me permission to sleep in my brother鈥檚 room. I did not keep in touch with the family as I was only with them for such a short time.
I enjoyed school during the war, my uniform was a blouse and a gymslip. At 11 I attended was the newest school in Britain I was in the group of first pupils to go there. It had its own swimming pool and tennis courts, at school to help war effort we knitted mittens for the soldiers. When the siren went at school we went into the shelter, school shelters were the best as we all went together and sang songs. After Dunkirk, soldiers were billeted in my school, so for four weeks there was no schooling. Many children went to the school to run errands for the soldiers in the hope of a treat of money or sweets. A particular sergeant always sent me for his cigarettes and gave me a 6p each time.
Over the dene where I lived, they housed the barrage balloons, these were sent up in the air to stop planes flying over. We young children used to visit the place and the workmen gave us pieces of broken balloons, it was like silver shiny plastic. With this material I made Mam a shopping bag and a skull type swimming cap for myself. Also during the war I was confirmed into church. Mam spent clothing coupons on material and had my dress made. I was the only one there all in white, as they allowed coloured dresses with the war being on.
Parties, trips, and celebrations were really good fun I my house. Some Sundays we would go on a day trip to the seaside. We would take the train to Tynemouth and spend the day on the beach. We would paddle and play games like cricket. At lunch time we would eat Mam鈥檚 big tray of cooked fresh herring and buttered 鈥渟totty鈥� cakes. We all loved these trips. Another occasion to look forward to, were birthday parties. As there were so many children we had a party for just the family at home. We ate birthday fruit cakes, scones, rhubarb tarts, apple pies, fruit and cream and lots of other things, all of which Mam made. We got presents like dolls, forts, soldiers, chucks, cement cubes which are similar to jacks, and cardboard sweet shops with sweets inside. We played party games like pin the tail on the donkey and listed to music, either on the gramophone, or played by one of the boys on the piano. At Christmas, we decorated the house with lights, balloons and streamers coming from the middle of the ceiling to the edges of the room, we also had a tree which we decorated with baubles and tinsel. In our stockings we received 1 orange, 1 apple, and 10 new pennies. We also got one main present each, like a doll or something similar. On Christmas Eve and Day we went to church 3 times a day and sang carols around the piano. For our Christmas day meal we ate goose. My favourite thing about Christmas was being able to stay up late. At New Year we ate turkey for our main meal, and on New Years Eve we were allowed to stay up to see the New Year in. We also got a small glass of port each. Just before midnight Father would go out of the backdoor and round to the front, he would stand there and wait for the chimes of midnight. He would then knock on the door and greet each of us in turn saying 鈥淗appy New Year鈥�.
Two of my brothers were called up to help in the war, one joined the DLA, Durham Light Infantry, and he got malaria but survived. The other joined the Royal Marines. Later on another brother joined the catering corps at Catterick Barracks. An uncle who was in the Navy was 鈥淏atman鈥� to Prince Philip. I knew about the concentration and death camps and our neighbour鈥檚 boys were prisoners of war in them, thankfully they survived.

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