大象传媒

FAMILY: I'm the youngest of six and some of my brothers and sisters went into the Army. I did miss some of my siblings but because I was the youngest I didn't have a strong connection with them. We didn't have any evacuees living with us but some lived in our street and nearby.

MY STORY: When war broke out I was ten years old, at junior school and I was living in Luton. Because of the number of evacuees living in Luton, my junior school was split ( morning and afternoon ). I would sometimes go into school in the morning one week, then the next week I would go in the afternoon. At home I can remember the wireless on the sideboard, my mother, father and brother listening to it. Because I was only ten I didn't really know the significance of it but as I grew up it became more obvious. I can also remember sleeping in the Anderson shelters with half above and half below the ground, with the wooden bunks inside. When we had to go into the shelters it was a bit scary but it was also exciting. I can also remember at school, going into their air raid shelters and having to queue up for your gas mask. It was a strange world then. Back home, they lit pots in our street and the smoke would rise and black out the sky. This would hide us from the bombers.

WORK: My first job was in a factory. One day a doodle bug came flying overhead and we heard the noise before we saw it. We counted to sixty and then it exploded in the factory opposite us. When it exploded, the windows in our factory moved but did not smash as they had been taped up. Lots of people died but we were lucky.....

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