大象传媒

When war broke out and they started evacuating children from London, my mum didn't want me to leave and said that if we were to die we would die together. There was hardly anyone left - only half a dozen boys. We were schooled at a second hand furniture shop - Hornsbys in Queens Crescent, Kentish Town. The school teacher rounded us up and taught us seated at 1930s dining tables. Other than this we were left to run wild. One day we were roaming around the railway track at Gospel Oak when a railway worker shouted at us to get down - we lay down with our hands over our ears. When we looked up we saw a mushroom of dust from where my home was but on reaching home we found that the bomb had dropped a few houses down on Dickenson Street. It had hit a factory killing quite a few girls who worked there. One of my schoolfriends was at the lookout post on top of the factory (aged 14 and a half). He slid down the factory roof and badly damaged his leg. It had to be amputated which was particularly sad as he was likely to be a great footballer - Highbury scouts were going to put him into the junior team.

In December 1939, aged 14, I had to leave school and go to work. 4 or 5 of us went to the Labour Exchange in Camden Town, and I went into the ATC at Holmes Road. We had our own fuselage and cockpit controls to work on, as well as wood and metal working workshops, drill hall etc. One of the officers must have had a contact at Regents Park Zoo, as we used to go there to get shetland ponies for use in our parades!

One Sunday I was asked to go with 4 other cadets, with our bikes, to Barnes House in Camden Town - secretly. There we picked up and passed on messages to and from other cadet forces. The idea seemed to be that if the 大象传媒 and churches were bombed and the alarm couldn't be sounded that we had been invaded, the boys were in a central place and might be able to get messages through. This went on for about 5 weeks until we had won the Battle of Britain and it seemed unlikely there would be an invasion.

Later I worked at W G Haywards, Hampstead Road, making tank landing craft. After a little while I was made up to charge hand. There were a lot of workers, including Maltese and Gibraltese girls who had been evacuated and accommodated in hotels in Euston Road. One day the Ministry of Supply collected tools that we could do without; they were creating a central tool supply that could be used to ensure no loss of production if there had been an invasion in one part of the country - the tools would have been taken to another part of the country to start up new factories. We had some beautiful tools, lots of them came from America under the 'Lease Lend' scheme, and they also sent food.

Another day I was asked to go down to the Royal Docks to make a repair to one of the landing craft controls. It was the King George V Dock, and was full of landing craft parked side by side - it was amazing! Now it is the site of City Airport. Whilst you were working you paid extra tax called Post War Credits, for which you got certificates. 5-7 years after the war we got this money back on presentation of the certificates.

There were good things about the war, especially wireless. We got the best programmes from America all day and all night - Bing Crosby, Bob Hope, Dorothy Lamour etc. There was lots of laughter to keep morale up. British wireless was always advising us on things to do with air raids, food and saving. I remember the Wilfrid Pickles programme - he went around the villages meeting people. His wife Mabel played the piano. They did a quiz programme and Wilfrid would ask 'Mabel, how much is on the table?' (prize money for the winner). She would reply '3 shillings and sixpence' (approximately 17p in today's money) and the audience would go 'oooh!'.

After the war there was a great shortage of houses. Sometimes elderly people who had been evacuated died, and no one knew who their house belonged to. These houses were requisitioned by Government for returning soldiers. One house was requisitioned by a friend who found that the walls had been painted around the furniture, so you could see exactly where the furniture was supposed to go! Comics joked about someone asking a drowning man where he lived and then asking if they could have his flat!

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