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This story has been submitted to the ´óÏó´«Ã½ People’s War by a volunteer from Lincoln CSV Action Desk on behalf of Barbara Jackson and added to the website with her permission. Mrs Jackson fully understands the site’s terms and conditions.

I was born in 1933 so was a school child during the war and I remember during the heavy bombing raids on Liverpool that after our school finished and we were on our way home we would see lorries — open backed, full of women and children coming from Liverpool to spend the night in our school. We were asked for any spare clothing or bedding for these people. The following morning the people would return to Liverpool to repeat the same thing of leaving their homes if they were left standing, to seek refuge in our school and other schools in the area for many days. It was most upsetting to see these lorries.

The police helped the bombed out people of Liverpool. My father, George Bingham, was a 40 year old policeman in St. Helens Borough Police Force when the war broke out in 1939. He had been a policeman for 16 years having served in the Infantry in the First World War so was too old to join the forces in the Second World War. However, because he was a policeman he was on call 24 hours a day, even on his 1 day off a week.

Liverpool was a different Police Force and was 11 miles from St Helens. During the heavy Liverpool bombing my father went by coach along with many other policemen to Liverpool. He left home at 6am in a morning to go and help the Liverpool police, searching amongst the damage for injured people and trying to re-unite parents and children who often got separated during the heavy raids as they dashed to seek shelter in the air raid shelters. Often they would later find their homes had been demolished and while seeking shelter were sometimes injured by flying debris as a result of the falling bombs.

My father often didn’t return until 8pm. My mother would wait anxiously for his safe return. I was too young to be told all the gruesome details of what he had seen but I know he told my mother and she later told me how upsetting the scenes were particularly where children were concerned as they themselves had five children.

These daily trips to Liverpool for my father went on for quite a long time, all through the Blitz, without any days off, hence we hardly saw him but he always came upstairs on his return to kiss us children ‘good night’. I’m sure he also said a Thank You prayer that we were all safe.

The bombing must have been horrific because we could see all the sky lit up at night — red with the colour of the burning city. We were the lucky ones. My father returned safely and I don’t think all the policemen who were sent out to help Liverpool were as lucky as he was.

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