´óÏó´«Ã½

LODGER DEMANDED CANNED GRAPEFRUIT FOR BREAKFAST!

At the outbreak of war I was four and a half years old and living in Bromsgrove with my parents. Dad being a policeman was kept busy during the war and Mother had lodgers from the India Office. As it was in those days, I recall being about 6 years old and one particular lodger wanting canned grapefruit for breakfast each morning, which was not easily available.

An Aunt of mine also came to stay, having suffered what we would now know to be a nervous breakdown, but thankfully she recovered.

I attended Flinstall School as a young boy, but missed eighteen months of education due to chronic asthma.

My Father managed to find the funds to send me to a private school where I was able to catch up on my work. In 1945 I passed the entrance examination for the Kings School in Worcester, where I went as a day pupil.

I missed my Father when he was away on various police duties, such as going to Coventry to assist when the city was so badly bombed. He also became a voluntary ambulance driver, driving a converted Austin 20 limousine, and a Canadian Chevrolet. He also helped on various local farms harvesting and fruit picking.

When my asthma was bad, Father took me to Smallheath in Birmingham to be treated by a Dr Eades. I found it a sad sight, travelling to Birmingham, as there were several bomb sites, and often water mains were burst and flooding the streets. The mains were kept above ground level so they could be repaired quickly.

I don’t remember much about the food I had, but know that onions were quite a delicacy.

We used to have a ‘Tank Week’, whereby every citizen was expected to contribute money to buy tanks which was then named after a town, and in our case it was something like ‘The Spirit of Bromsgrove.’

I think it was a little after the war that Goerings Mercedes Benz bullet proof car was put on show, after his capture, and I remember seeing it when it was brought to our locality.

Never knowing anything different from wartime, I remember asking my Mother what the newspapers would print now the war was over!

This story was submitted to the People’s War site by June Woodhouse of the CSV Action Desk at ´óÏó´«Ã½ Hereford and Worcester on behalf of Michael Wall and has been added to the site with his permission. The author fully understands the site’s terms and conditions

© Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.