大象传媒

"This story was submitted to the People's War site by Lois and has been added to the website on behalf of Mrs. Richman with her permission and she fully understand the site's terms and conditions"

I was born in 1937 before the outbreak of the Second World War and my sister, Thelma, came along in 1939. My father was an Auxiliary Fireman and as such was required to become a Regular Fireman and to remain in the Fire Brigade in Southampton from 1939 and throughout the war. He was anxious that my mother, my sister and I be sent away from the Blitz on Southampton that he feared would come and, of course, he was proved to be right Two days before the war started we were sent to Surrey from which my mother had come. We went to Farncombe first and then to Chiddingfold. For much of the war we lived in relative peace and, for me, my father was "that man who came some week-ends and always cut my hair!" Dad used to cut hair for the soldiers particularly the Americans waiting to embark for the D Day landings. He was untrained but had a flair for the work. Once I picked up his clippers and ran them up the back of my Teddy's neck crying bitterly that his fur would grow again and being quite unconvinced otherwise. I still have my shorn Teddy!

MY FATHER'S EXPERIENCES

The war was moving nearer to an end when we returned to Southampton in 1943 much to my mother's relief as she did not like being away. Memories for me are mainly of growing up from aged 6 in the Forties and as a teen-ager in the early Fifties. However, there are four incidents which I recall that might be of interest. Two were told to me by my father and two are personal.
One Sunday night in 1940 an incendiary bomb exploded at the back of the Fire Station in the Docks hitting my father full in the face. His eyes, face and hands were spattered with aluminum magnesium (shrapnel) and he was blind for eleven days. This happened on a Sunday night. A colleague, Cecil White, accompanied him to the South Hants Hospital. Standing around were other colleagues, Fred Hurst, Jim Chaffe, Les Brazier and Alec Houghton. He overheard those around quietly speaking and he knew doubts were being expressed if he would ever see again. He was transferred to the Eye Hospital in Bedford Place and there his sight was saved by a brilliant man called Mr Keymes, He did a wonderful job but the shrapnel took years to work out of his skin and I can remember my sister and I spotting the pieces as they came gradually to the surface of his skin.

My father was involved in the great fire that followed the bombing of the big Cold Store in Southampton Docks in 1940. He and a colleague, Ron Rye, became disorientated and virtually "lost" amongst the thick black smoke emanating from the melting butter, lard and margarine. It was a terrifying experience and pure luck that they managed to find their way out

After the war my father continued serving as a full time fireman but these traumatic experiences I believe may have contributed greatly to his being diagnosed by Dr Todd as having Addison's Disease, about which little was known at the time, and still remains a fairly rare disease. When my father was no longer able to climb the turn

PERSONAL EXPERIENCES

My parents lived in Victory Road, Millbrook, Southampton and we had an Anderson shelter in the garden. As Dad was fire fighting at night Mum had to get to the shelter with us on her own. A neighbour, Mrs Adams, kindly suggested Mum take us to her shelter higher up the road where she would have company. One night there was a raid. Mum used to keep her money for rent, food etc. in various small tins and these were all placed in one big handbag. Rather than lose her money and her financial record book she carried the bag with her on these occasions. She always told me to keep close to her as she was carrying my sister in her arms plus the bag. I opened the gate but closed it behind me as I had been taught to do and started to walk up the road. I looked up at the sky and marvelled at the lovely lights some exploding just like fireworks and I was fascinated as I had never seen anything like it before. Little did I realize they were bombs that could kill. Meanwhile, Mum with Thelma and her big bag was struggling to open the gate I had firmly closed and get near me. She had always said that "if we were to "go" she wanted us to "go" together!" In the dark she couldn't move the latch and I think she probably panicked a bit which could have made matters worse. Eventually the gate opened and she rushed to me hugging me close almost angry with me for closing the gate but I knew how much she loved me. I was just six years old.

I attended Freemantle Cof E School in Southampton and when I was about 8 I was walking home from school when the word got round that a Newsagents in Waterhouse Lane which ran along the top of Victory Road had ice-cream for sale! Ice cream, chocolate and bananas were practically unknown to my school friends and me and, in my class, only one person knew that you were supposed to have Easter eggs at Easter. I raced home pleading for a threepenny bit from Mum for a Wall's ice-cream brickette which came wrapped in paper which was removed and the ice-cream placed between two wafers. Thelma and I , with our threepenny bits ran as fast as we could up the hill along the cut and to the shop only to be met by a long queue of children all with the same idea! We lined up and waited patiently and when it got to my turn the man closed the top flap of the freezer and said, "That's it! All gone!" I was devastated! I must say I have made up for it since as I love ice cream to this day!

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