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In 1939 the spring, I passed a scholarship for Wisbech Grammar School. I was at Newton School waiting to start but when I got to the Grammar I found we were only having half days. This was because the Stationers’ School in London had been evacuated there and we needed to share the building. We also had to attend on Saturday mornings and sport on some Wednesday afternoons.

When we got there, we found the cycle shed had been converted into an air raid shelter. We had a few air raid warnings and were sent home and one or two actual air raids. When I was 14 I joined the school Army Cadet Corps - which was better than lessons. We went to camp a few times, at Babraham Park near Cambridge.

About 1943 the Stationers went home because the bombing of London had mostly stopped. We took our school certificates in 1945 and our results were above average despite only half-time lessons.

I left school at the end of 1944 and went to work for the Admiralty Signals Establishment — we went to college in Oldham, then onto a converted cotton mill in Yorkshire. The war in Europe ended while I was at Oldham so there were big celebrations - bonfires in the park, dancing, games for the children and some for the adults.

The war in Japan and the Far East ended while I was at Halifax but there were no big celebrations for that — just a day off, I think.

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