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This story has been submitted to the People鈥檚 War website by a volunteer from Lincoln CSV Action Desk and added to the site on behalf of members of the Old Uffingtonians Association, which is the ex-pupils of Willesdon County Grammar School, with their permission. In this case the author is Edward Brown. The association fully understands the site鈥檚 terms and conditions.

1944-45 was the time of the "V-weapons" and for the first time since 1940-41 the dangers now came during the day in addition to those of the night that we had endured for so long. Gone were the times when we were able to come to school with excited tales of the noisy, sleepless night before but with the likelihood of an undisturbed school day before us. Now the routine of the school began to be seriously disrupted. I believe that Kilburn Grammar School had been damaged and for some time we shared our school with them, each attending half a day. Surprisingly, this curtailment of the school day caused us somewhat ungenerous irritation, I recall. Obviously the commencement of this resumed daylight attack was of concern to the School and although there was no talk this late in the war of evacuation, as far as I remember, but certain safety measures were taken. I recall Mr. Wallis coming into our class to inform us of these and in his usual gentle way to reassure. Then, as I recollect, distinctly flimsy blast walls of breeze blocks were built at the entrances to the main hall and we were given instructions to assemble in the adjoining main corridor if a raid warning was received. It was a mighty crush as I remember and I clearly recall how dark these new walls made that corridor, lending a somewhat Dante-esque to this bizarre intrusion on what little was left of the school routine.

I well remember the times when flying-bombs fell on Queens Park station and on the edge of King Edward's park in All Souls Avenue, both with serious loss of life. I was at home when the latter incident occurred and although a mile away the explosion raised a dense fog of dust in the house. This produced within me a strange and new sense of unease. Many bombs had fallen in the borough but one that exploded behind the Odeon cinema in Craven Park killed one of the school's girls and some of her family and this, too, raised new-found feelings of concern. Perhaps we were now beginning to lose our schoolboy hilarity of only two years previously.

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