大象传媒

During the war I lived in Reading with my parents sister and brother. It was a reception area and many evacuee children were being placed with families. My father was a doctor and, with patients coming to the house, decided it was better to have adults (such as teachers and students), rather than children staying with us. We had to have one adult for every room in the house, except the bathroom and kitchen.

During the air raid (not many bombs fell in Reading) we all slept downstairs in the lounge, dining room, consulting room, hall and pantry. My sister and I slept in a bunk bed in the pantry with my brother on a small bed by the sink. Some of the beds had to be made up each evening.

Night after night we heard the German planes flying on their way to bomb towns in the midlands. The sound of the German planes was different to English ones.

My mother made certain that we children had a full ration of milk each day and so we had three different jugs holding, if I remember correctly, half a pint of milk. We all had our butter ration put out weekly on different dishes. Keeping hens and ducks in the garden helped with catering. My father had a shoot so the odd rabbit or pheasant helped with the amount of meat we were allowed week by week.

We had of course to carry our gas masks everywhere, at school and in the playground. We practiced putting them on at school.

Our house was nearly opposite Wantage Hall (a hall of residence for Reading University). It had been taken over by the RAF. After 9pm one evening the commanding officer phined my father and asked him to come and collect one of his lady or girl friends! We went over to find Paddy, our golden retriever waiting for him! Her masters name and home number must have been on her collar. The commanding officer said that he had arrived on guard duty and heard rustling in the bushes and caled out 'HALT, who goes there?' three times and then out walked Paddy.

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