大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People's War site by a volunteer from 大象传媒 Radio Suffolk on behalf of David Scott and has been added to the site with his permission. Mr Scott fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

I was seven years old when war broke out. My school was closed as part of government policy to disperse the population (as were cinemas, halls, etc.) and we were taught at home in groups of eight to ten. Teaching only went on for a third of the day as each teacher was allocated three homes to visit on a daily basis.

I was meant to go to Canada and had my medical. However, the government withdrew convoy protection and one of the boats (鈥淏enares鈥�?) was torpedoed 鈥� so my trip was off.

In the Autumn of 1939 I was sent to Yorkshire, to live with my aunt in the small mining village of Crofton. It was a familiar place for me and I went to a school in Sharleston, near Wakefield, where I was the only evacuee but I soon settled in.

My father, who was in the RAF, operated barrage balloons, mainly around London. My mother worked in a bank 鈥� sometimes she had to do fire watching and in the holidays I often went with her.

In 1942 I returned to London. I won a scholarship to Bancroft鈥檚 school where, at ten years old, I became a boarder. My father was now working in the Orkneys (he complained that it was too windy there to put up balloons). I remember the shelters in the school cellars and our sleep was often disrupted at night. I began to recognise the sounds of the doodlebugs. It was particularly alarming when the engines stopped and we knew that a bomb was about to drop.

Back home in Ilford, we had a special indoor shelter, a 鈥楳orrison鈥� shelter, that consisted of a sheet of steel with each corner made up of girders. These proved to be very effective protection when a house fell in.

As soon as the war ended in Europe there was a general election. I remember our local member of parliament was Winston Churchill and he spoke at our school. I also remember a concert, Aid to China, in 1942/43, and the guest of honour was Madam Chiang Kai-Shek.

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