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I was only five when the war started and I can remember the ration books and my dad taking me to buy the weekly sweet ration. We had a Morrison shelter in our front room and an Anderson shelter in the back garden. I can remember when the air raid siren went at night we were bundled into the Morrison shelter. My brother was three years older than me and found it all very exciting. I could feel my mother shaking and my brother used to say that ‘this one is going to get us’.

I can remember coming home from school one day and as I was coming down the hill to our house a German aeroplane was approaching. My mother was screaming at me from the top of the steps so I ran as fast as I could and she grabbed hold of me and threw me into the Morrison shelter. My father was in the home guard and had to walk around the neighbourhood at night to make sure that all the blackout blinds were pulled at the windows. You had to make sure there wasn’t even a gleam of light.

I can remember my mother used to feed us well with the rationing of food. We used to keep chickens and my dad use to preserve the eggs in glass and then would keep them for six to nine months. We had a very small ration of butter and echo margarine. I can remember how excited we where when stork margarine came back.

My mother had to register and go to work in a factory making ammunition which made her hands very sore. My father had a greengrocery shop and an allotment so we always had a good supply of fresh vegetables. I can remember when the war ended we had a street party and I was very excited. However, sadly my best friend’s father was in the army and the last time he came home on leave was before the battle at Dunkirk. He had told his wife he was being sent there and didn’t think he would be coming back. Sadly he didn’t.

I really hated wearing the gas masks as they made you feel very hot and had an awful smell of rubber. My brother and I were very fortunate as we weren’t evacuated but I felt very sorry for those that were as I didn’t want to leave my mum and dad or my brother. I can recall my father digging out the Anderson shelter in the garden as he felt it would be safer than the one in the house. He dug quite deep into the ground and built steps into it and then seats so we could sit and read to take our minds off the air raid.

I can recall when we didn’t have any eggs my mother used to buy egg powder to make scrambled eggs, cakes and omelettes. I know you can still buy the egg powder now.

I do think children today should learn about the war and our granddaughter Catherine was only too pleased to ask us about it when it came up in her school curriculum. It is heartening to see younger people at the festival of remembrance at the Albert Hall, although they can never really experience what it was like, it might help them to understand a little of what our childhood was like.

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