´óÏó´«Ã½

My strongest recollection of WW2 is the amount of California Syrup of Figs I was made to consume, as my mother was convinced it cured everything; also Liquifruita — it put me off garlic for life. My mother, sister and I were evacuated to a farm in Haddenham, Bucks., and had to sleep upstairs in a barn. After six weeks we went back to s.e. London as it was riddled with fleas. I realise now that 60% of evacuees returned. The school in Lewisham, in Sandhurst Road was bombed by a daylight raider. I could have attended either of the two local schools — I was lucky my parents chose the right one! My sister had not quite started school yet.
Later in the war we played on bomb sites, although the gas was still on in some houses. We lay in bed and listened to the V2 bombs coming over and hearing their engines cut out, I lay there thinking, ‘Please God, not me’.
If my mother got hold of a turnip she would bore a hole in it and put some sugar in it, and leave it over night. It would turn into a liquid which my sister and I had to drink as my mother was sure it gave us all the vitamins we needed.
We had an air-raid shelter in the garden but there was a hill outside and all the water ran into the shelter and by the time we had baled it out it needed emptying again.
My father was in a ‘Reserved Occupation’ in Post Office Transport. He volunteered for the RAF but during his preliminary tests at Uxbridge, the police arrived and told him he was needed in the Post Office. He took RADAR to test sites around the country and later he was attached to the Government Propaganda Film Unit. His father had been in the Post Office and had gone into the Army in 1914 and was killed in 1915 in the Great War. He was awarded the DCM and because of this his son (my father) was guaranteed a place in the Post Office.
My sister, mother and I were evacuated again to a distant aunt’s near Nottingham, but we had to be out of her house by 8.50 in the morning and were not allowed to return until 6 p.m. I had to go up a very steep hill to school, and as I was suffering with boils on my legs I was not very happy about his. We went back to London. There was a brick built large public air raid shelter in the road but I do not remember using it. We had a large old fashioned house with a space underneath into which you could crawl.
I remember the Victory celebrations after the war, which seemed to go on for days. I remember sandwiches and being given a two-shilling piece. We had large static water tanks about 6 feet deep near us, and when they were drained after the war we used to go there to collect frogs and catch sticklebacks

© Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.