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SIX MONTHS OLD AT START OF WAR

I was born virtually at a time when the country was at war, so I never knew that there was another way of life. I was 6 months old when war broke out.

LIVED IN SIDCUP

I was born in Sidcup, Kent and was the second child. My brother Ron was nearly 3 years older than me.

A WAY OF LIFE

My war memories are very fragmented. At some time or another we had a huge brick air-raid shelter built. It was built with light coloured bricks and had a flat roof - all of it was constructed with re-enforced concrete. Inside were 3 bunk beds on each side of the door. This is where we slept. We had soldiers billeted with us and they slept in there as well.

The shelter stayed put for years after the war and was used as a workshop by my father. One day I will find out why we had an air-raid shelter like this as opposed to an Anderson or Morrison type.

FATHER BASED AT CHATHAM ATTACHED TO NAVY

My father was away from home during the war. I found out in later years that he was ‘attached’ to the Navy and based at Chatham, but I never did find out exactly what his role was. He could have been a spy for all I know, but I suspect he was doing clerical work, probably to do with pay. He went to Ceylon ‘Sri Lanka’ and Simonstown in South Africa. But he must have been home a few times as 2 sisters were born after me and before the end of the war. After he died a few years ago I found an ID card giving his address as Jeyes Street in Chatham.

V II ROCKETS

Everyone who lived during the war can recount their experiences of VI or VII rockets. These rockets used to have an engine that enabled you to hear them approaching. Then the engine would cut and you waited to hear the explosion as the rocket fell to the ground. As I said before, to me this was a way of life and the only memorable one to me was one that didn’t explode on impact!

BROTHER CAUGHT IN BOMBED HOUSE

Many children were evacuated at the start of the war but we were too young then. This all changed as time went by and the defining moment that prompted us to be sent away was when my mother caught my brother and friends combing through a house that had been bombed. It was just along the road from us.

SO WE WERE EVACUATED TO LEEDS

My grandmother took my next sister along the line to Leicester and my brother and I went to Leeds (the one in the Midlands).

CANNOT REMEMBER TRAIN - TAKEN OFF BUS

I cannot remember the train journey, but we must have been carrying our gas masks and wearing labels as we see in the old films. But I do remember being on a bus and waiting for it to depart. I was then very upset as we were called off the bus and didn’t get our bus ride. We finished up next door to each other in a pair of semis on a hill in Leeds. Once again a few fragmented memories remain. I can picture the snow and all the children having toboggans and playing on the hill. But, I was upset, as our toboggan wasn’t as good as everyone else’s!

Later on we were moved on to live with other families. I can’t recall mine at all but my brother wasn’t happy with his placement apparently, he kept getting into trouble. I believe we were moved as families in general thought that war danger was over in the south.

STARTED SCHOOL

I started school in Leeds. I have visions of iced up loos, enforced sleeps in the afternoon on little camp beds and a disgusting drink which was a mixture or our milk and orange juice allowance.

BROTHER KEPT IN CONTACT

My brother kept in touch with his first family after the war and gave me their address. Years later I dragged my husband to the spot to see what I could see. It was such an eerie feeling as I stood on this hill looking at the houses my brother and myself had lived in. The houses were more modern than I had thought they would be. We spoke to a ‘local’ who remembered the lady who had looked after my brother. Apparently she had only recently died. I took some photos before we left.

RATIONING - HAVING A BOOK

Ration books were a way or life, no big deal to me except for sweets, which were rationed for some years after the war. I can still picture this long queue of children waiting to buy; the queue stretched right-across a very broad pavement at the local shops.

GARDENS

For years our large garden was turned over to growing fruit and vegetables and keeping chickens. I used to hate having the job of mincing up baked bread to mix with meal for the chickens or picturing exactly which chicken we were eating. The last bit can’t have been that bad though as I can still see us four children regularly seated round the table watching my mother gutting one or these poor creatures. Also, to this day my youngest sister and myself just cannot stand eating fruits of the forest - i.e. goose berries, raspberries, blackberries, plums in the main, as we grew so many of them and shredded our hands when we had to pick them. Of course with hindsight my mother did a wonderful job in preserving them or making jam. Inevitably however, they were always served with custard, which I also came to hate. Our poor children didn’t have custard made by me for years, but loved it when they visited my mother, (their nanny,) as she made a huge amount or custard for them in a large blue Tupperware jug.

HISTORY

The history of World War II was a mystery to most of my generation for years as it was too close to be studied in history lessons and our parents wanted to forget it. Even though we had lived through it, we were too young to have even a clue as to what was going on at the time!

I have often wondered if I would have let our children go to strangers in the same circumstances. It has often come up in conversation as my husbands family all stayed together. To add to the discussion though, was the fact that his father stayed at home as he had a ‘reserved’ occupation whereas my father was away abroad for most of the time.

Doris Herlihy

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