大象传媒

I was born on the Isle of Dogs in 1924 when I was 14, all everyone was talking about was, would there be a war? However in 1939 when the Germans walked into Poland, England declared war on Germany. 1939 passed very quietly. We were delivered Anderson shelters which came in parts to be assembled in back gardens, this made us feel safe should the war hot up which it truly did. At first we slept in the house but we didn't undress so we were ready to run down to the shelter which became pretty tiresome, so we began to go to the shelter at night.

Just as we felt we could revert back to staying in the house, the blitz really hotted up, we were bombed night after night and then came the incendiary bombs which set all the factories alight. By this time the Isle of Dogs was surrounded by a ring of fire 鈥� you could feel the heat. All the family was terrified, we were tired and dirty and never slept 鈥� so one afternoon my father, who was suffering with T.B at that time, got us all together and said 鈥淧ick up a few things, I don鈥檛 know where we are going, but we are getting out of here鈥�. So we packed a bag 鈥� picked up a few bottles of milk and off we all went. We had to get to Greenwich 鈥� the foot tunnel from Millwall was shut 鈥� so we had to go up to the shore and men were taking people across the water in small rowing boats.

Well this is where real story begins, on September 10th (my dad鈥檚 birthday), I think it was New Cross Station we arrived at. My Dad looked up and saw Sevenoaks on the board. 鈥淩ight,鈥� he said 鈥渢hat鈥檚 where we are going鈥�. We sat in the gangway of the train, dirty and no doubt smelly, and drank milk from the bottles. We came to Tubbs Hill station and got off, made for the road and just stood there bewildered, by this time it had got dark and all the commuters were going home to their warm and cosy home, when all at once a gentleman stopped and looked at us, asked a few questions then said 鈥淲ait there I shall go and phone my wife and I will do my best to get you settled for the night鈥�. He took us to a small village, called Seal, and set us down in a pub named 鈥楾he Kentish Drovers鈥�. We must have looked a sight as everyone was staring at us. However the gentleman came back and said he had got us fixed up in a cottage round the corner in Elms Road, the name of the cottage was 鈥淓theldred鈥� and was owned by a lady named Miss Lou Collins. She had two nieces living with her, one named Dorothy, the other Kitty.

On this night the gentleman dropped us on the doorstep and vanished into the night without leaving his name 鈥� so we were never able to thank him. When Lou Collins opened the door, she looked at us and said that the night before she had looked over to London, saw the sky lit up with fire, and prayed for all the people so - God had sent us to her 鈥� she took us in and without us having a wash she took us upstairs to bedrooms with beautiful white linen and feather beds. 鈥淕et in鈥� she said 鈥渁nd sleep well, see you in the morning.鈥� - we were exhausted so we did sleep well. I don鈥檛 think we even undressed.

We stayed for a while, it was really a guest house, I think we paid 7/6d but couldn鈥檛 keep it up and eventually moved to Kemsing. After the war we were able to come back to the house we had left in such a hurry in East Ferry Road.

My father didn鈥檛 come though it all 鈥� he died in 1943 of T.B., which he had had for many years. Thank God the rest of the family survived, my two brothers in the R.A.F also came home.

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