大象传媒

I was born and brought up in Alexandria, Egypt, and I was there throughout the Second World War.

When I was a little girl I used to go, as many little girls do, to a dancing class run by Mrs. Bruce. Every year Mrs. Bruce used to put on a concert at which we all performed for an audience made up mostly of our parents.

However, during the War there were lots of British servicemen stationed in and around Alexandria, both Army and RAF personnel. All the British ex-pats in Egypt used to invite the servicemen to their homes and do their best to entertain them and Mrs. Bruce used to arrange to take the pupils from her dancing classes to the camps to put on concerts for the men there.

I remember on one occasion being taken to an RAF camp in the desert just outside Alexandria to do a concert there - I was about 6 at the time. After we had finished our show we were given tea by the RAF and then some of the airmen showed us round the camp. A young pilot showed my friend and me round and then he took us to see his aeroplane. It was a Spitfire and he was very proud of it. I remember he lifted me up and sat me in the cockpit of his Spitfire and he said to me "One day you will be able to tell your grandchildren that you sat in the cockpit of a Spitfire."

I was very young at the time, and I did not then really appreciate the significance of that moment, but I have never forgotten it. And I have indeed told my grandchildren that once, during the Second World War, I had the privilege of sitting in the cockpit of a Spitfire.

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