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When the war started, I was seven years old and lived on the Isle of Dogs. There was a lot of bombing. My family was bombed out and we were evacuated to a slightly safer house in a village in Essex.
Being in the country had its disadvantages! The house had no water — it had to be collected from the well. It had no toilet either. Once a week, my cousin and I had to slop out. When my uncle came at the weekend, he would carry the bucket out. We would put pegs on our noses, dig a hole and the bucket was emptied into it. Then we would carry it back inside the house. Wartime was hard.

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