大象传媒

Story told to Christine Barker at the VE Day Celebrations in Beverley 2005

I was born in Hull in 1936, so I was three when the war broke out in 1939, we lived in Willerby. I still have my identity card, which was an easy set of numbers and letter taught to me by my mother. This was so if I got lost and was found I could be traced.

I was never evacuated anywhere, my father was over 40 so was not called to do National Service. He was in the Civil Defence Core better known as the Home Guard. My uncle, who was seven years younger than my father was called up which was ironic as he was very gentle and not suited really whereas my father was adventurous and sporty.

As a child you don鈥檛 realise how serious it is when you grew up in it. You never got a nights sleep in Hull because of the noise of the planes going over and the bombs but you learnt to lie in a hay field and watch the planes fly over. If they were ours we鈥檇 lie there watching, but if we thought they were the enemy we鈥檇 run home quickly.

The children knew on the grapevine in a childish way what was happening but it wasn鈥檛 the kind of horror it must have been. As I was only three when it started it was just the norm.

We had a shelter in the back room it replaced the dining room table; it was made of iron and had meshing. We slept in it at night when my father went fire spotting in Kirk Ella. We used to play table tennis on the top of this shelter.

My mum was a teacher so she was in a reserved occupation so she was at home with me, and so was my dad, which was very lucky for me.

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