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I was 12 when the war started. I used to go to the Church every Sunday because I was in the Guides, and I remember the day the war officially started in England, because the sirens went off and we were told we had to get out of the church and go home. We came out of the church and were met with a strange sight: there was an air-raid warden in the street with a gas mask on. Shortly after the sirens went and everything went back to normal.

I lived near Westoe in South Shields; one night that stands apart from the others was when there was a terrible bombing in our neighbourhood. All the surrounding streets were hit badly - our front room windows were smashed in and a lot of people were killed. These included neighbours I had grown up with. I remember very clearly how terrible I felt. There was one seaman who lived on our street who had come home on leave on that particular night, and was killed in the blast. That was so tragic. We were so lucky to survive. A bomb shelter made of bricks had been built in our backyard which we went into during the air-raids. When there was an air-raid you were warned by a siren, and if the siren went off after midnight and the raid lasted for more than an hour after that, there was no school the next day because you had lost sleep. As a child it I thought it was great when that happened, but afterwards I realised it was damaging to my education as we missed so many days because of air-raids. I was at Westoe school and it was shut down during the war so that it could be used for army training, so we had to share with another school. We missed so many lessons, it was a terrible disruption to my education and I certainly was not thankful for it when I was old enough to think about these things.

I remember rationing: as a child I was very fond of bananas, but from the beginning of the war right until the end you never saw one. Oranges too. You needed to get coupons for sweets — sweets were such a luxury. I do not know how my mother managed to put our dinner on the table, as the rationings you were given for the week were so small, for example she would have to create a meal for the whole family out of one small tin of corned beef. You could never get boiled ham or anything like that. All food was rationed until well after the war.

Another night which stands out in my memory: I was down at the picture house by Chichester with my friends when bombs were dropped at the back of the cinema and the doors were blown in. We had to vacate the cinema and go home quickly. We were only children so you can imagine how terrifying it was.

During the war it was forbidden to have any light showing anywhere at night. My mother had these big thick sheets to block out the light. The whole town was plunged into darkness making it very difficult to get home if you were out.

My father was a sea-farer and during the war his ship was bombed. He had to jump into the water and swim to the life-boat and when he got home he became very ill and never went to sea again.

At the end of the war there were parties on every street, and everyone brought out food and cakes even though no-one had much food in their house, and the kids would dress up and dance. We had fun but the war had changed everyone and you could not really be the way you were before. I feel like I lost all my teenage years — that crucial period of growing up could not be normal for me. It was a dreadful time. But everybody was the same, you just had to get on with it. We were all in it together.

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