大象传媒

I was born well away from London (In Scotland) in Jan 1941, but, thinking the blitz was over, my mother took me back to Fulham in April 1941. My Dad was in a reserved occupation - making aircraft parts - but served in the Home Guard, mostly guarding the reservoir at Mortlake, or perhaps the Brewery! I have very few memories of the war of course, but I do remember being held at the window by my Mum, looking out for my Dad to return home - I remember the searchlights. I also have early memories of the sound of Aero engines as OUR bombers droned overhead later in the war- very soporific. Living on a main road I saw military vehicles passing and on one occasion a long convoy. Thinking back it could easily have been in the build up to D-day. I've written about the local V1 bomb in the Archive. I CAN remember being told that the war was finally over in 1945. Mum had taken me to the Pictures with her one afternoon. We were walking home from the Bus stop (down Kingwood Road) and it was a bright summer day. There seemed to be a lot of activity and my Mum asked a young girl (about ten years old) what was going on. I remember her skipping on the spot and singing "the war's over the war's over". My Mum said "only the Germans love" and she replied "No the Japs too!" One final war related memory I have jumps to 1951 when my cousin's brother-in- law came home from a Japanese prisoner camp. He had been a civilian - a steward on one of the Liners caught in Singapore or Hong Kong - and had spent the rest of the war in captivity. He wasn't fit enough to come home till 1951. I remember that he used to sit on the floor in a corner of one my aunt's rooms. He never spoke that I can remember and I believe he never slept in a bed again. He was as thin as a rail and died suddenly soon after he came home.

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