大象传媒

I remember the day that war was declared; I was 7 years old. Everybody was very quiet as they waited for Mr Chamberlain to speak on the radio. I asked my mother what this meant and she explained that we were at war with Germany and that that was why my dad had gone away. My father was Kenneth Frost and he was a Corporal in the First Battalion of the Cambridgeshire Regiment. At the outbreak of war, this was a regiment in the Terrirtorial Army and at the time war was declared he was stationed in Thetford Forest.
In October 1941, the Regiment sailed for the Far East and I remember saying goodbye to my Dad on Cambridge Railway Station and that he gave me tuppence to get some chocolate out of the machine on the wall. We had a letter from him sent from Cape Town which had a silver leaf on it and he had scratched a message to my Mum. We didn't hear any more from him, but had reports that the men were missing, killed in action and my Mum thought herself a widow for a year. We eventually heard that they were all prisoners of war and had been so since February 1942. We had one card with a printed message that he had signed saying "I am well" and my mother and grandmother were able to send one card, either every fortnight or every month, I can't remember the exact frequency; what I do remember is that they had to take it to Shire Hall and that they took turns to write the card. After he was liberated in August 1945,having spent time on the Burmese Railroad (known as the Railroad of Death)in Thailand, he and his fellow prisoners were not well enough to come home and were sent initially to Broken Hill in Australia to recuperate. I didn't see my dad again until January 11th 1946 when he came to meet me from school at Central School in Cambridge. I only recognised him because my uncle was with him and I was very upset but very happy at the same time to see him safely returned.
Meanwhile back in Cambridge, life went on and we learnt to cope with being at war. In 1942 I remember my brother Neil and I had the measles. When we recovered, we went to visit my Aunt Lily who lived in Adam and Eve Street. We walked over Mill Road Bridge and then acroos Petersfield when I saw a plane going overhead. I said to my Mum "It's a German plane!" and she didn't believe me, but I had recognised the big black cross on the side of the aircraft. A few minutes later, we heard a big explosion and Mill Road Bridge had been bombed: we had walked across it just a few minutes before!! As I recall, only three houses were hit and one person killed.
In 1943, I passed a scholarship to go to the Central School. I remember that the Headmistress, Miss Irvine, was very kind to me because I was one of the few girls whose Dad was a prisoner of war. Most of my classmates fathers' were in reserved occupations. In particular, if there were any treats in the way of tickets for the theatre or anything in the Guildhall, she would slip a couple my way for me and my brother. Central School was strictly divided: girls in one place and boys in another and never the twain should meet!! and I remember that even though the war was on the rules and regulations about school uniform were never relaxed.
Many things were very difficult to come by during wartime and I remember a friend's brother, who was in the Navy, coming home on leave and bringing a bunch of bananas. However, by the time he arrived home, they were completely black and inedible.
I also remember the influx of American service personnel who came to Cambridge about a year after Pearl Harbour. They used to give us gum and sweets; I remember the catchphrase " Got any gum chum" which we used to use when we saw them, despite having been forbidden to do so by my mum.
Cambridge also was home to a prisoner of war camp in Trumpington. Both German and Italian prisoners were housed there and I remember them coming into Cambridge. They wore a kind of uniform with squares and circles on the back and the legs and they were allowed into town towards the end of the war. They worked on the farms. After the war they turned this camp into a camp for displaced persons, both Polish and German which caused considerable friction as you might imagine!!
Apart from the bomb on Mill Road and one raid on Vicarage Terrace and another on Hills Road, we were relatively untouched by the war in Cambridge, apart from the food shortages that everybody had to endure. However, the memories are still very vivid even after all this time.

漏 Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.