大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War site by a volunteer from Swindon College on behalf of Ann Louth and has been added to the site with her permission. Ann fully understands the site鈥檚 terms and conditions.

I was a school child attending school in Canterbury during the war. During the air raids all the class had to go into the Anderson shelter and the lessons would continue inside the shelter.

I vividly remember one day, having to spend most of the morning in the shelter. We had a very strict teacher 鈥� whom we nicknamed the 鈥渨itch鈥�. The children were trying to learn the 7 times table and I seemed to get stuck on 7 x 7. 鈥淭he witch鈥� made me stand on a bench to recite my seven times table and again I got stuck on 7x7. I just couldn鈥檛 remember any more 鈥� all I could hear was the loud noise of the bombs going off and feeling the vibrations of the ground. I can still hear her shouting at me and asking me why couldn鈥檛 I say my 7 times table!. I tried so many to say it but to no avail. I think in the end the teacher gave up, but remember crying so much.

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