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EXAMS IN WARTIME

In the summer of 1944 I was a sixth former at a girls school in Fulham, London. A small form, we were in the process of taking Higher Schools Certificate (now A Levels).

After five years of war in the capital, we were used to frequent air-raid warnings and, indeed while at school, to going down into the brick-built shelter at any time of the day. We were rather dismayed, however, to hear that, so as not to be uprooted during an exam, we were to be installed in the shelter at the beginning of the exam time whether or not there had been a warning.

The shelter was rigged out like an exam room with chairs spaced well apart. On one particular day I was due to take a European History paper and, true enough, a raid began very soon. We actually felt quite safe in our shelter and tried to carry on as normal despite intermittent crashes , bangs and bumps. After all, hadn’t we already lost our hockey-pitch to the Germans ? Did they want our air-raid shelter too?

What we were not expecting was a sudden and furious thunder-storm which came along to join in the fun. More bangs, crashes and the sound of tempestuous rain and then the wooden door of the shelter burst open and rain water poured down the steps. Somehow the invigilator managed to close the door but by that time we had rather wet feet. Regulations had it that we had to stay put and finish the paper.

We all passed – and no counselling was ever offered to us !!

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