大象传媒

EVACUATION FROM LEEDS ON 1st September 1939

By Mary Senior (nee Griffiths).

CHAPTER 1

During the first half of 1939, we were issued with gas masks in small cardboard boxes measuring approximately 9" X 6" X 6", a piece of string was knotted to each side enabling it to be carried over the shoulder and across the back. We were repeatedly informed by the Head Mistress, that although they were certain war was unlikely, not even, in her opinion, a remote possibility, the government required us be fully prepared, 'just in case'.
Very soon, gas masks cases were being manufactured in all shapes and in an array of various materials, by some clothing factories around Leeds. These creations were in different colours and were fashioned to resemble handbags, or the latest, more popular shoulder bags.
Being a child, I couldn't afford one so had to be content with the cardboard box. This soon showed signs of wear and tear as we children twirled them around our heads and bodies on the string, banging them into each other on our way to and from school. The thought that we may damage them and make them ineffective didn鈥檛 even cross our minds. Gas masks were manufactured in different sizes, some featuring a Micky Mouse, hoping to make them into a fun toy for toddlers to wear. Others were cumbersome for small babies and enclosed them completely. Parent or guardian, having to operate a pump to allow the baby to breath clean air.
At school, we were all instructed on how to use them and were made to practice wearing them for a short period every day.
Air raid shelters were being erected; mostly they were made from corrugated iron and shaped like a tunnel, named Anderson Shelters, after Sir John Anderson, the MP. After a downpour of rain, more often than not, they became flooded and so had to be baled out. Duckboards were a must in the shelters as the ground was often flooded or muddy. Talented D I Y people tried to make their efforts quite cosy. Installing bunk beds, table, chairs, a covered bucket, (to use as a commode), a pickaxe, to hack their way out if it became necessary and a biscuit tin, holding candles and matches. People were encouraged to build their own shelters, if they were lucky enough to own a garden or an allotment; otherwise, large, communal shelters were built for the public to be herded into.
Our house was 18, Willow Terrace Road, Leeds 1. This was sited, where the car park of the Leeds Playhouse is now situated. We were directly opposite the front gate of the Yorkshire College of Housecraft, quite near to the university. Our house was a large, four storied, Victorian residence, and the middle one of three. The basement kitchen still held a row of brass bells to summon the maids and the upstairs front lounge had a 'dumb waiter' between the two floors. Six stone steps leading up from the main road reached the front door. The basement entrance, at the back led into a yard, which had a through passage emerging onto the side street.
Mother made our shelter under the stone basement staircase, which was a passage leading into the pantry. It was long, narrow, dark and very cold but she placed make do mattresses on the stone floor and we practised sitting astride each other as in a rowing boat. We were later to use this shelter when Leeds was bombed.

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