大象传媒

I was 3 years old when the war began and my first memory of this time was in 1940. My father was in the army (Royal Artillery) and I lived with my mother in Burdett Building , Westminster Bridge Road; next door to Lambeth North underground station.
Waterloo Station was not far away and of course this was a major target for enemy bombers.
The people who lived in the buildings, including me, my mother and my grandparents, would shelter each night in one of the basement flats, all of which had not been occupied for some time prior to the war. People soon made themselves at home and devised ways and means of passing the time. Most popular of course was knitting which my mother did a lot of and others would play "Housey-Housey" - better known after the war as "Bingo". Occasionally we would all be entertained by "Old Jack" playing his hammer dulcimer. I never knew his real name but he was always dressed very smartly in black with the old fashioned winged collar and wearing a bowler hat. I remember he wore boots and the sole of one was built up presumably because one leg was shorter than the other.
One night we were listening to Old Jack's musical contribution when the doors flew open and in rushed a couple of Air Raid Wardens.
You see in those days it had been decided that in the event of an ivasion (which would have followed the Blitz) the church bells would have been rung as a warning. Hearing the hammer dulcimer's bell-like tones ringing out had sent the local wardens into a mad panic thinking the invasion had started. The result was that we were never able to hear Jack play again but happily he and the rest of us survived the war and the buildins were pulled down in 1960.

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