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I was born in 1930 and was 8 ½ years of age at the outbreak of World War 11. My father was in The East Yorkshire Territorials and worked at the Blackburn Aircraft Factory, otherwise known as Brough Aerodrome. He had volunteered for the Army but was turned down as being unfit. He disputed this and thought the real reason had was turned down was because of the work he was doing. However, he was discharged from the T.A’s so volunteered for the A.R.P.
On one of the blitz nights he was leaving the house when a bomb exploded opposite him, blowing him down the passage into the cupboard under the stairs. The door of this cupboard had been closed at the time but my Dad went straight through it, demolishing it completely. The other wardens noticed he was missing and found him very badly injured. He was taken to Hull Royal Infirmary but the place was also bombed and so he was transported to Sutton Annex (Now known as The Princess Royal Hospital). No beds were available there either and so, after checking with other hospitals, the nearest bed was at Seacroft Hospital in Leeds, were Dad eventually spent a good many weeks recovering.
We lived 9 Cobden Cottages, Kingston Upon Hull at the time. One night during a thunder storm, a barrage balloon nearby was struck by lightening and landed on our house. It burned most of our belongings. The authorities called it an ‘Act of God’ and not war damage. My family, together with hundreds of other families, went into a communal shelter, which was originally the Co-op Jam Factory.
After the big blitz night we came out in the morning to find that everything around us had gone. Mobile good kitchens arrived with food for us. We were then taken to local churches until accommodation was found for us. We were evacuated to Beverley. I was sent to one house, whilst my mother and younger sister went to another.
In 1944 we were back together and living in a house down Northumberland Avenue, Hull. I received a letter saying that I could leave school on the 12th December and start work on the 13th at the local tannery, this was actually before the end of the school term. I had wanted an apprenticeship but was refused and not allowed to leave school to go elsewhere.
When the war ended and men were being demobbed they got their old jobs back and I was dismissed and had to go and find another job.

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