大象传媒

In 1939 we had recently moved from Scotland to live in Hampshire. I was 7 when war broke out and my sister and I were on holiday in Scotland staying with our aunt. I remember how anxious we were on the preceding days with everyone talking about war and both our parents so far away. On the morning of Sept. 3rd we awoke to find our mother had arrived having travelled by train overnight as she, too, was anxious to be with us. Our uncle took us to the local park and there we heard that war had broken out. There was an open air service and we sang Onward Christian Soldiers. Whenever I hear this hymn I am transported back to Sept.3rd .
With Southampton and Portsmouth not far away from our home there were many dog fights overhead and stray bombs dropped as German planes were chased by our fighters. This was all exciting as well as frightening. When there was an Air raid during the night we were taken from bed and took shelter under our solid dining table. Mummy used to go and put the kettle on to make tea and as she had to light the gas we were terrified that the pilots would see the light and bomb us! Later in the war, V 1 bombs which were targeted on London, were landing in our area and this was terrifying, we would hear the engine cut out and wait for the explosion. During this period my sister and I slept under the stairs with our parents in the passage beside us. We were fortunate but the mother of one of our school friends was killed in a daytime raid.
For a short time we had a Land Girl billeted on us. At other times we had many Scottish visitors, mostly in the services posted to our area, mother was a member of the WVS and did shifts at the Canteen for servicemen and she invariably befriended the Scottish boys and invited them home. Later in the war we had American troops stationed near us, my parents made friends with some of the officers who played golf at their Club. The Officers brought a young Private to play golf with them, he was a golf professional in civilian life. My mother befriended him and he taught my sister and me to play golf and cut clubs down for us to use. We loved him and our family was devastated when we heard that he had been killed. Mummy corresponded with his family in America for years.
Father was in the Home Guard and I remember the night we had incendiary bombs dropped all around us, he had to go on duty and we were taken to our neighbours by mummy. We were very frightened and I was most upset because I had left my precious doll behind in the house having promised her she would always come with me if we had to get out!!! The night of the threatened invasion was another time we were very frightened, the Church bells rang the alarm for a threatened invasion and daddy had to go on H.G duty.
For the last years of the war we travelled to school by train, some days the train didn't arrive and we had an unexpected day off which we enjoyed! Our school was shared by a girls school from Portsmouth and we had restricted use of classrooms. We had some afternoons free but had to go to school on Saturday mornings.
Living in the country and being self-sufficient in vegetables from the garden and our own hens meant life was not too hard for us but I often wonder how our mother coped with the catering for all our friends and visitors, in retrospect I now appreciate what she did because everyone was welcomed to our home.

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