大象传媒

Mr Tony Tiltman Date of Birth 18.4.1926

I was at the General School, and there we had already had to forgo our gardens in the school, and turn them out for trenches for air-raids. I remember that very well. It was our prize garden, which, where we'd won the shield for eleven or twelve years, or thirteen, or something. We only lost it once. That was what happened there. I remember that as if it was yesterday. I can remember us having chicken in the back garden for some time, before we got rid of all them and turned it into a growing area. We used to grow vegetables.

My father worked as a wood turner all his life, barring his First World War service and he retired after fifty one years with the same company. Edwardses as was, in Gundry Lane. He was on short time prior to the war, and immediately before war broke out camouflage and stuff started coming, and the firm got bigger orders, and he managed to get his full hours in, for the pay was really poor. I think my father, when the war broke out, was earning about thirty eight shillings a week. And out of that my mother used to have to pay a third, a quarter of that for rent. I think it was about eight or ten shillings a week, for a small little house we had in East Street.
We we a family of four. Three brothers and a sister.

I never had many sweets at the best of times. No. I can remember a situation pertaining to that. It was a time when money was very short and I hadn't had a penny to spend on sweets for weeks and weeks. And I took a penny out of my mother's purse, and went to the front door, and couldn't go any further. I had to go back and put it back again.

When the air raid came over I'd been sent down to town by my mother to do some shopping. ... I was there outsdie the old Post Office when the plane came, when the - er - bomb was dropped. And I dived ... and I knew the plane because I was in the ATC at the time and I knew the plane, so I dived under the seat that was outside the old Post Office. And the glass from Frost's window came across and splattered the chair and the wall. And I saw two people killed. The soldier that was on leave, staying at the 'Star' - the son. The 'Star' I think it was. And he was blown across the other side of the road and was killed by blast, underneath what was Gales Hairdressers. It's not Gales now, but it was then. And a lady who was just coming up through the town by the traffic lights, Mrs Cast. She'd just been in the Post Office to post a letter to her son, and she was killed. That's Keith Cast, Cast, the decorators, used to be in East Street. After that I stayed in town helping to clear up, though Mother wasn't very pleased when I told her what I did, but what could you do? You had to help out, and that's what I done, helped to clear up the aftermath.

I used to go the the Lyric because that's where the films I wanted to see - things like Buck Jones and things like that. I remember that. And I remember of course there was a baker opposite the Lyric Cinema, and there was a loaf of bread they used to make called Helium, 'cos in the cinema you had, if you were in the front, you had to look up like that (Looks steeply upwards), And would come out with a bit of a headache. But once I'd had two or three slices of this bread I felt a lot better!

We used to take part in anything that was organised by the school, but that's about the only thing. But I was, before I was in the ATC I used to be with the First Aid. I was a First Aid assistant with Dr. Arnett and we used to have our area behind what used to be the Youth Hostel down the end here, what's now Pam's Emporium. That bused to be the area where we used to do all the training.

And I used to be a boy singer and I used to go out on the shows in various parts, and we had a chap who organised the shows. And I then I could play the violin, but I can't any more. I saw the Americans. We used to go, when they were at Walditch, when the coloured soldiers were there. We put a show on for them. They made very good doughnuts! The ring ones. Very nice they were!

There was always disagreement between the American and the British soldiers. Because they always had more money and they seemed to pull the girls more. And they could get special things from America, like stockings, And the girls used to
fall for that.

And I remember seeing King George VI when he came to Bridport to visit the West Kents for a very brief session.

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