大象传媒

Written on behalf of Mrs Young, nee Bowen.

I am a true Londoner. I lived at 19 Fletcher Buildings, at the back of Bow Street Police Station, WC2. All my family worked in Covent Garden Market. My, Dad, sister and me used to go down Holborn tube station to shelter with our bedding each night. As it happened one of the bosses of Elders & Fyffes, the Shipping Offices opposite where we lived, saw us tramping with our bedding and often spoke to my Dad when he was coming home for his breakfast. He said "why don't you shelter here, its a wonderful built shelter, cost a lot of money". It had 5 spotters so it was wonderful to leave our bedding there. But on 11 January 1941 it got a direct hit. My mum, sister and me were dug out of the debris, but my dad was one of the 28 killed. It was a Saturday night but the building burnt till the Tues afternoon. We were taken to Charing Cross Hospital in the Strand. My mum had head injuries, my sister had like a shell shock. We both had cuts and were very bruised. My mum had her life savings stolen. She had the money and jewellry in a holdup bag. They had 2 cranes clearing the debris, but not to find the bodies (my dad's remains weren't found for six weeks)it was to get to the vaults of a bank which was all part ofthe building. To add to all the distress my mum had notice to get out of our home as she owed a weeks rent. We were in hospital.

That wasn't all that happened. In the Sept 1940 my brother, who was a fire officer, was killed fighting a fire at John Lewis in Oxford St. He was 35 the day he was buried and left 3 children. The day after Boxing Day 1940, my brother in law, who was a tram inspector, was killed at New Cross Depot. If there was an air raid too many trams were not to be left in the road. The inspectors had to clear as many as possible and run them in the depot. A land mine came down and poor Tom was taking the last one in. He also left a child. Then a couple of weeks after this happened, it was a strange thing. My mum had one sister and several brothers. Her sister lost the same as my mum. My uncle Tom came out of the shelter when a bomb went off on the other side of the road and killed him. Her sonTommy, who was in the air force was killed and her son in law, an air gunner, was shot down, all in three months. By then we were all wondering who was going to be next.

That's my experience of the war. I was called up, had to go in the ATS and did 3 years. I hope you will understand, I know it was a long time ago but it was something that happened to me.