I was nearly 8 years old when WW2 broke out, and lived in North Shields at that time. We moved across to Simonside in South Shields in 1940, because my father,who worked in the Steel Rolling Mill at Jarrow, was unable to get to work during an air-raid warning, as the ferries between North and South Shields were stopped operating at these times.
It was then that I started at St. Simons Infant and Junior School.
I then joined the 22nd South Shields Boy Scouts, where I had some great times throughout the war years.