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Fragments of the War — Just about remembered from when I was very little.

From Dr A F Jeans d.o.b. 14/8/1941

This all relates to Cardiff where we lived for the whole time during the War.

I was just four years old in 1945, so what I can remember is very sparse. It is also perhaps informed by memories from just a bit latter when the adults were talking and there were structures and other things left over from the War.

I remember the Anderson shelter in the back garden and I think I can remember sheltering there with my Mum during a daylight air raid.

There were a few things from India about the house but perhaps they came just after the war. The India connection was my mother’s sister (Ceinwen) who was a pianist and served in India with ENSA (“Every Night, Something Awful”). Ceinwen brought back or sent back some interesting little odds and ends.

My mother’s brother was called up to the army and became a cook. Just before D-day, he had a stove blow up on him and damage his hand. I can remember being taken to see him in hospital. He went back to his unit just after D-day and was in the liberation of Belsen. He never talked about it.

I remember two events from the end of the War. It was either VE or VJ day and we walked from my parents’ house to my Great Grandfather’s house through very excited crowds. (My Great Grandfather was in his eighties and he liked to go our with the Fire Watch, though he was too old to serve officially. The family bought him a helmet and we still have it.)

There was great excitement after VJ Day. We had a big street party with a bonfire on which was burned an effigy of Tojo (who had been Minister of War and Prime Minister and was subsequently executed as a war criminal) . There was a lot of resentment against Japan and it took many years to fade.

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