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I was 16 when war broke out and just started work in the civil service. I volunteered for civil defense work and was sent to Lewisham to work in the centre receiving telephone calls of air raids. I was then without a home as my family has dispersed. My father had a breakdown and went to Wales , my mother took my young sister to the Midlands and my 3 brothers at war. I stayed with a friend in New Cross for a few weeks where we endured the awful nightly air raids spending nights in a dug out and working during the day.

I was transferred to Cornwall House Waterloo still involved in Civil Defense, then on to the ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ Office Whitehall opposite the Cenatalph in those days. Our worl was in the basement where the home security communique was prepared for the ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ nightly broadcast. Following that job I had a very interesting job where I received teleprinter messages from fighter command Stanmore re the activity of enemy air raids. I had to place coloured discs on a map showing where enemy aircraft were approaching. The personnel in charge could come in and at a glance see where the bombing was and which areas where being targeted. It was an exciting job and one evening Winston Churchill visited but unluckily I was off duty that evening. However, I was on duty the evening the City was on fire and Whitehall was a blaze of red and the policeman on duty said the pavement was so hot you could fry and egg on it!

Meanwhile, I had been moving from lodgings to lodgings because they were all temporary. It was most unsettling mostly because at 16 my father dictated at what time I should be in at night...even from afar. I eventually ended up in a small room in Warwick Square Victoria that took most of my salary. I did not meet any of the other inhabitiants except during an air raid when we would be thrown together in the basement. I often thought I would die amongst strangers.

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