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This story was submitted to the Peoples War site by Pat Bullock of Shropshire Libraries on behalf of Laura Matlock and has been added to the site with her permission. She fully understands the sites terms and conditions.

My first memory was just before they declared war. My mother with five of her youngest children (myself included) had to go to the local school to be fitted with our gas masks, which you had to have with you everywhere you went. It folded down into a box which you made a cover for then wore over your shoulder like a handbag.

You could also have an Anderson shelter. It was a small shed made of sections of corrugated metal. You had to dig a big deep hole in the garden and build the shelter up yourself. Then you covered the top as if it were a garden. You were supposed to go in these when the sirens went.

My dad was too old to join the army so he joined the LDV, Local Defence Volunteers.

My mum took an evacuee in. He lived with us for a couple of years. I can remember him now. His name was Billy and he was from London, he was six years old and his mum only came once or twice to see him.

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