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My mother told me stories, when they were kids they used to go out into the garden and see the Spitfires having the dog-fights, and they used to be fascinated. And every-so-often when they heard the Doodlebugs go over, because they wouldn’t go in the shelter, they used to wait for it to go silent. They didn’t get into the shelter because there were so many false alarms, and they were not far from the Chatham Dockyard which was one of the main targets, and in the end, they didn’t want to do it, what was going to happen would happen, and if they survived it, then they survived it.

My Grandmother actually came up to London because my mother, her brother, and her other siblings were evacuated during the war, but my uncle didn’t like it. So she picked them up, and got them back up to London while there was a raid on. That’s one thing my Mum always remembers is the bombs going off and her mothers determination to get them back home. She was determined to get them all home. She wasn’t going to be stopped by the war.

The children were in Wales… all over the place, they were not kept together as brother and sister, but of course there were so many children that they had to go to so many places, and my mother can even remember the label with the name on, but she enjoyed it. My actual grandmother was from Bow Belles, that’s where she came from, and that’s why she knew London so well. I just think it was the true Brit spirit, she wanted to get them all home, and that was it!

My mother would have loved to have come to these celebrations, but she cant stand to long periods now, but she’s watching on the TV tonight. On VE day, she celebrated quite well in Chatham. She said it was all servicemen then, you had every part, the Matlows, the RAF, everyone was there, soldiers… They had two big barracks, as then, and the all just came out, everyone just spilled out into the streets, and she said it was absolutely fantastic. There was jubilation… It was over.

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