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My uncle was called ted kington and he was a real character. At the start of the war he realised that things would become short so he took all his savings out of the bank and bought whisky. He put all his savings into buying this whisky whilst it was still available and the normal price.

He put it in the cellar and the idea was he’d sell it on the black market when it became short. This was a great idea until the bombing started. When they started falling he panicked worried that his investment would end up in pieces in the cellar. So he sold it but not at any great marked up price because it wasn’t scarce by the time uncle lost his nerve and decided to sell his stocks. It was long before the price went up which of course it did as the war went on and whisky became rarer. He always talked about this and went on about it being a big regret that he’d lost his nerve.

I can also remember a grandfather who worked on the shipyards in Newcastle and he came home with some paint from the shipyards to decorate the house. But it was that paint that didn’t dry and he spent the rest of the war trying to get it off the walls.

This story was submitted to the People's war website by Liz Goddard on behalf of John McLurgh who fully understands the site's terms and conditions

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