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This story has been added to the People’s War website by Anne Wareing of the Lancashire ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ Guard on behalf of William Waterworth, the story is in his own words.

I normally walked to school with my brothers and my school friends but on this particular occasion I remember my mother was with us. When we got to the village of Roby Mill a group of ladies were stood together. One lady was crying and I asked my mother why she was crying. She told me it was because she had had a telegram telling her that her husband was missing. That was one of my first memories of the war.

I remember all the children practicing marching to the air raid shelter in the schoolyard. The shelter was dark and dank. We always sat in the same places. A few candles were lit to give some light and Miss Goulding and Miss Sims (teachers) would usually get us to sing.

Jesus bids us shine with a pure clear light,
Like a little candle burning in the night,
In this world of darkness so we must shine,
You in your small corner and I in mine.

Another memory is when evacuees came to the village of Roby Mill. When they attended school I couldn’t tell what they were saying. On arriving back home I told my mother and father that there were some foreign children at school. These foreign children turned out to be evacuees from Liverpool. A very different dialect from that of the village of Roby Mill near Wigan.

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