ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½

“The school I was at during the war was called Braintcroft School at Neasden, London. In August 1939 I was evacuated to Kettering near Northampton. We had to share the school — the locals went one half of the day and we went the other. We were all sitting around the radio on September 3rd 1939 when war was declared. It was quite a sombre moment, we didn’t expect it — as children, you don’t. My father was in the navy and came home on leave after Dunkirk.

Life hadn’t changed much as a child — we used to scrape the butter paper. We were told we could make puddings with potatoes and sultanas, it was disgusting, but we deserve a definite A for effort. There were posters with Potato Pete on that gave you tips; this was part of digging for victory. I remember rare occasions when I had to queue for oranges and bananas. We tried whale meat, it was a bit rich, and I didn’t like it much. We had tinned fish called snoek from Russia; I guess we used to make fish cakes with it. You could get a meal for an old shilling, from most British restaurants and you didn’t have to give ration coupons. I took my brother Ian along a few times as my mother Ruby was working for the war effort.

Around 1941 I came back from Kettering and I remember the first time I saw a buzz bomb, it buzzed then went quiet and fell out of the sky. I wondered what on earth it was. It was like an aircraft but with square wings, then it exploded. We had to go to the air raid shelter outside the house because we did not have a Morrison shelter. The street shelter we went to was like a dormitory with bunk beds. You took it in your stride even the spiders.�

Recorded by Sara Williams

© Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.