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We had moved from our home in Plaistow, East London, in 1934, soon after the birth of my brother Alan, and now lived in the "new town" of Elm Park, which is near Hornchurch in Essex. The semi-detached houses were of various styles and a few semi-detached bungalows had also been built in amongst the houses. We had one such bungalow alongside our house. The name of our street was Eyhurst Avenue. The street that backed onto our garden was Benhurst Avenue. Our end of Eyhurst Avenue had an S bend in it so as to widen the space between Eyhurst and Benhurst Avenues. In this widened space a school had been built, called Benhurst Avenue Primary School, which is where we went to learn and, hopefully, pass our 11-plus exams!

I recall that it was a beautiful sunny day when Prime Minister Neville Chamberlaine announced that we were "now at war with Germany". Mrs. Joyce, the mother of my friend Derek, from across the road, came over to see our mother. She was deeply shocked by Chamberlain's announcement and wept. I didn't really understand the gravity at first, being only about eight years old, and thought that it could be "interesting"! Then I thought of the danger that my father could be in and I worried for him. He was away from home , in the Royal Navy, in which he had served since boyhood. My father had lost his own father to the First World War when the troopship, that he was on, was torpedo by a U-boat when entering the harbour at Alexandria, Egypt. I have only recently learnt that my father's mother had to spend the rest of her days in a mental hospital, after learning of the death of her husband. I had always thought that she had died soon after her husband's death. My father, and his brother, Tom, was brought up by Aunt Ada, in Bedford, from where my father's side of the family originate. This "adoption" may have had something to do with my father "running away to sea"!

Air raid shelters were built at the school, everybody taped their windows, to minimise the danger from flying glass and Dad (who had some leave), Uncles Alf and Fred commenced to dig a hole at the bottom of the garden to accept the Anderson shelter, which had been delivered to everyhousehold that was in a potential danger area. Before the hole could be completed it filled with water! We subsequently had a Morrison shelter installed in our "lounge". We all slept in this and it made a fine, big table during the day, although we often had to go under it during the day as well!

An "office" was opened at a house in Benhurst Avenue for the issue of gas masks. My youngest brother, Brian, was only three years old at the time so he had a Mickey mouse type. My sister, Pauline, who didn't come along until 1943, had a respirator that she could sleep in.

During the period that we were without an air-raid shelter wesometimes went to the Joyce's Anderson shelter. For some reason their garden didn't have the "water table problem" like ours did. I remember sheltering there during one daylight raid, and when the "all-clear" syren sounded I emerged first and found a shiny, very jagged piece of shrapnel, about six inches long, lying at the entrance to the shelter. This was a very sobering reminder of the hazards of war.

Hornchuch aerodrome was not far away and perhaps was the reason why Benhurst Avenue suffered as it did from several bomb hits, even one that arrived by parachute!. Was it due to inaccurate aiming on the part of the German bombers. Or were they really aiming at the school, believing it to be something else? During the blitz night raids we would hear the drone o enemy bombers, watch the probing searchlights and listen to the crump of anti-aircraft fire. The next morning we would walk up and down our street collecting shrapnel. I got quite a lot, including a couple of shell nose cones, complete with their fuse setting rings. My collection later also included some parts of downed enemy aircraft and a piece of V1 Flying Bomb.Sadly, I also had a few pieces of Perspex from a couple Flying Fortresses which collided whilst limping home damaged after one of their daylight raids on germany.

The Battle of Britain was a particularly exciting time for me and it was always a thrill to see the Spitfires, Hurricanes and (for a short time) Bolton Paul Defiants taking off to face the incoming enemy planes. It was doubly thrilling to see our fighters do a "victory roll" after having shot down an enemy plane. I recall seeing a Spitfire do a victory roll over a house in which a Great Dane dog had been killed (we heard later) when the house was destroyed This bombed house was near the main entrance to our school. Later a crater was made in the road, in Warren Drive, close to the second entrance to Benhurst School. This was the entrance that we used since it was only minutes from our house. A searchlight unit was situated not far from this crater.

On another day a group of German FW190's flew low over the gardens between Eyhurst and Benhust Avenues, just as we were about to have breakfast. I rushed out, in my pyjamas, to shake a small fist at them! We learnt later that they were on a strafing mission and they had shot up a bus that was taking people to work. On another morning, soon after a raid, I saw an airman descending on his parachute. I cannot recall now whether he was friend or foe.

After the Battle of Britain, German planes switched to night bombing and there was a raid somewhere in the area almost nightly. It was a period when my mother decided that we should go to bedford to stay with Dad's Aunt Ada, her husband Claud and Dad's brother,Tom. I can't imagine,now, how we all fitted into that tiny house, especially when Aunt Ada's son, Victor was home on leave from the Army! Perhaps he went to stay at his girl friend's place in the evenings. I cannot recall. But I can remember him polishing the brass buttons of his uniform!

Uncle Claud was a refues collector. Uncle Tom was a batchelor and had lived with Aunt Ada since childhood, after his father had died in WW1 and his mother had to enter a mental hospital, as I have already mentioned. Tom was a sheet metal worker with the electrical equipment company, Allens.

The house in Bedford, at 11 Cavendish Street, was a Victorian terraced house, with a front door that opened directly onto the pavement (like Coronation Street). It had a small back yard where the "toilet" was situated, also another "outhouse" where the coal etc was kept and upon whose wall the tin bath hung on a nail! The "copper", in the kitchen, was heated by coal and was the sole source of hot water. On bath nights the tin bath would be placed in the middle of the kitchen floor and hot water "ladled" into it from the copper. I cannot recall ever having many baths whilst we were at Cavendish Street, but it was quite normal to have to share the bath water! Of course, whilst the bath was in use, the kitchen was out of bounds to the rest of the household and access to the backyard was also denied, unless one took a walk along the street and entered the back alleyway. Emptying the bath was another chore! My memory is also suggesting to me that the house had gas lighting too!

Elm Park, and Benhurst School, were quite nice places to be and I had not been introduced to really bad behaviour (only "knock down ginger"!), or foul language, up to that time. Going to school in Bedford, at John Bunyan's Church School, was an entirely different experience. Not to blame the school, but it had become the refuge to all who sought to escape the blitz, and that meant that many of its new pupils were quite rough types from the east end of London. One day i was asked to post a letter and I set off walking through the streets adjoining ours. Suddenly, I was approached by a boy, who was older and a lot taller than me. He had a drip of mess from one of his nostrils, onto his upper lip. "Where are you going?", he demanded, in a threatening tone. I told him. "Give me the letter!", he said. I stood still, weighing up the situation, looking into his eyes and at the mess from his nose. Suddenly I struck out and punched him on the nose. The disgusting fellow rocked back on his heels, his mouth fell open in disbelief and I ran off to post my letter. Hopefully, that nasty type mught have learnt a lesson by it!

On another accasion I was playing with some of my toys, around the fireplace in the living room. Then I remembered a word that I had heard at school. I liked the way it tripped off the tongue. So I said it, over and over again, this word that began with a 'b'. Unfortunatley there were several other people in the room, including visiting relatives! My mother took me into the kitchen and quietly admonished me. I can't recall if I was embarrassed or not.

John Buyan School was combined with a church dedicated to the memory of John Bunyan, who wrote "The Pilgrim's Progress". We used to attend church in the morning, prior to going to our classrooms. I can't remember much about the lessons though, but I did fail at being a member of the choir!

The cellars of the school had been reinforced with timbers so that they could be used as an air-raid shelter and we had practice days in getting to the shelter quickly, with our gas masks. I couldn't see the point as we never heard an air-raid syren or the crump of anti-aircraft fire.

My mother was often in conflict with Dad's relatives so, after less than a year wth them, it was decided that a return to the blitz would be preferable!

Back at Benhurst School it was nearing the time of 11-plus exams and studying for them. There were still the distractions of war, including the weekly raffle where pupils would take along items to raffle in the classroom. I won a can of beans once! Proceeds of the raffles went towards equipping a new destroyer that had been adopted by the area. On passing the 11-plus I went to Romford Technical School.

My father was in the Royal Navy from a boy(as I have said) until he "retired" in 1947. He spent the early part of the war on the V&W Class destroyer HMS Vanquisher and was at the Dunkirk evacuation for the whole nine days. He looked shattered when he came home for a brief respite before returning to Atlantic convoy protection duties. For the major part of the war he was then assigned to an ex-American Coastguard cutter, renamed HMS Totland, which served in ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ Waters, the Mediterranean and the Indian Ocean. The Totland was also employed on escort duties, mainly in the Mediterranean and the west coast of Africa. She sank the U-boat U522 south west of Madeira. Dad was a very quiet man and it was almost impossible to get him to talk about the war and I have had to carry out researches myself in recent years. He was a CPO Steward when he retired from the Royal Navy.

During the preparations for the invasion of Europe, "D Day", we saw many American servicemen in Romford. We used to ask the,"Got any gum chum?" I wasn't very interested in the chewing gum but I soon had quite a collection of gum wrappers, of many different brands.

Whilst I was at Romford Tech I developed a skin complaint on my feet and had to have half a day away from school to attend the outpatients' at Romford's Oldchurch Hospital's dermatology department. This condition persisted for many months. On 5th August 1945, the first atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, Japan. It was a nice sunny day and the assemled outpatients were thrilled at the news as it heralded the end of the war against Japan. I was doubly thrilled because this was also the day that the specialist declared my condition to be beaten!

At the end of the war against Germany, VE Day, 8th June 1845, there was much celebrating, with parties and bonfires in the street. When Japan capitulated, on VJ Day, 15th August 1945, the celebrating took place all over again!

edwardtg

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