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I was at school in Ilford throughout most of the war. In 1944 I was to take my Highers (Higher School Certificate, later replaced by A levels.) My least favorite subject then was Roman History, a part of the Latin exam. At the time of the examinations, doodlebugs were falling relentlessly on parts of London and the air raid warnings persisted for hours at a time. Our headmistress was a doughty Scot and decided that we really had to sit at desks in the school hall to take our exams while the rest of the school were comfortably in the shelters. She, armed with a piercing police whistle, took up station on the roof. When she saw a doodlebug approaching she would blow several blasts on her whistle and we poor examinees had to scramble under our desks until she signalled it had passed by.

The day of the Roman History exam we had several such alarms. I think this was my most vivid memory of that time - during the exam we had the usual warning from the roof, huddled under our writing desks and waited. There was a loud explosion quite near and bits of plaster rained down from the hall ceiling. We all emerged sheepishly from our "shelters" and I remember so clearly brushing and blowing the dust and dirt from my paper before continuing to write about the exploits of Julius Caesar after the invasion of Britain!

I am sure the examiners must have given specially sympathetic consideration to my efforts that day, since I passed!

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