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Beryl Sebire (née Saich) interviewed by Matt Harvey, Social History Officer, Guernsey Museum. The interview recorded on video. The video transcribed by J David 5-8/9/2005

One night was particularly horrendous, it was in Southall, with its long long long High Street, we were about the middle. We used to get ourselves all ready, and sit with our hair curlers and our pyjamas on, ready to go down these concrete steps to the coal cellar, there was just a manhole cover where the chap used to tip the bags of coal, and my uncle must have had the presence of mind to store up some coal, a little bit higher than the table, I reckon, and as long as from that wall to here, a very big cellar with two or three rooms over it. There was all this blessed coal. And we had actually to sleep on the coal, not actually on the coal, if you like, I think he had begged and borrowed umpteen newspapers, as many as he could, to make a bit of padding, and then my aunt came down with an old blanket which didn’t matter and a couple of sheets which didn’t matter and draped them over the top there, and there we slept, two aunts and myself, crossways, like three in a double bed, and we could hear all the stuff going off over the top of us, eh. It was horrible being down there, it was eerie, what if the house collapsed, they’d never find us, there was no way out. Anyway, we were lucky, and then it got a bit quiet, but the alert was still on, and we gingerly walked upstairs, and then not very long the Germans came over with their incendiaries, and they were fond of dropping their incendiaries all along like this, and they’d come along with the high explosives, so every bit of fire was going all ways, and that was the night that Southall caught alight. That was an awful night, and right opposite there was a jeweller’s shop, across the road, that was burnt, and two or three others either side like this, and there were two girls, so I’m told, when the high explosives came, further down this way by the crossing, took shelter in the foyer of a picture palace, and they found them. And even if the raid was still on, it just shows you, I don’t know how people could do it, the women were out there, and the blessed bombs were coming down, they hit a shoe shop as well, next to the girls, and they were sorting over shoes — “I’ve got one with high heels in brown, have you got one like that?” — My Aunt said “I can’t believe this, people have been killed” and they were still carrying on, still sorting over these shoes. I thought that was just horrendous. And we came back from that lot, and we had another lot as well, not as bad as that , but another lot, we had to go down in the cellar, My other two aunts, my uncle, and myself, we were making bunk beds, but it was for my grandmother, who lived at Uxbridge, further down that way, and she had an Anderson shelter, so we were making bunk beds for her and one of her sons, we were hammering merrily away when [untranscribable whirring noise] we dropped everything. I had one enormous aunt, rather stout, they used to have a sweet shop, - and uncle Graham said to me this is why they gave it up, she used to eat all the profit, - a big lady she was, and then another aunt and myself. She was nearest to the kitchen-diner from the shop, a big table like this, she got underneath, My next aunt got underneath with her bottom sticking out, we didn’t think it was funny at the time, believe me, they said “Come on, in you come” I could just get my head and shoulders in. My uncle why he dived behind a big pile of the wood that they tied up in bundles a shilling a bundle for fires, a big tall amount like that, and he jumped behind there, why he jumped behind there we’ll never know, but it was just a case of being out of anywhere, he was in somewhere, like an animal would get somewhere, even though it wasn’t very safe, he still got behind this wood. Anyway, it stopped, and he came out, and he said “You do look funny, you lot”. We got out a bit more slowly than what we got in, I can tell you. This big stout aunt of mine, how she got underneath the table I don’t know, but she was all right, covered up. We didn’t laugh at the time, but we did laugh afterwards. Even during the war we were still laughing about it, we had to laugh about it. I mean, people were so good, and the people that were so brave as well, wonderful. And that was that. We were doing these bunks, we had the picture palace knocked down with an H.E., the jeweller’s place alight, people looking for shoes, yes that must have been that night then, There was another night, but I can’t recall it, but I still remember making these bunks, but we had to shelter so many times, that we didn’t get many nails knocked in. So we were still doing that, and that was another night that Southall caught it, not as bad as the first time, no incendiaries this time, they just came over very low, we didn’t have any bombs that night but it was so frightening, I’ve skipped a bit, and going back to the first bit where we had our night, there was a couple who lived next-door-but —one in a sweetshop, and they used to come down into the cellar, with my aunt and uncle. The next morning we all crawled out, the man came back and said “You’ll never guess what!” “What now?” He said “We have an outside lavatory — it wasn’t loos then, it was lavatories, outside lavatories — but we haven’t got one any more, the incendiary, you’re never going to believe it, but the incendiary came right down into the pan, put the incendiary out, but blew the lavatory off its holdings — no lavatory left”, he said.
When I was at school, my father was very fussy about the way I spoke, so he said you’ll have to have some special lessons, So I thought I’d give him a surprise, so when I was at Uxbridge, they had night school there, so when the raids weren’t on I’d trot myself off to night school and take some English lessons. I was coming home one night — the raid was on — and the next thing I knew was[ wheee — crump] it was a jerry piece of shell, and I knew I didn’t have to pick it up because it would be hot, so I didn’t pick it up, so I came out the following morning, it had gone, someone had got it overnight, - Oh, wasn’t I cross. Because I had a collection of bits and pieces, it landed at my feet.
I……….. So when there were raids like that, was there an air-raid siren?
Beryl Sebire. Yes, all these things I am telling you are all connected with being in the raids. “Oh yes, there she is, moaning Minnie” and the one in Southall was on for weeks, that was what they called the Blitz, that was really awful. And we’d get all ready, put our pyjamas on, get our curlers ready, get our knitting ready, couple of torches and a few candles, there was no electricity down there, only the wires that went all the way round the blooming walls, eh. We listened to the radio down there, and we got three in a double bed, and my uncle was on a little thin bit of a mattress thing, and we used to poke him every now and again, “Did you hear that one” “Did you hear that one!”. We had to make a bit of humour, if you like, can’t be brave all the time.
II……….. So when does that take us up to, about 1943?
Beryl Sebire. About 43, 44, I suppose, somewhere like that, because I told you about the V1, with the great big crater outside, and all these houses knocked down,
I……….. Er, no.
Beryl Sebire. Ah. Very early…
I……….. So you were still staying with your aunt and uncle?
Beryl Sebire. This was in Uxbridge. I had three aunts, you see, two in Uxbridge, and one in Southall. I said I wanted to get a little job in an office “Well you’ll have to go and stay with Auntie Lil” — well that was OK, and I don’t know how long I was with her and we had these blessed V1s coming over, and they were awful . You’ve no doubt heard all about them, they go [chunk chunk chunk] and then they stop. And when they stopped, they’d turn round, they had a nasty habit of turning round, once you’d seen them or heard them go away, you weren’t safe, especially if they’d stopped, they’d come back. And this is what this one did, and the chap next door to us, we were down in a dip away from the road, I don’t know why it did, but they did this donkey’s years ago, but we were down there, and if I hadn’t been down there I wouldn’t be here now, we just missed this V1 coming over, the chap next door, he was in the police force, and he was on, he hadn’t to go in just yet, so he said he was out in the garden, he heard this blessed thing coming, he said he watched the blessed thing [chug chug chug chug] and turn round. It was too late to run then, how it missed the chimney pots of my aunt and uncle I will never know, he said if we’d been up on the road level we’d have been smithereens. The ARP and the Police and the Fire people came down and they told us that that was the biggest crater they had ever seen, it took seventy-two houses with it, right and left, can’t believe it. We went out, it was so close, and we could hear the people calling out, “I’m here.” “I’m here” “I’m here” they never got them out. I don’t know how true it is but when they did get them out eventually they said they were green, it was the gas, they said, I don’t know if gas did this, but this is what the tale went, whether it’s true or not I don’t know for myself, but they were green when they got them out. Dreadful. There were some sad tales, I can tell you. I’ve had a few escapes. That day that that one dropped, I had my foot — my foot again — up on the window ledge, putting a plaster on the heel, because I had bought some war-time sandals and they were so rough — rub, rub, rub — I just had my foot up on the window sill and this one came, this V1, the place shook like this, a piece of ceiling fell down, caught me on the back of the neck, swept me to the floor — this was all so quick — and then a piece of the wall, a big piece of wall, left the wall and come on me. And I was quite covered. And my aunt and uncle ran on the landing and said “Beryl, Beryl, are you all right my love?” I wanted to say, but I couldn’t, I was shocked. The said it was shock afterwards, they told me. I said “I’m here, I’m here, but I opened my mouth and it wouldn’t come. So she said” Oh Len, I think she’s dead” So I said “I’m not dead, but please come and get me out.” Well they couldn’t open the door, I could hear them trying to push the door open, but it was bunged up with bricks and goodness knows what, so they had to get this policeman bloke next door, eh, between them they managed to push it open a little bit, a little bit, and then pull some of the stuff out of the way. I think it was a whole day before I got my voice back. That was a near one. I brushed my hair afterwards, and the little bits of powdered glass that came out of it, but yet we didn’t have a window broken. So what was it? They said it was glass, but we did not have a window broken, I mean they shook like that, but I wouldn’t have thought that would have caused the glass dust. But I did, I brushed my hair for days and days and this stuff kept coming out. Very strange. That was too close for comfort that one.

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