ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½

This story was submitted to the People’s War site by a volunteer from ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ Radio Berkshire on behalf of Iris Clark and has been added to the site with her permission. Iris Clark fully understands the site’s terms and conditions.

I lived in the High Street in Manhattan House; there were ten children. I left school at fourteen, most girls were put in service, which is where you 'live-in'. I was put in service the day after I left school on the Friday, started work Saturday. The Monday was Christmas Day; it was 1939. I worked for an ex-school master’s house called Land’s End near the golf course.

I had half a day off and I was cycling back to work at 10pm and I got just to the church and heard this terrible shriek over my head. It put the fear of death into me. To the left I heard a huge explosion and I didn’t know whether to carry on or go back home, so I went to where I worked. I found out the next day that the headmaster of Wellington College’s house had been hit. A lot of people thought the bomber had tried to drop the bomb in the lake. It was probably a stray bomb he wanted to get rid of before he got back to Germany.

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