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It was early evening late January, 1941, and I must have been about 5 years old. My mother, nana and myself were having supper at the table in the living room when the siren sounded. At the time in the war my mother was not too worried and decided to finish her cup of tea before going under the stairs to shelter. Next thing we heard a terrific bang and all went black. I found myself under the table where we realized later, I must have been blown by the blast. The next thing I remember was someone shouting asking if we were alright - it was our next door neighbour, Tom Sperrin from No. 2, Violet Place. He eventually managed to clear the rubble and get in to help us escape throught the front. Apparently, the back of the house was completely down and if we have gone under the stairs to shelfter we would have been killed. My father was a signalman on the railway and was working 2 - 10 p.m. and returned home to see the houses bombed, you can imagine he feared the worst. We learnt later that the neighbours on the other side No. 6 has been killed outright. We were taken to Ararat Church, Whitchurch Common for the night and next day, taken to Coryton Lodge, Whitchurch until such time we were able to find "rooms" as people did in wartime.

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