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I was born in East London (Stratford) on July 1st 1933 the same day London Transport came into being, but we actually lived in East Ham. I was 6 when the war started, and in common with many other kids of my age, was evacuated to Kidlington in Oxfordshire. I was very unhappy, and it was decided that I should return to my parents in London, so on Sept. 7th 1940, which was a lovely sunny day I was playing in the garden of our house at 87 Henniker Gardens, East Ham when the air raid sirens sounded. Up to now, nothing much had happened, so nobody took any notice of the sirens, and I carried on playing in the garden. I was suddenly aware of a loud droning sound,and looking up was astounded to see lots of planes, looking like black crosses against the blue sky coming up the Thames, and then seeing small aircraft diving on them, smoke and parachutes, and realising these were enemy aircraft, and the bombing was about to start! As is known, the Luftwaffe went for the docks with incendiaries that afternoon, so by teatime, East Ham was covered by a smoke haze. They returned that evening with H.E., and we (my father, mother and young sister who was born in Aug. '39) spent the night in our cellar, because our Anderson shelter was unusable, East Ham having a high water table, and the shelters filled with water until lined with concrete by the council. Such was the pattern of our life for the next few weeks, and I reckon my father could cheerfully have throttled me, as I found it wildly exciting, and would play with toy aircraft, saying "cor, that was a near one, dad!" as our house rattled and shook with exploding bombs, and shrapnel rattled down on our roof, to be avidly collected by my friends and I the next day. To us, they were exciting times.

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