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Part One of an oral history interview with Mr. Anthony Alistair Brown conducted by Jenny Ford on behalf of Bedford Museum.

“I was born in April 1927, like my brothers at home in Wallasey, I was 12 at the time of outbreak of war in September 1939. We knew it was inevitable then and when it came on the radio, I think at exactly 11 o’clock we were expecting it. It made very little impact really at the time. My father was a dentist - he belonged to a Gentleman’s Club and had influence which meant that he could obtain certain commodities even if they were going short.

There was a lot of confusion at the beginning because of course, we were due to start school a week later and we did. I was at my Grammar School for a year. At that time it was suspected that the bombing of London, which of course was very heavy, would spread to other cities and my mother and father decided on the advice of a wealthier neighbour to let us go and live and Wales. Their son was going to Ruthin School which was a public school, our funds didn’t quite run to that so we were educated in Ruthin and we stayed there for about a year. My brother Keith and went to the local school. My older brother was 17 you see and preparing to go to University so Keith and I were sent off together.

I attempted to learn Welsh without great success but I had a go! It wasn’t a friendly place at all. I didn’t enjoy it. To a degree I protected Keith, he was two years younger and I was told ‘to look after him’. My parents came to visit on a couple of occasions and it was one of those that she wasn’t at all happy. We were in two sets of ‘digs’. The first one was two elderly maiden ladies and they looked after us very well but said that they thought it was a bit too much. And we moved onto much poorer accommodation. They weren’t awfully good ones because people were quite poor and food wasn’t very good and my younger brother who was much more delicate than I was began to feel ill and have stomach troubles so mother decided to bring us back home. That was about a year later, about September 1940.

I returned back to the Wallasey Grammar School. It was never damaged the Grammar School apart from incendiary bombs. My elder brother was one of the people who put sandbags on them when on Fire Watching Duty.

My father was a very capable man, he could do anything with his hands. And at the beginning of the war he bought plywood and fitted plywood on the windows so all our windows had plywood, we had the job of going round in the evening and turning the turn screws to lock them in position.

The real problems we got came later. The Germans flew to cities on radio signals, they sent radio signals to their aircraft and they flew on those, not veering one side or the other. Our worst bombing on Liverpool took place in 1941. It was very exciting. The boys boasted about how near they were to where bombs were. We cycled round to see what everybody’s damage was.

And then we had a stick of bombs very close to us on a Saturday night. But the night we got a stick of bombs in our road was exciting. Father, who worked very hard and Saturday afternoon would go to watch football or rugby and then in the evenings he would go up to his Gentleman’s Club and have some beers. While he was there this stick of bombs dropped. On this particular occasion when this stick of bombs dropped one of them dropped just outside the station, we were about 300 yards from Grove Road Station and this stick of bombs went up the road. One on the Station, the second one didn’t go off, the third one and the forth both did and it was the third one that was exciting!

It was about a quarter to seven in the evening during the winter. We were sitting in the living room playing Pelmanism. It’s were the two packs of cards are spread out, face down and each in turn turns a card up and then tries to get another card the same. We were playing Pelmanism when all of a sudden there was a great flash of flame from the chimney, it came right out into the room and mother thought that it was a fire bomb but actually it was soot from the chimney that came out. At that time she grabbed Keith, grabbed me and told Bev to follow her and bunged us all under the stairs until later when she could have strong words with her husband. Well he always went up there and she said, ‘Where were you?’ And he said, ‘I was under the snooker table!’ Laughter! But he didn’t realise where the bombs had dropped and there was a huge hole in the road and tram lines that had been there all came up, we admired that sight. We went and had a sneaky look the next morning at the unexploded bomb — we couldn’t see it! So it was the biggest event really there. There were bits of paving stone in the roof.

But father after that did rent this garage - reinforced it, he was just a very capable man. He rented the garage and built a loo and protective area. We had maiden ladies living next to us and they came over and shared it. If it looked quiet we would leave the shelter and walk into Wallasey village and then go down to the shore because we had a huge promenade that had been built that must have looked to the Germans as part of Liverpool docks, I’m sure it was. So we went down there in the mud and the fires.

I remember on one occasion the old lady next door, it was a mother and unmarried daughter. And the mother was on my arm and we heard an aircraft coming over and she said, ‘Is it German?’ and I said, ‘no it’ll be one of ours’ and then we heard the whistle of the bombs! And they actually dropped a mile and a half away in Wallasey dock. I’ve never seen a dear old lady move so quickly!

We collected shrapnel as all youngsters did. My elder brother brought back an unexploded incendiary bomb he found on the beach. So he gave it a tap with a hammer and there was enough of an explosion to break his father’s vice — you know a huge one — and he wasn’t happy about that! Gradually after mid 1941 the bombing raids decreased. We still had some and probably up to about 1942 but they were more occasional than they had been originally.

My father had a friend at the Warren Club that he belonged to and his friend owned two brick works. They were still preparing bricks but they also had the facilities for the maintenance of their tools, etc. and I went and worked there. What I was doing actually was helping out — we were making plates that screwed onto the side of vehicles to keep them stable when they were firing guns, etc. so a small part of the war effort. I did that at weekends and during the holidays.

We had a very splendid ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ Guard, I was of course too young to belong to it but it was the only one as far as I know that was a Royal Artillery ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ Guard and specialised in firing rockets. They fired them from part of a nine hole golf club and they had these rockets there and when they fired these the whole sky went black for over half a mile wide when they fired these. We used to go and watch from part of the park next door with a hill and it was very exciting to watch those being fired. But of course they were aimed principally, for good reason, over the sea so as German aircraft came in and swung round they could fire from there. I have no idea if they shot any down.

We had a local search light battery and we also had quite a few barrage balloons. I remember my father saying, coming down from the Club one night he saw this thing bouncing up the road and it was a barrage balloon towing part of it’s cable and it was obviously leaking but it was going up the road towards him. I don’t know how sympathetic mother was!

There were loads and loads of jobs available to youngsters. My older brother demolished bombed property. I wasn’t permitted to do that, my older brother said, ‘I wouldn’t be safe’. I rather fancied the idea of standing on the roof and knocking bits of wall down but, no! But I also helped when required as there were market gardens around locally so I used to help with the market gardens as well which must have earnt me a little money I think, I can’t remember how much.

Raising funds to buy a Spitfire at Wallasey Grammar School
A Spitfire cost £5,000, it cost an awful lot more than that but if the people in the school with contributions of £5,000 we were told that we had bought a Spitfire for the RAF. We didn’t want to buy bombers or Hurricanes but Spitfires, yes! But actually of course what the money was spent on I’ve no idea but we must have brought three or four of these.�

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