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This story was submitted to the People’s War site by a volunteer from Swindon College on behalf of Ann Louth and has been added to the site with her permission. Ann fully understands the site’s terms and conditions.

I was a school child attending school in Canterbury during the war. During the air raids all the class had to go into the Anderson shelter and the lessons would continue inside the shelter.

I vividly remember one day, having to spend most of the morning in the shelter. We had a very strict teacher — whom we nicknamed the “witch”. The children were trying to learn the 7 times table and I seemed to get stuck on 7 x 7. “The witch” made me stand on a bench to recite my seven times table and again I got stuck on 7x7. I just couldn’t remember any more — all I could hear was the loud noise of the bombs going off and feeling the vibrations of the ground. I can still hear her shouting at me and asking me why couldn’t I say my 7 times table!. I tried so many to say it but to no avail. I think in the end the teacher gave up, but remember crying so much.

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