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It was 1st June 1941, I was seven years old, living in 15 Querns Road, St Martin’s Hill, Canterbury with my mother, my brother Richard and my Dad. Peggy, the eldest one, she was a trainee nurse at the Kent and Canterbury hospital.

We had spent the night squashed in the Anderson Shelter with many neighbours during a raid. A group of us went down into Canterbury to see the damage (school was closed). The whole of the top of Canterbury High Street was destroyed. (All that’s left of that today is St George’s Church Tower, the rest has been rebuilt.) The rest from Lower Bridge Street, down the High Street to St George’s Lane and rose’s lane was all destroyed. And going crossways from Burgate to Watling Street; all was destroyed; shops, houses, schools everything. (About seven or eight years ago, they found St George’s Church and St George’s School together with the tomb stones laid flat under concrete, it had been covered over in the fifties.
The church was still smouldering from the firebombs. The vicar of that church was Reverend Keybald. He was in the church saving all the artefacts; crosses and bits and pieces. I didn’t see him again until 1998 when they were rebuilding the place. We saw dead people that day, they were covered up.

But if you weren’t hurt it didn’t frighten you. It was a great adventure. I was only seven; I have no memories of being frightened.

This story was submitted to the People’s War Site by Helena Noifeld of ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ Radio Kent and has been added to the website on behalf of Peter Hill with his permission and he fully understands the site’s terms and conditions.

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