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My name is Francis John Wallace. Now 68, I am a retired primary school teacher living in Hampshire. I was born in August 1937 in London. I was the only child of my parents Frank and Win(ifred) Wallace. I have various personal recollections of some events during WW2 which I will include in these documents, however it seems to me that my best contribution to ‘People’s War’ archive would be to transcribe a number of surviving letters written during the early 1940s. In September 1939 my mother(36)had taken advantage of the evacuation scheme and had taken me as a two-year-old to the country. My father remained in London because as an insurance roundsman his work clients lived there. His letters describe his experiences — some dramatic and harrowing. There are also two letters written to me later by my mother when I was sent away to Gloucestershire as a 7-year-old child. One explains ‘D-Day’. Also in suitable language for a child — the fall of a V1 flying bomb. Other miscellaneous items include a letter from a carer who was looking after me during a stay in Ware Hertfordshire as an evacuee from the V1 threat to London. There is even a letter from me as a 7 year old to my mother.

My father, was Francis Alexander Wallace (1898-1969) Mother was Winifred Selina Wallace (nee Brown —1903- 1986). Father had been a driver in the Royal Field Artillery in WW1 and slightly affected by chlorine gas. In the early 1940s he was not in an age group that was due for conscription at that time. He was an insurance agent working for Liverpool Victoria Friendly Society. Some of his letters use company stationery. His insurance job involved collecting the premiums of clients who lived in SE London: in Deptford, Bermondsey and Rotherhithe These were areas of dockland and industry targeted by the Luftwaffe. He was therefore out and about in daytime during the ‘Blitz’ and the letters tell of this. New Cross, Peckham and Brockley were also part of his ‘patch’.

The family home was at St. Asaph Road in Brockley, a none-too-well known part of SE London. The road ran parallel to a railway line between Nunhead and Brockley stations. Both of these stations had small marshalling yards adjacent and were therefore attractive targets for daylight bombers. Moreover, in late Victorian times when suburban London was growing the cheapest land was sought for building schools. This land was often close to railways. Many schools suffered what is now called ‘colateral’ damage. This was particularly true of Mantle Road, the school I first attended where in the severe winter of 1942 as a 5-year old I had lessons in a tent in the playground. (The school is now called John Stainer). Children’s education was further disrupted because schools were often used for accommodating local homeless people who were ‘bombed out’.

In his letters my father makes mention of many London Street names. For copyright reasons I am not permitted to add appropriate extracts from commercially produced London street maps. However in my 1950s copy of the Geographia A to Z London street map, Brockley will be found on page 75 and most of the other streets mentioned in the letters will be found on pages 58 and 59. The location of my grandparents home in Credon Road Bermondsey was demolished in the 1980s in a large redevelopment project but of course is recorded on the 1950 map.
My mother and I were accommodated in a home for retired clergymen, The ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½s of St. Barnabas at Dormansland, a small village near Lingfield in Surrey. Its proximity to fighter airfields and the fact it would have been directly in the line of advance of any invaders made it seem in retrospect, a rather poor choice of location. We were there from September 1939 until July 1942 although I came home for a short while because my mother was hospitalised for a while.

The first letter is the least dramatic. It is clearly written following a visit to mother and me at Dormansland and is well before the Blitz. He refers to the death of a client and to impending food rationing. I preserve his texts accurately and only correct punctuation if necessary to avoid ambiguity. I insert explanatory notes in square parenthesis [Thus]