It is 1939, I am age 7 and World War II had started. I lived in London near the BBC – that is until our flat was bombed in early raids! My Mum and Dad joined the Entertainments National Service Association (ENSA) to entertain the Armed Forces as they were both musicians. Soon after that, there was talk of my sister and I being evacuated – but not together which was very sad as I was close to my sister. Soon flying bombs started they were nicknamed Doodle Bugs. We could hear their engines, and then they would stop and then a loud explosion would follow soon after which was very scary! Later the rockets came much louder and without warning. So next I am on a smoky train station and everyone is crying, then waving as the train left the station to places unknown. I arrived in Torquay in the west country at a very rough house where two boys bullied me.
Later these boys and their mother stole my clothes, money and tuck that my Mum had given me. So it was decided to take me to another house and this one was in Dover, unfortunately Dover was a dangerous place so close to France. Whilst there, there was an air raid and a large land mine was dropped near the house which broke all the windows and left an enormous crater. The next day a few of us went there to collect shrapnel. There was a lot of it jagged and shiny horrible stuff. One of our crowd could not get out as he got stuck in the mud from the overnight rain! On another day we were exploring the beach and we found a building full of hand granades, bullets, mortar bombs etc. We panicked and ran and fell into barbed wire, I got spiked in the lip and thumb. I still have the scars today age 87. The Army got us free from the wire, they had thought we were saboteurs so were relieved that we were just naughty children.