Dig For Victory – Sheila Binks (nee Robinson)
I was seven when war was declared in September 1939. I was the youngest in the family. There was: Mum; Dad; Arthur, who was 19; Kendall, who was 9 and myself, Sheila. We lived in Stoneycroft. I remember Arthur receiving his call-up papers and going away. He was in the Royal Engineers. Dad had been […]
Grandma’s War – Brenda Murray (nee McElroy)
As prepared for my grandchildren. I was fifteen and a half and living in North Liverpool, not far from the docks, when war was declared in 1939. It had been expected for some time and six months earlier there had been the possibility that Seafield Convent’s trip to Switzerland might be cancelled. It wasn’t and […]
The Liverpool Experience – Joe Bowers
I was born and grew up in Manchester from 1921 onwards. I must say that as a young boy, in the 1930s, when Everton beat my beloved Manchester City in the FA Cup I never forgave Liverpool. From 1935 to 1939 I had occasion to visit Liverpool Pier Head four times. I worked from the […]
They Were Never In The Same Place Twice – Jo McCann (nee Carr)
I was four when the war started. The previous May we had moved from Antonio Street, Bootle, to Haselbeech Crescent, Norris Green. I can remember the move clearly. My grandmother, who was 86, had come back from Ireland with us the previous year and she had not been well enough to return on her own. […]
War Memories – Mary Harrison (nee Kinsella)
I was four when the war started, so shortages seemed the norm, I suppose. I do remember we often ran out of things like sugar and butter. One memory does stick. As we were a large family our 2oz. butter ration added up to a respectable looking lump and must have looked enormous to a […]
Whatever Next .. .Cows In The Tunnel! – Heaton Duggan
I was in a reserved occupation and so I was at home in Aintree during the war. As I was young I served as a fire-watcher. That meant that I was on duty in one of the air raid shelters on several nights each week. If there was a raid I had to patrol the […]
WW2 In A Small Hampshire Town – Netta Dixon (nee Hastie)
When I visited the ‘Spirit of the Blitz’ Exhibition in Liverpool Central Library, I realized that my experiences of WW2, in a small Hampshire town were very different to yours. Although Alresford is only 20 miles from Southampton and the blitz there kept us awake nearly every night, we had little experience of the constant […]