wartime
-
Memories of Chesham in the 1930s and 1940s
Read more →My happiest days that I remember were from 1936 to 1939. I lived at 8 Market Square, where my father had a furniture and general store, later a men’s outfitters. His father John had come to Chesham from London around 1890 and started a business at 44 Church Street. My bedroom was on the top […]
-
Kath Dolling (nee Smith) and evacuation
Read more →THE wail of air-raid sirens over Penge, South-East London on Sunday 3rd September 1939 dramatically changed the life of eight-year-old Kathie Smith. She had lived as a shy, only child, with her partially-sighted Mum and elderly Dad, a retired merchant seaman and widower. Kath was born when her mother was 45 and Dad 66! The […]
-
My War 1944
Read more →The following extract is from a letter written to Home on the Normandy Beach Heads, by myself M A Sabatini, Royal Navy Leading Ship’s Mechanic, which was never sent. It lay in my rucksack until I was demobbed in 1946, and was only looked at occasionally, until the 50th anniversary of the landings. There is […]
-
Memories of a wartime childhood
Read more →I was born before the Second World War, in July 1939. I don’t remember very much until I was about 3. From then on I was aware that the sound of the air raid sirens meant trouble. Whenever German bombers were approaching, the sirens started with a loud, eerie WoooOOOOooooOOOOooooOOOOoooo noise. That meant we had […]