Bomb Scare at School

My mum lived in Colchester as a child, close to the army barracks. She was born in 1934 and spoke of lots of anxiety and stress. Her father had been gassed in WW1 and was difficult to live with and had terrible bronchitis.

Mum was the fifth of six children. She went to St John's Primary School near the barracks. (St. John's Green) She was in school and heard a plane overhead and the Scottish teacher said, "It's a bloody German".

They were told to get under their desks and then went to the bomb shelter. They had to run in pairs and she remembers the plane coming round and shooting at the playground while children were going across. They had to wait for the all clear. Their mothers did not know what had happened and whether their children were alive.

She remembers a time her mother was breastfeeding and her eldest son of 17 coming in to say he had joined up.

My dad lived in Wivenhoe. He built part of Mulberry Harbour. He remembers not going to school as his teachers were called up. He grew up in a pub, owned by his parents. They kept rabbits which they used for food and played quoits in the park. His older sister and father had tuberculosis.