Childhood Memories from East Ham and Benfleet

At the outbreak of World War II, I was living in Springfield Road, East Ham and was two and a half years old. War was declared on my brother Bill's ninth birthday.

Dad was a carpenter/joiner, which was a reserved occupation. He worked converting liners into troop ships. He helped to build Mulberry Harbour and worked on American bases in Bedfordshire.

During the evacuation of children, we went to stay with family friends in Welwyn Garden City, but I cried so much for my dad that we returned to East Ham and stayed there through the London Blitz, sleeping in the air raid shelters each night and during the day as well when there were air raids in the daylight hours.

In spring 1941, at the end of the Blitz, our house had broken windows and blast damage and we moved to Benfleet. There were empty shops in the High Street, and we lived in the flats above. Bill, my brother, was allowed to leave school at 14 instead of 15, as he had got a job with a builder.

When we were at school in Benfleet and there was an air raid, we were taken to the back shelters. Paper was scarce and you had to use every space when having lessons. All the pens had loose nibs which you dipped in the ink and pencils were used right down to the stub. Then the last piece of pencil lead was fixed to a small stick, so nothing was wasted. Towards the end of the war, we were asked to take a tin into school as Americans had donated large tins of cocoa and we went home with our tins full of it. Someone would come round to measure our feet. If they were over a white line on the board they carried, the child would be given an extra coupon for shoes.

A kind greengrocer in Brook Road, Benfleet, had a large barrel of peanut butter and would put some into our tins, so we could have peanut butter to eat. We would save jam jars and take them back to the grocers and get a halfpenny for each jar and a penny for the larger 2lb jars.

My mum worked at Briggs (now Fords at Dagenham) on the assembly line, helping with the lorries ready for the troops to use. I used to stay with my aunt from Monday to Saturday lunchtime so she could work.

In houses with electricity, there was only one light and no power points, so irons had a long flex to plug into the light for power, or flat irons were used.