Raymond Burgoyne Portsmouth Firefighter

Raymond Burgoyne was born in Kent in 1905. He moved with his father and mother to Portsmouth as his father got a job working at the Naval Dockyards there. Raymond became a delivery driver in and around Portsmouth and in time married, Stella, a local girl. When WW11 started he joined the Auxillary Fire Service in Portsmouth. Portsmouth, being a Naval Base, was heavily bombed so Raymond was kept very busy day and night. On a notice board at the County Hall, he was posted as being missing twice for a couple of days but turned up. On one occasion he had taken shelter in a barn and then been unable to get out safely.

Raymond and Stella had a Morrison shelter that consisted of a table made of steel. When it was safe, their children would tap dance on top of it. Raymond and Stella were bombed out twice. Fortunately when their house took a direct hit, they had gone to a neighbour's cellar.

In the end Raymond and Stella decided to move out of Portsmouth to Chidham to be safer. They had family there. Stella became a volunteer Land Army girl helping out at Cobnor Farm. Her main job was to look after a herd of cows. On one occasion whilst in a field, she was machine gunned by a German fighter plane. Stella shouted, "Stop that, you will hurt someone", waving her stick furiously at him.

One night the military put a searchlight and a gun battery at the entrance to Cobnor Farm without telling anyone and it was manned by several soldiers. As Stella cycled up the lane, one of the soldiers shouted," Hello, love". Stella nearly fell off her bike with shock. She made sure they got a good look at her bull the next time she was passing.