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I remember the beginning of the Second World war, when I was seven years old and at the Good Shepherd Primary School in Bramley, Leeds, wrote Derek Henry Hindle, and I remember the basement of the school being strengthened ready for use as an Air Raid Shelter.
We kids were lined up in the playground for Air Raid training, and when the siren sounded we had to file down into the shelter, after being given barley sugars to suck, no doubt to keep us happy.
One day a large vehicle arrived in the playground and we were lined up to have gas masks fitted, then each of us filed through the vehicle to see if our masks were working O.K. Evidently it was filled with gas, and everyone came out alright, so the procedure must have been successful. We thereafter, every day carried our gas masks in a box over our shoulders to school.
Eventually, after a few months, the school was taken over as an Air Raid Post (A.R.P.) and my parents had to find accommodation for me elsewhere. Unfortunately, all the schools in Bramley were full, as all classes were then about 45 pupils in number, and there were hardly any men teachers as they had all been called into the Armed Services.
So, for about six months, I went to a school in a house which was run by an ex teacher privately. Then I was able to go to Armley Park School, in the next suburb nearer to Leeds, for the next few years. I travelled to Armley on the tram, and the fare was a halfpenny to Armley and one penny to Leeds, at that time.
I stayed for school dinners, which were served at the next school nearer to Leeds, but I can't say I enjoyed them much, being used to Mum's home cooking.
However, my mother developed a brain tumour in 1939 and suffered for eleven years with it before she died in 1950. I had to stay at my Auntie & Uncle's home for about a year whilst Mum was in St.James Hospital, Leeds having treatment for her illness, and missed her very much.
I was about 10/11 years old then. I was ill when the 11 plus exams were taken, so I had an entrance exam into Pudsey Grammar School and caught the No 65 bus there, but left at the end of the 4th Form and obtained a job, to help the family income, which was badly hit when Mum was ill, prior to the introduction of the National Heath Scheme.
That's about all I remember about my schooldays during the war. I joined the R.A.F. in 1950 for National Service, which was still in operation then. Derek Hindle.
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