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One of the memories of Mrs Kathleen Burdett (nee Hinde) who was born in London in 1940.
I remember starting school at the age of 4 or 5 and the end of the war being declared. All the children in the school had to march up and down the stairs and around the playgrounds, waving our little Union Jacks.
The Headmistress's name was Miss Gubbins. She has her hair in a bun, grey hair, but to me she seemed to be beautiful. My children went to the same school many years later. At the age of 11 we went to our senior school. You had to do the 11 plus exam to establish which school you went to.
The school was in Islington and called Queens Head Street School, later changed to Tudor Rose. The head mistress there was very old and called Miss Smith, a right old dragon. The school was fenced off with the girls on one side and the boys on the other side and when we had to go over to the boy's side for music, the boys would line the route and heckle us - we loved it.
I used to walk to school with a friend of mine called Maisie Dowton, she was as tall as I was short. Because I was small I started smoking to make myself seem older. I used to go into Charlie Bailey's and by a tuppence cigarette, it would be the rubbish 'fags' (cigarettes), Turf or Rhodian, never a 'Weight', which was a decent smoke.
When we got to school Maisie and I would stand just around the corner from school and I would finish my cigarette. One day one of the teachers saw us and reported us to the headmistress.
When we got into school the headmistress sent for us and told us off. My friend Maisie never smoked but alas for Maisie the dragon would not listen. Poor old Maisie got a telling off and detention as well just for standing with me.
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