Patricia Parnell (nee Charlesworth) was born on 3rd January 1935. Her father was in the Auxiliary Fire Service before the war started so he automatically stayed in the service for the duration.

During the war we lived in London, Vauxhall Kennington just a short walk to Lambeth. My father was a fireman and he had some awful tales to tell about the bombing and the fires and when the docks were hit.

My mother, my baby brother and myself were evacuated to Dorset to a vicarage but I cannot remember much about it as I was just four years old. We came back to London when the bombing died down a bit.

But when it started again (and it was very bad this time), we were evacuated to Wotton Basset in Wiltshire, to a farm. We were given just one room which served as our bedroom /sitting room /and kitchen.

My mother had to cook on an open fire. The nearest shop was a three-mile walk away and to a Londoner that was a very long walk, after my mother was used to jumping on a tram, which came along every three minutes in London.

We were there for a year and then my father found us a house to rent in Ruislip, which to all of us was heaven. It had a lovely lounge, kitchen, bathroom, three bedrooms and a quite big garden where my father on his day off grew every vegetable you could think of. And we had chickens, which meant we had eggs every day.

The best thing I can remember is the parties to celebrate the end of the war. I still think that Churchill was the most famous and a great prime minister.

All thro the war my father saved many people's lives, and when the war was over he wanted to stay on but you never guess what they told him: 'You are too short for the fire service !!!'

Patricia Parnell, 2002