« Mary Williams remembers the war years. | Main | Thomas Dickinson's Memories »
Margaret Campbell remembers the war years.
"At the beginning World War 2 most of my friends were evacuated to villages in Co. Durham. My parents decided that we would be evacuated together. My father stayed at home, I went with my mother and sisters to stay with relatives at Salters Gate between Castleside and Tow Law. It was a street of houses in the middle of the moors, almost two miles walk to the nearest bus stop. We have very happy memories of all the things we did there. In later years, we were surprised to find we had been there only two weeks. After a fortnight, my father had had enough of being on his own so we all went back to Dunston. On our return we found that air raid shelters were being built. We only used the shelter in the street once. After one air raid my parents and grandparents decided to strengthen the large cupboard under the stairs. We always referred to it as the gas cupboard because it had a gas meter in there."
"Stronger beams were added and a platform bed built under the sloping roof. The three of us could just fit in there. There was an armchair in there where my mother or grandmother could sit. My mother made us all siren suits; these were one-piece suits to wear over our pyjamas. If the air raid warning went during the night, under the stairs we went, wearing our siren suits, and there we stayed until the all clear sounded. We were supposed to go straight to sleep! I do not remember how well we slept. We liked being there. We had a tin box with treats in and if we were in any length of time we might get a piece of chocolate or a Horlicks tablet or something we wouldn't have got if we'd stayed in bed!"
"I remember playing in the street with my sisters and I think some friends. We were playing some sort of chasing game because of course there was no traffic so we could run quite safely across the cobbles. Suddenly we heard a plane and a machine gun firing. It was above our heads, bullets were bouncing along the street. Our mother was shrieking at us to get in the house. She was very annoyed with us because we had not come straight into the house. Our main interest was looking round to see if we could pick up some shrapnel from the bullets coming at us. This would have given us high rating in school the next day. We almost got a thick ear for that one.
The next exciting thing that happened was, when, in the middle of an air raid a warden came along the street warning everyone to get out quick. My father was out on duty that night. The whole street was evacuated because a bomb, an unexploded bomb, had landed in the backyard next door to my grand parents, which was next door to us. So out we went, no time to take anything with us. "
"They turfed us all out, there we all were standing in the cobbled street underneath the streetlight. The adults started getting their heads together deciding what to do. We were lucky that we had an aunt who lived in another street of terraced flats about 100 or 150 yards away. My grandmother and we three children headed in that direction. I think my mother was trying to find my father to let him know what was happening. She arrived with some neighbours who had no had relatives nearby. Those who had, had rushed off in various directions but there were those wondering what to do next. No one was saying well use the church hall or anything. My mother and aunt went back again to see who had nowhere to go. They brought more people back I am not quite sure how many people were in the house that night but there were certainly 30 or more. We were all crammed in a large kitchen, sat around the walls or on the floor. My mother and aunt made tea continuously. It seemed to last all night. I do not remember having any sleep. There were people who we had hardly even spoken to before. We were quite excited and thought great we won't have to go to school the next day but in fact it was afternoon school so we did go."
"We were thinking we'd have to go in our siren suits but a warden came across and told us we could go back in the houses. It was all a false alarm. It turned out to be a dud shell from Big Bertha, the big gun at the top of Lobley Hill. It had gone down the drain. They managed to get it out, so we could all return to our homes. We had to go to school after all.
My aunt had no bread or biscuits left and certainly no tea. Later that day everyone was back at my aunt's house giving her tea and biscuits and anything they had, to thank her.
"There was one more exciting thing that happened. I have very strong memories of the soldiers rescued from the beaches at Dunkirk. There were all these dirty, tired, weary, very dispirited and hungry men and not enough army camps to take them. They went to various places overnight and then further a field.
Someone came round the doors saying that the Dunston Board School was going to be re opened to accommodate soldiers from Dunkirk. They asked people to offer a bath and a hot meal to one or two soldiers. It was a lot to ask people to do in an area like that in those days. The housing in the area was what is now grandly called Tyneside flats. They had no bathrooms or inside toilets, it was quite a performance to have a bath your self, never mind offering a bath to strangers. There certainly was not much food around with all the rationing.
We all turned out and lined the sides of Wellington Road at the time of their expected arrival. We sisters stood in a row beside my father, jumping up and down, before the convoy arrived.
I can still remember how tired and weary the soldiers looked. I am sure they had not had much to eat since they left. They certainly had not had a wash. They were probably in the same clothes as when they had left the beaches. They really did look terrible."
"We were getting anxious. People were shouting, Hi, mate, you just come with me, but my father just stood there just looking whilst we were dancing up and down. I do not know who it was in the end. I think it was one of my sisters, who shouted. I do not think my father ever did. Two soldiers said they would be pleased to come to our home.
We had to stay outside and play while my mother organised baths for the two men who came with us. We did not see an awful lot of these soldiers. The next day the soldiers came to thank us and gave us a tin of bully beef. We discovered later that my father had been too busy looking at the men because he knew that it was very likely his brother, our Uncle Frank, would have been on the beaches of Dunkirk. He thought he might have been in one of those army lorries in that convoy.
The soldiers were from various regiments, many in fact from Australia. My sisters said they knew as soon as they saw their hats. I only remember their faces."
"My next strong recollection is that we did have a big street party when the war ended. Trestle tables were put along the cobbles, everyone in the street contributed what they could. We had to remove to the tin mission, (the local church hall) because it rained, nothing changes!"