Keeping Positive - Your Story

The following are extracts taken from the Museum of London's Oral History Archive. Where there is a picture of a wireless you can click on it to hear the person talking. Below you can read contributions made by visitors to this online exhibition.

Tom Stothard was born in Blackwall in 1908. He served in the Auxiliary Fire Service. He remembers walking to his office past St Paul's, having worked through the night.

'I used to keep a set of dry clothing at the office in Westminster. And so I had to walk from Tower Hill to Westminster, and there's one thing I wanted to see. The Guildhall was burnt out, but standing in its glory, towering over the wreck of the City, was St. Paul's. And do you know, I'm sure that if St. Paul's had ever suffered really great damage - it did suffer damage as you know, bad damage - but I think if St. Paul's had shown damage, I think the heart would have gone out of Londoners. But there it was, hope. And so there's me, going along, treading over hoses and one thing and another, and I think other chaps still working must have thought, what are you strolling along there for.'

Here he talks about finding time to sleep.

'Well there were times when you weren't getting two hours a night at a stretch. I wasn't the only one, believe you me, there were thousands of people in this position. You'd catnap on the tube, indeed the best thing to do was, if there was somebody next to you, saying, are you - I used to go home by Barking and then get the bus round from there - I'd say, are you going to Barking, and they'd say yes, or if it was no you'd ask somebody else, you'd say, look, if I'm asleep give us a dig when we get to Barking. And that's how we all co-operated. It was a truly friendly atmosphere.'

Contributions

The following are contributions made by visitors to this online exhibition. We thank them for these contributions:

Betty Griffis was born in 1934

'Making a "run for it, and our air raid warden telling us to hurry up me'duk don't you know there's a war on. Our shelters were built in the center of the streets in Nottingham and our rules were, "grab your gas mask and make a run for it. No back lip for the quotation of the day was "don't you know there's a war on! The Brits can find the time for humor, it kept us going.'

The copyright in these extracts belongs either to the Museum of London or the individuals concerned. They must not be reproduced without contacting the Museum of London.

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Last modified: Tuesday, 19 April, 2005