Fire Duty

MY War by Margaret Bagley (Nee Berry)

Our house had all the windows blown in and the broken glass had got mixed up with the food in the pantry,...

I Performed before the King and Queen

We looked after Mill Hill, Hendon and Finchley fire stations, a garage at Hutton Grove, Finchley and the...

Schoolboy Recollections of WW2

Approach the bomb on your stomach and lie flat while you counted up to 50 slowly — the Germans placed...

NFS North London Messengers Part 1

One autumn in 1942 a fireman turned up at our Youth Club at the Woodberry Down Baptist Church in Tottenham,...

Dancing through the War

I had been training as a dancer in ballet but not wishing to go into munitions I got a job in the...

Auxiliary Fire Service: In Hull

All the staff in the Brigade used to live nearby so they could get to the Station in an emergency; we...

My German Spy: A Firewatcher in London

I would leave my family - father, mother and younger sister - asleep on matresses in the cupboard under the...

Firefighting at the Gloster Aircraft Company

It went on like that until Easter 1942 when there was a raid on Gloster Aircraft and bombs dropped on the...

Memories of Life in Wartime Stockport by "Peasticks"

In case of an alert the spotter pulled a piece of string and a piece of cardboard flapped up and down on...

Automatic Days

Nearby Garston docks took the full brunt of the bombing, as did the docks up and down the Mersey and my...

'You Got Used To Everything'

The scariest moment of the war was when I was visiting my parents in Finchley. I was pushing my daughter...

Andy's Black Memories of Wartime Fire Fighting

The Chief Officer of the fire station called out to me one night, and sent me to a doctor on the Antrim...

Father in WW2

During searching and digging people out of bombed buildings Dad spotted a Sailor standing on top of a pile...

NFS North London Messengers Part 4

Our growing numbers, now over 150 proved too much for our first home, so in the July we moved to Priory...

Life Near a Fighter Base

I was living in a little village called Barnham, which was situated between Tangmere & Ford Naval...

An Unforgettable Night in Devonport: Memories of a London Fireman 1941

It was ‘Send a crew with iron rations to the London railway station... Our crew of four, Ted Crust,...

Journey through York

It was run by middle-aged men "over the age of conscription" and so were directed into this...

NFS North London Messengers Part 3

Once or twice there are a few lines passing on the very real appreciation of senior officers for the work...

Teenager in the War (12 - 18 years)

Although I went to a friends Uncle when I was evacuated, I was sent to a fee paying Grammar School, where...

Firemen's Tales

The heat was tremendous and my Grandfather said that the road outside was slick with melted margarine;...

What Part You Play if Your Mother is German?

She married My Great Grandfather who came from the west country, Wiltshire or Somerset and settled in...

War on the Isle of Wight

Everything they needed for an invasion was hidden on tHe Isle of Wight... It went right across the Isle of...

Front Line in the Blitz

My paternal grandfather, Gilbert William Vail, lived in Surbiton all his life. Ray Harrington-Vail Grandson...

Fire Watching on the Last Night of the Blitz

Saturday 10th May 1941, is a date never forgotten because I was Fire Watching on the roof of the Mapping...

N.F.S. (National Fire Service)

Anyway my friend Joan and myself joined N.F.S. We were stationed at Mkt Bosworth, later to Hinckley... We...

War in Camberwell

On one occasion my house had been bombed and I was having a cup of tea at the WVS caravan when a...