Home Guard was sometimes dangerous

I was a few months old when war broke out.

I remember having to go to the Andersen Shelter in the garden when the Air Raid siren sounded & staying there until the "all clear", but on one occasion, one of the nights of the "Blitz" on our town, I had measles, & we had to stay in the "Cwch"(cupboard) under the stairs, as I was too ill to go outdoors to the cold, damp shelter.

When the American forces came through our village, we, children, ran after them shouting"Any gum chum?"
After all we were rationed to 4 ozs. of sweets a month, with which I bought "Otto's".
My American 1st. cousins visited us when they were posted to the U.K.

However, my main story takes me back to very early November,1942, when my beloved uncle,(who was a 2nd father to me), Robert Leslie Howell,aged 32, a civilian draughtsman and member of the Home Guard, attended Home Guard Rifle Drill in the Infants' School next to our then home.

The Sergeant was demonstrating use of the rifle with blank bullets, but, unfortunately, the one he used was a live bullet, which went through Les' leg into that of the Private behind him.

Although I was less than 4 years old, I can still remember his being taken into the ambulance, in pitch darkness, and taken to hospital. The next time I saw him, a week later, was in his coffin, as, in trying to save his leg, gangrene set in & he died. The other soldier survived as he'd had his leg amputated.

My aunt was overcome with shock, her hair turning white almost overnight, & losing the use of one leg.
She underwent a fairly primitive form of shock treatment, when she had to stand in a bath of water, through which was passed an electric current.

Whenever I hear the song "Lambeth Walk"(rarely these days I admit) I think of Les as he used to "dance" this with me, even at my tender age.

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