Beryl Dean, May Dean, and the Outbreak of War

This story was submitted to the People’s War site by a volunteer from BBC (Penny Ryan) on behalf of Beryl Dean and has been added to the site with her permission. Mrs Dean fully understands the site’s terms and conditions.

It was a Sunday when War officially broke out. I was a Big Girls’ Guide in Aldingbourne, Sussex. My group had earlier been asked to help evacuees on that day. They had gathered in a hall next to the school. We were serving them bread, margarine, pickles, mustard, and a cup of tea. My headmaster came rushing out yelling, “We are at War. War has broken out”. He had been listening to the wireless. The next thing, the Air Raid Warden came rushing down behind him. He announced an air raid alert.

My first thought was for my family at home. We lived in Norton, a hamlet one-and-a-half miles away. Our house was right at the edge of the fighter pilot aerodrome. I grabbed my bike and have never pedalled so fast in my life. I kept having visions of the trees around me being blown up.

I ran into the kitchen and saw my mother, May. I was so breathless I could not talk. She pushed me into a chair. I eventually spat out the news, but she was not at all surprised or concerned. This shocked me. What I did not realize was that my mother was a War Veteran of sorts. She had lived through the Great War and its Zeppelin planes. I clearly had a lot to learn about both my mother and wartime.

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