William Harold Shaw

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William Harold Shaw lived at Bulwark during the war;

Home Life.
Mother came from Barry; father was a soldier who was just finishing his time at Beachley when war broke out, was recalled 4 weeks later and sent off to the front, came back from Dunkirk and later saw fighting at all Western fronts during the war. Saw very little of his father during the war.
Remembers gathering around a neighbour’s wireless to hear the announcement regarding the oubreak of hostilities. Many people remembered the last war and those memories made the group quite forlorn. An Anderson shelter was erected in the garden. As far as food shortages go, Harry can remember that food that was normally imported - - bananas, oranges, tinned pineapples, etc., became in short supply, but seems to remember having oranges at Christmas as well as a double ration of food. Most people grew a lot of vegetables, fruit and had chickens as well as knowing local farmers and smallholders. Regarded his mother as being a brilliant cook. He can recall that clothes were rationed and that his grey woollen socks were always well darned. Most boys wore grey short trousers, grey socks and boots. Due to the lack of electricity, many of the boys used to take accumalators to be recharged at “Barton’s”, where the present “Peacock’s” stands. Seems to remember that the summers were very good during the war, or was it the effect of double summer time ? Thought the black out caused more problems for adults than it did for the children.

School life.
Attended school in two huts at the bottom of Burnt Barn Road. Remembers how the staff changed to women and / or pupil teachers soon after the start of the war. Mr. Ivor Waters was his first male teacher after the war, by this time he was at secondary school. Harry was impressed by some of the photographs that Ivor showed the class of areas he went through during the war, including one of volcanoes in Italy. There were a lot of evacuees at the school, and for part of the war years, school was on a part - time basis. It would be mornings one week for the locals and afternoon for the evacues and the next week the other way around. Harry feels that this occured because the school buildings were so limited in size and the lack of staff. There were no air raid shelters near the school, in the case of an air attack they had to hide under the desks. School dinners were taken in an old chapel, adjacent to the old Post office in Station road, and the children would walk there every day. They often used to pass prisoners of war doing the cleaning / repairing jobs around the town.

Out of school activities.
Harry was one of the first paper boys that Archie Henderson employed. Just before the war he used to deliver to various houses in the Bulwark area, but as the war developed his round diversified !! Towards the end of the war his round included the prisoners of war and some of the American service men. He used to “trade” cigarettes for camp made wooden toys through the fence of the camp and always gum from the Americans.
During school holidays many of the boys would go to the Welsh Land Settlement near Wentwood, where they would help with the harvest and collect potatoes.

War defences.
There is an air raid shelter still existing behind Henderson’s old shop in Tutshill, after the war it was used to store fireworks. The local Red and White bus depot had its own group of A.R.P.wardens as did the workers on landing craft at the shipyard. The present site of Dendix had a building that stored depth charges for the navy.

War events.
Harry’s family did not have any evacuees, as they were already a large family in a two bedroom house, but his aunt, next door, took some evacuees in. Can recollect local families hearing news of the death of their men killed during the war - - one killed in El Alemain; one on the “Hood”; and an aircraft pilot. Used to see “the men in blue” from the hospital around town. The huts in Bulwark that had been built during the W.W.1 for workers in the ship yards, had a barbed wire fence erected around them and were used to house prisoners of war. The paint shop - “Colour Fayre” used to be the cook house for the whole camp. At 5p.m the High Street in Chepstow used to be extremely busy as all the workers from the ship yard used to come to the bus stops that were placed all along the main road.
Remembered many fights in the town among and between the soldiers. One of the reasons there were so many fights between the white and black Americans was that there was no prejudice here about the black Americans going out with local girls, apart from the white American prejudice. American black soldiers were often Chepstow citizens first experience of black people. Harry can remember one particular American who used to play an Irish tune on the Jew’s harp, that had the line “in the garden where the taties grew”. Probably a first generation American. Lorries caused many accidents to the local buildings including the Town Gate. At one time it seemed as if Chepstow was sinking under the number of service men in the town, and then one day he came into town and they were all gone. Two or three weeks later when they heard of the news of the D - day landings, local people guessed were they had gone.
Can certainly remember watching dog fights over the Bristol area, and remembers a bomb dropped near Beachley.
There were frequent campaigns for money collections for the war effort as well as the optional “tax credit” that some people supported; thinks these became known as “war bonds”. Remembers going to the Food Office in Chepstow for orange juice and cod liver oil.

End of the war.
The news was gleaned partly through the wireless and partly through the newspapers. Can remember building big bonfires with an effigy of Hitler and setting it all ablaze. Thinks there was a weeks holiday from school.

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