James Holt’s Story

Available for over a year

James Holt grew up in the Walkerville area of Newcastle. His father served in the Merchant Navy so was away for most of the war years. As a young boy, he remembers the war as being quite an exciting time. A house in his street was bombed with two people killed and he remembers running home as the air raid sirens went off. He lived in a house just near a small square where four streets converged and he remembers the whole neighbourhood coming out on VE Day for a spontaneous party. A number of men went into one house and carried a piano out onto the street. James remembers them wheeling it down the road and people gathered around it singing. Bits of rubbish were dragged out from houses and a bonfire was lit, and one man arrived with a tray of beers. James was just a young lad and spent the evening running around and says he didn’t really appreciate just what a momentous moment in history it was. His sister, Sheila, who was just five at the time, remembers not being allowed to come to the party but watching it from her bedroom window.