I wished Mum ‘happy birthday’ during blitz
I LIVED in St George Street, Leicester, with my parents and young brother in a small terraced house.
There was a cellar and an attic and we shared an entry with our next door neighbour. There was a small backyard with a lavatory at the end.
I remember the night of November 19, 1940 very well, although it is now 80 years since the awful bombing of that night.
My father, who worked at Gents, St Saviours Road, arrived home from work about seven o’clock that evening. He came in and said: “Be quick, let’s get round to the shelter as incendiary bombs are dropping.”
At that moment, the air raid siren had not sounded.
The shelter was at St George’s School, Colton Street, which had been reinforced. This was where our family and many more people went to shelter during the air raids.
As we left our home to go to the shelter I remember very clearly seeing the curtains of Rowleys, Queen Street (part of the building was in St George Street) were on fire; the curtains were blowing through a broken window caused by an incendiary bomb.
During the night we could hear bombs being dropped. ARP wardens and other people would call into the school from time to time to report on what was happening round about. We also knew that fire engines were at work very near to us.
It was my mother’s birthday on November 20, so we were able to wish her “many happy returns” after midnight.
This is why I shall never forget the date of the worst bombing in Leicester.
After the all-clear had sounded (I think if must have been between 2am and 3am) we made our way home, and it wasn’t until just before nine that morning that I made my way to work at Wolsey Ltd, King Street.
I saw the building of Lulhams (Shoe Manufacturers) at the corner of Northampton Square and Charles Street. It was still smouldering.
Later on that day we learned that one bomb had dropped at the bottom of Swain Street bridge, another one at the top end of Peel Street.
A third had fallen on Grieves factory (knitting machine needle manufacturers) in Queen Street, and there were some casualties.
Also very near to us were the factories of Freeman, Hardy & Willis, in Wimbledon Street, which was almost totally destroyed, as well as Faire Bros.
Later, when we realised we had been in the middle of such destruction, we felt we were lucky to be alive.
Mrs OE Farrands (nee Chadaway), Leicester