Description
Object description
British schoolchild in Stowting, GB, 1939-1945
Content description
REEL 1 Aspects of period as schoolchild in Stowting, GB, 1930-1939: education; family life on smallholding; listening to King George V’s Christmas speech on radio; blackout preparations in village, 1939; degree of knowledge of First World War. Recollections of period as schoolchild in Stowting, GB, 1939-1945: attitude towards ‘Phoney War’ period; presence of evacuees in neighbouring village of Brabourne; disruption to education at Norton Knatchbull School in Ashford; presence of single Air Raid Precautions warden and Home Guard in Stowting; directives on changes for farming land; arrival of Women’s Land Army workers; parents’ fire-watching duties on crops; role of War Agricultural Committee; degree of awareness of Dunkirk Evacuation, 5/1940-6/1940; increase in presence of military in area; military deception measures on North Downs, summer 1940.
REEL 2 Continues: vulnerability of Kent; evacuation of schoolchildren from Ashford; sight of German Air Force bomber formations and aerial combat during Battle of Britain, 1940; construction of family air raid shelter, 1940; visiting aircraft crash sites; reaction to site of burnt airman; sight of aerial combat and frequency of daylight raids during Battle of Britain, 1940; gas mask practice at Norton Knatchbull School in Ashford; degree of knowledge of Auxiliary Units; sight of German Air Force bomber formation heading for London, 7/9/1940; sleeping under bed during German Air Force night raids; memories of German V1 Flying Bomb attacks, 6/1944-9/1944 including death of civilians in Brabourne; damage to family home from V1 Flying Bomb, 28/7/1944; defences against V1 Flying Bomb in area.
REEL 3 Continues: rescuing neighbour from house hit by V1 Flying Bomb; sight of remains of V1 Flying Bomb; membership of Air Training Corps (ATC); supplementing rations; clothing rations; collecting souvenirs and making rings from aircraft canopy Perspex; leaflet raids; following war news; presence of American, Polish; contact with and attitude towards Axis POWs; growing sugar beet in area and holiday harvest work; living in ‘restricted’ area; anti-invasion measures, summer 1940; construction of decoy Ashford Locomotive Works on North Downs, 1941; removal of road signs; camouflaging of local buses.
REEL 4 Continues: presence of General Bernard Montgomery at Stowing Court prior to D-Day, 1944; Allied air activity; victory celebrations, 5/1945; fear of bombing prior to start of air raids; Lord Haw Haw’s broadcast relating to Ashford Grammar School; German Air Force raid on Ashford, 24/3/1943; listening to radio; wartime entertainment; degree of awareness of war in the Far East; village activities at end of Second World War; post-war continuation of rationing; question of hopes at end of Second World War; disruption of education and uncertainties during Second World War. Reflections on post-war life: conscription into RAF, 11/1946; duties as radar operator with RAF; involvement in Ashford Borough Museum; association with Countess of Mountbatten of Burma.