Gas Masks

A Memory of Croydon.

At the age of 7 I was told by my parents we all had to go to Wellesly Road to be fitted with a gas mask. I have a clear memory of this horrifying experience. It was one thing then another, upsetting my childhood world. First in 1939 I was no longer allowed to fly my kite in the rec at Thornton Heath, then there was all the blackout palava; now I had to have this horrible mask whose window quickly got steamed up and I couldn't breathe properly. Then a few nights later a stick of incendiary bombs dropped on the next door house (they didn't go off). So life was pretty upsetting for me what with the regular 8 pm trip down the garden to an air raid shelter. I lived and grew up at 4 langdale Rd, Thornton heath.