We Watched The World Go And Come Back From Ww2

A Memory of Amesbury.

I lived with my parents in the right hand side of the white house shown above (almost opposite the W & D bus station) from 1938-57. The house to the left with a hedge around the door was a small private girls school in my early memories
As the war built up we saw servicemen and women, our own, and from many countries we had previously only read about. I saw Queen Mary, having visited Boscombe Down, drop off a young airman at the bus station. Boscombe Down was always providing "entertainment" with many strange flying machines with unique attachments overhead - the runway being much closer than today. The last bus always took home the brave men who were having a night to remember before going off to war. Arnhem and of course D Day are still vivid memories. As petrol became scarce some of our buses towed hissing "gas exchangers" (my words) coke burners to provide the energy for the bus motor. Convoys of Army tanks of 20-100 along with infantry from many nations would negotiate High Street and the Queensberry Bridge while villagers looked on in awe. Small boys who kept pace with the soldiers usually got rewarded with sweets/candy or gum - we would keep pace up to the outskirts of Amesbury for those rewards. What a shock to return in later years to see our home dating back 3-400 years gone without trace.