War Time Wimbledon

A Memory of Wimbledon.

During the war I was a pupil at St Mary's school in Russel Road, about 100 yards from the theatre. When there was an air raid during school time, the whole school would march up to the stage door of the theatre and all of us gathered under the stage where we would say prayers and be told stories by a teacher. When the all cear sounded we would go back to school again. Very often night raids would keep us awake well after midnight and the next day at school all the children would be very tired, our teacher would say. "children, lay your heads down and go to sleep", which we did very quickly. I spent the whole of the war in Wimbledon and lived there until 1964.