The Remembrance Day Service takes place at the War Memorial in Sheen Lane from 1045am to 1130am this Sunday 9th November. Get there early to see the arrival of the marching groups!

As a prequel Christ Church hosted Wartime in Sheen 1939 – 1945, a memorable evening of remembrance, in poetry, prose, music and song. There were accounts from people who lived in East Sheen and Mortlake at the time. Some were read by the individuals themselves and others read on their behalf by members of the local congregations. And we all sang along with Vera Lynn and the piano playing of Alison Wilson.

EastSheenMatters plans to publish extracts from the event over the next few weeks with the approval of the authors Bernard Adams, and Mireille Stanton, who had interviewed local residents for their memories. The first are below. To be sure of seeing them all you will have to subscribe to EastSheenMatters, so as to receive the postings automatically by email.

“My brother and I had gone messing around in tiny rowing boats on Adam’s Pond with not a care in the world. They rented out little boats to children back then. Anyway suddenly my mother arrived in a tizzy to take us home immediately because she said the war had started. We couldn’t understand what the fuss was about.”

Richard

“I was only six when the war started. We lived in North London then. I had not wanted to be evacuated when so many children went away, and I was alright until the Blitz started. It was terrible. Night after night we had air raids. We were 150 yards from the railway line. The army had rigged up some ack-ack guns to shoot at enemy planes. The guns were mounted on flat wagons that ran on the lines, and the noise was a nightmare. We did not have a shelter of our own. I spent one single night in the shelter of a neighbour, but that was horrible, all cramped and mildewy.

The shattered windows of the house had been covered over with black roofing felt, but in spite of this I was as happy as Larry during daylight hours. The air raids stopped then, and I ran all over collecting bits of shrapnel. But when night came the hellish noise of the Blitz had me screaming my head off in terror.”

Mike Smith