Southwark, May 11th 1941 - first hand account

[Penny Gallo]

Funny how the government always come out on top.... It is marvellous that your Dad committed these significant memories to paper. Newspaper reports at the time were so rigorously censored, and personal stories are how we can get at the truth of what it felt like. The only good thing is that all the family - plus the two parrots! - were saved. I bet that pianist could have told a tale or two as well...... Thank you

[Peph]

That would have been heartbreaking. Did they ever come to term with their loss? Dreadful, absolutely dreadful.

Bren

As I'm sure you know, Bren, that generation, by that time, had learned to come to terms with just about anything, so they hauled themselves up by the bootstraps and just got on with it. My grandfather was in his 70th year when it happened, and lived until he was 86. Also, none of their four sons died in the war, which they must have seen as a monumental blessing: so many other families didn't have that good fortune.