In September 1939, I was eight years old and attending Kirkland School at Kendal when the war broke out – and life changed completely.

All the suitable men were called up for war service and we children were expected to do our bit.

Thoss of us whose mothers could knit were issued with hansk of Air Force blue wool, which we took home, wound into balls and started knitting into scarves for the airmen.

We soon progressed to balaclavas, then socks, using four small steel needles.

We never went out after dark because of the blackout.and so knit every evening until 9pm. Then we would listen to the radio to hear what Mr Hitler was doing.

We were never afraid of his threats to gas us. We all had our nice, new gas masks and regular gas mask drills at school and there were competitions to see who could embroider the fanciest cases.

We were living at Helme Drive by then and every night we heard the German bombers going over to bomb Barrow shipyards.

George Hillbeck had allotments at the bottom of the street and he had an air-raid shelter dug out for all who wanted to use it.

When the siren went, we used to put a coat on over our night clothes and go down into the shelter.

I remember it being cold and damp, but we felt safe.

We stayed there for hours until we heard the ‘all clear’ and the planes returning to Germany.

My mother let me sleep in next morning, then I got into trouble at school for being late, until the teacher found out the reason.