A RAMSGATE BOY’S MEMORIES OF THE SECOND WORLD WAR

A couple of new books out today the first being A RAMSGATE BOY’S MEMORIES OF THE SECOND WORLD WAR By Denis Rose.

This is an A5 32 page booklet priced at £2.99 including p&p to a UK address, it will be available via our website hopefully by the weekend, if you can’t wait until then email me MichaelChild@aol.com

Alternatively you can ring 01843 589500 or come to the bookshop during shop hours 9.30 to 5.30 not Thursday or Sunday, all normal payment methods accepted, Visa, Mastercard, Paypal, cheque, cash.

Here are my notes from the book, and the first page, by way of introduction.

Publisher’s note

As you can see although Denis wrote this memoir in 1996 and died in 2001 it has only recently come to me for publication. World War 2 is fast slipping from living memory and I am anxious to obtain any other Thanet war memories for publication.

The picture on the back cover relates to the aeroplane that flew into Wellington Crescent and shows the damage to the front of the house there.

Another factor of interest to those reading this may be the school leaving age, I hope these notes are useful. The first school leaving age was set in 1880 at 10 years, this was raised to 11 in 1893, 12 in 1899, 14 in 1921, 15 in 1947 and 16 in 1968.

I would say from personal experience that the whole business of being able to work under the school leaving age extended up to about 1970 as there was much less regulation of casual employment.

The book “Thanet at War” mentioned at the beginning of this booklet is now out of print and costs around the £20 to £30 mark secondhand, other books of interest are: “To a Safer Place; more memories of Kent evacuees” this covers Thanet, Canterbury And Ashford, was originally published in 2000 at £14.95 and I still have a few copies in stock at this price.

My own publications; “Dangerous Coastline 1939 – 1945”, “Ramsgate August 1940” and “Midst Bands and Bombs 1946”.

These are available from our website michaelsbookshop.com where there is more information about them, or of course you can ring up or write to the bookshop, for more information or to order them, contact details at the back of this booklet.

Finally just to say I found this an interesting and edifying read that adds to my understanding of Ramsgate during the Second World War.


Michael Child March MMXI


ALL OF SUDDEN EVERYTHING WAS DIFFERENT

Having received a book “Thanet At War 1939 – 1945” for Xmas 1996 from my daughter and son in law, Terri and Nick, and glancing through it set me thinking back to when I was a boy. I remember the morning the war started. It was a Sunday and everyone was going about their normal business – but all of a sudden everything was different.

A man announced on the radio that “we have had no communication from the German Chancellor, so consequently we are at war with Germany”. Everything went quiet all around, out in the street and indoors, then the siren went – a long wailing sound.

My Mother said, “What do we do now?” Nobody knew, so we got under the big wooden kitchen table. Why? I don’t know. I suppose we thought it was safe there.

Later the All Clear Siren went (a long continuous note) and everyone in the street went about their business. I was seven and a half years old and that date was September 3rd 1939.

 I had a sister Angela, three years younger than myself, who suffered from fits, due to a fall down the stairs when she was about two years old. Over the next few weeks we were supplied with an Anderson Shelter, which was set up in the garden, about six feet down. We lived at 60 Winstanley Crescent. The other book is a Ramsgate Street Directory for 1923, I don’t seem to have written any introduction to this one. This is an a A5 booklet 84 pages price £4.99 including p&p in the UK and tell you where the businesses were and who lived where in Ramsgate, in 1923. The rest of the local books I publish can be found at http://www.michaelsbookshop.com/catalogue/