Being a Choirboy during WW2

During the War I was a leading chorister in my local church in Hampstead, North West London. When the evacuation started all the choirboys in London seemed to disappear. Around this time it was decided to form a 'Special Choir' to cover special services in St. Pauls Cathedral and Westminster Abbey. It was a great honour for me to be invited to join this choir and to sing in these two wonderful churches.

On one memorable occasion I was singing in St Pauls when I was asked if I would like to climb to the very top, right under the gold cross. This was a very special privilege and I was very excited. As you reach the final platform, you have to climb a ladder, which takes you to the windows under the gold cross. The windows had been blown out by the bombing and it was quite windy up there. As I looked around from the tallest building in London at the time, 365 feet high, all I could see was complete devastation, the result of the bombing. Yet this magnificent Cathedral still stood defieant. Down below where the bombsites had been cleared, there stood these enormous metal tanks full of water ready to fight the fires. To me as a young lad from that height they looked like tins of polish.

After the service, several of the boys, myself included were invited to tea with the Lord Mayor of London at the Mansion House. During tea he thanked and praised us for our courage in continuing to sing and help to keep up peoples morale. Back in my own parish I sang in hospitals, especially at Christmas, air raid shelters, and was in demand for weddings and sadly many funerals where I sang solos of favourite hymns.

During all those terrifying years of the Blitz, travelling all over London, and attending my local church every week, I can always hear my mothers words to me "Don't worry, you will be safe in Gods House".

Thankfully she was right, however our own home was badly damaged.

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