Married in the Blitz

My parents were married on 8 September 1940 at St John's Church, Hendon (where my grandfather, William Harold Burrows, was the Church organist and choir master).

At the time, my father was serving with the Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry, stationed in Cornwall. Just before he was due to travel up to London, all leave was cancelled because of the expectation of imminent invasion. However, his Commanding Officer knew that he was going to be married and allowed him to go without telling him that all leave was cancelled.

My father travelled up to London and then had to walk across the city in an air raid to get to the Church in time for his wedding. My mother and father were married during an air raid, with the 'All Clear' sounding just as the wedding party came out of the Church.

Shortly after their marriage, my father was posted overseas with the Army and my parents did not see each other at all for about three years.

Because of the War, they were not able to settle down to a normal married life until 1946.

My father, Laurence Thompson, later wrote a book about that year, entitled '1940' which was published in 1966 in the UK by Collins and in the USA by William Morrow.

He also wrote the script for two early episodes of Thames TV's 'The World At War' before his death in 1972. My mother (who was also a writer, under the name Margot Lawrence) lived on until 2003 when she died aged almost 89.

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