I would like to congratulate you on the website, Chesham at War. I came across it by chance when I was in our local library [in Boston, Lincs] checking any news from Chesham.

I was born in Chesham in 1927 and I only moved away four years ago but some of the stories brought back so many memories, the evacuees, the bombs in Germain Street, the air raid shelters, the Americans. The more I think, the more things come back to me.

I know Reggie Gray but I knew his elder brother Cliff very well. Some of the things that come to mind:

Evacuees-I lived in Sunnyside Road with my parents and younger brother and we had an evacuee billeted with us by the name of John Crew. He had been there a few weeks, when one morning a van pulled up outside and in it was the entire Crew family: Mum, Dad, and two elder sisters. They lived in the Old Kent Road and were bombed out and nowhere to go, so we all mucked in together for a few months, until they found another house at Ruislip. We like the evacuees being in our community because some times we went to school in the mornings and they went in the afternoons, until they were accommodated in church halls and rooms.

I can remember the exact spots where the bombs dropped in Germain Street. The air raid shelters were as Mr Gray described but there was one rather novel one. It was on the premises of Page and Thomas (Chesham Press). It was built of bailed up paper trimmings and it stood for years after the war.

As regards to the Americans, there was not a lot of animosity with the locals. Most of the troubles came when they brought the 51st Highland division back from the desert and they were stationed in Pipers Wood. There was not a lot of love lost between them. They did fly missions from Bovingdon -- we used to see them go out and we used to go up on our bikes and watch them come back.

November, 2005