School Days In War Time Havant

A Memory of Havant.

In the early 1940s I went to Manor House School. It was run by Dr and Mrs Wallace, and occupied the former Rectory in South Street (the site is now covered by a housing estate and the motorway to Portsmouth). Some of the names I remember at school were Sam Butt, Ray Tribe, Dinkie Bartholamew, Lewis Strong, R? Conyers (all more senior to me), Thelma Bugg, Jennifer England, John and Stuart Shoesmith, the Brown sisters (Janet and Mary), the Al Arabi brothers, Martin Beeston, John Wilson, Nick Stokes and Denise Wilkinson. Fr Williams was one of the best teachers I have ever had: absolutely inspiring. Madame Worrell, the doughty French Mistress, was a familiar sight around town riding her massive tricycle. You didn't argue with Madame Worrell. During this time the area around Havant and Hayling Island experienced frequent attacks from the Luftwaffe (bombers and flying bombs) and many a night I spent sheltering in the cellar of our home at 31 East St listening to the sounds of screaming dive-bombers, anti-aircraft guns, and shrapnel falling around us, or standing at my bedroom window watching doodle bugs flying past on their way towards London. If the flame from their jet engine went out, you knew you had a few seconds to take cover before it hit the ground and exploded. There was even a special alert for German spies in the area just before D Day. I don't know if they ever caught any. We also savoured some of the triumphs of our Forces, such as the return of the Dieppe Raid heroes (I saw them waving their captured Nazi flags as their troop train passed through Havant station) and the great air armada of towed gliders on their way to Normandy to pave the way for the D Day landings. It made you proud to be British. I'm sending this photo to my old school and Army friend, John Shoesmith, whose father owned Preston Watson Wine & Spirit Merchants in North St.

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