Caring on the Home Front - Volunteer memories from World War Two

How did you become involved?

“I joined the St. John cadets at the age of 11 in September 1942 during World War Two. Cadet divisions were starting up all over London as it was the ‘in’ thing in those days to belong to a uniform organisation.
My mother was approached by a Nursing Member of Bromley Division in Kent to ask if I was interested in joining. She said, ‘I doubt it, because he fainted the other day when his cousin had an epileptic fit.’ However, I did join the 61st Bromley cadet Division, which was part of London District.”

Any special memories?

“One particular incident stands out in my mind.

It was during the time of the flying bombs, the V-1s as they called it. And we’d finished a duty, we were in uniform and we were walking home. And the air raid warning went. Well you got rather blasé about flying bombs. Unless the engine cut out overhead, you didn’t worry too much. So we just carried on walking.

We heard one coming towards us and all of a sudden, to our horror, the engine cut out more or less overhead. Peter ran to one side of the road and lay flat by a wall and I went to the other. There was then a deadly silence…

…followed by a terrific explosion a few streets away.”

What did you do?

“Now don’t ask me why. Instead of going home to our mums which we should have done, we just ran towards [the explosion] in our uniforms, our St. John uniforms.

On the way we passed people with blood coming from various parts of their body.
We got to [some] houses which had been completely destroyed and others in a very unstable state. There was an old policeman there, who had got there just before us, and he said:
‘You, St. John Cadets! Now you see that building there, that’s unsafe. Now, I want you to stop people going in there until the ARP, the rescue services arrive. I want you to stand there and just stop people going in.’

Peter and I felt very proud standing there in our St. John uniform, which in those days was a grey V-shape shirt, grey trousers with a tie, haversack and a black beret.
Several people did try to go in because they thought relatives were in there.
‘No, sorry you mustn’t go in. Policeman said you mustn’t go in,’ [we said].

Eventually the rescue services came so we made our way home and [passed] all these poor people that were covered in blood and were being treated.

I often think back; how we just ran past those poor people and didn’t render first aid. We just went to the seat of the explosion.
But then again, I suppose we were about 12- or 13-years old. I suppose you do funny things then. You’re under stress and its very exciting.”

Listen to Ron’s story

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Facts

In 1942, St. John Ambulance decided to rename its girls’ and boys’ cadet divisions. While girl divisions adopted the title of ‘Nursing Cadets’, boy divisions became known as ‘Ambulance Cadets’. The uniforms followed the same colour scheme of black, grey and white. Nursing and ambulance cadets both wore the black Balmoral beret. Differences did distinguish the ambulance cadet uniform from that of nursing cadets. Ambulance cadets wore a V-neck vest, trousers and a tie. Nursing cadets wore knee-length dresses, starched ‘frillies’ and collars, and frequently a veil. Find out more about St John Ambulance Cadets.

Facts

The spate of V1 rockets in 1944, also known as Doodlebugs, came twelve days after D-Day and tempered festive moods on the Home Front. Hitler deployed these new weapons with hopes of maximum British civilian losses with minimum German casualties. Although shaped like a small plane, the Doodlebug was actually a warhead of 1,000 kg high explosives that needed no pilot. Find out more about the Bombing of UK Cities.

Facts

As in the 1940 Blitz, London again bore the brunt of V1 attacks. Londoners grew accustomed to the buzz that warned of an attack: a low rumble, a squeak and then silence as the engine cut out, followed by a huge explosion. The 10-second silent fall to earth is described as terrifying by most people, who simply hoped that their name ‘was not on it.’ 2,419 V1’s fell on London area between mid-June 1944 and late March 1945, killing 6,184 civilians.