The Reminiscences of a War Time School Boy

By Ivor George Williams

World War II is generally considered to have begun on 1 September 1939 when Nazi Germany invaded Poland. Many young children were born in wartime and knew nothing else in their early lives, whether or not they could comprehend it—but what about teens who grew up during that time?

Author Ivor George Williams was born 25 February 1932, in Hereford, England, the same day many sources document that Adolf Hitler was granted German citizenship. In The Reminiscences of a Wartime Schoolboy, Williams records his life’s story and all that occurred for him and his family during the war years and beyond, including his military service with the Welsh Guards from 1949 to 1954, with service in Germany and Egypt.

Williams reached the age of fourteen in 1946 and was just a schoolboy during World War II, able to witness the final episode of Hitler’s reign of terror. This memoir shares his observations, thoughts, and feelings experienced at the time, telling what it was like to live during war.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse UK
• Release date: Oct 24, 2022
• ISBN: 9781728376172

Ivor George Williams

Ivor George Williams was born in Hereford, England, on February 25, 1932. After being evacuated from London at the outbreak of World War 2, he lived in Herefordshire and Shropshire during the war, and he later enlisted in the Welsh Guards in 1949. Ivor emigrated to Australia in 1957, and he served a long career as a police officer before retiring in 1987. Today Ivor has a strong interest in British military history, and he has researched and visited a number of important historical battlefields.

Book preview

CONTENTS

Preface

Chapter 1:   Hereford Before The Second World War

Chapter 2:   Hereford During The Second World War

Chapter 3:   Shropshire During The Second World War

Chapter 4:   The First Battalion Welsh Guards

PREFACE

I T IS SOME SEVENTY-SEVEN YEARS since the end of the Second World War, the deadliest conflict in history, and those who took part in its events are slowly fading away. It resulted in seventy to eighty-five million fatalities—the vast majority being civilians, mainly from Poland and Russia.

World War II is generally considered to have begun on 1 September 1939, when Nazi Germany invaded Poland under Adolf Hitler. This book is just the remembrances of a schoolboy who reached the age of fourteen in February 1946, recording facts about life and times during the war years. Adolf Hitler was granted German citizenship the day I was born, 25 February 1932, and I was able to see the final episode of this murderous political party.

Today, however, a multitude of internet sites advertise facts that fit their preconceptions of what the public is searching for. We have later generations of historians who have interpreted these according to the fashion of their times. Television programmes simplify things and have arrogantly and injuriously influenced the views of recent generations. TV producers have adapted their findings to fit their own views of what the public expects. Myths have been created and allowed to pass into folklore unchallenged. And today, the general public is subjected to a daily diet of misinformation, which is wrong information. But disinformation is a systematic effort to either promote fake information or suppress true information for the purpose of political gain, financial gain, enhancement of power, suppression of others, or the targeting of those one doesn’t like.

It’s January 2022, and I am on holiday in Portugal, and I will be ninety years old next month. I am a Chelsea pensioner and reside at the Royal Hospital Chelsea. I have been an in-pensioner since 12 December 2015 and have a small position in the hospital’s library.

As I said, I was born on 25 February 1932. A book in the library records that Adolf Hitler was granted German citizenship on that date. Bearing in mind that this monster was responsible for the deadliest conflict in human history, I intend to record my life’s story and all that occurred for me and my family during the war years and beyond. This book includes my military service with the Welsh Guards from 1949 to 1954, with service in Germany and Egypt.

My birth is recorded at Victoria Street, Hereford. My mother and father were married in Hereford on 28 March 1931. Dad, Albert Edward Williams, was born on 27 March 1903 at Hereford, and my mother was born on 26 March 1913 at Hereford. My father had been a soldier in the King’s Shropshire Light Infantry, with service in the demilitarised zone of Germany in the 1920s and service in India.

My earliest memory is being in the pram with Margie Hall. We were born at about the same time, and we must have spent the first two years of our lives together in that pram. Marge was the daughter of Mum’s sister Kate, but Granny Morris was her mother all through her life. I have always believed that Marge and I could communicate with each other without the spoken word. Another of my earliest memories is riding on my father’s bicycle. He had made a small seat and footrests.

Granny Williams lived on Greenland Road; I recall that whenever she went out, she always wore a fox fur, and I can still see