Margaret Bochel from Nairn describes Sunday, 3 September 1939

Could you tell me where you were when World War 2 broke out and what you were doing?

Well, it was a Sunday, I remember. I was fifteen. I had just turned fifteen in August that year and it was the third of September, the day that war broke out - as far as I remember - in 1939. We were at home, it was Sunday, as I said, and we were all getting ready for church. Well, there were two, three children in my family: an older brother and a younger brother and I came in between them. And we knew that there was something important going to be said on the radio and we asked if we could stay at home instead of going to church. But our parents said, 'No, you must go to church.' But they stayed at home. And we were really very interested to hear the announcement because we knew it would be what we called a declaration of war by Mr Chamberlain. So off we went to school, to church, and did church and I suppose Sunday School because Sunday School followed the church in those days. And then when we came home, we heard the news. And we were all very, really afraid when we heard it. I remember being quite afraid of what would happen, because we knew about Hitler, our enemy, and how bad he was.