DOB: 02/07/1927

Felix Burns

I went to 3 different schools - St Mary's infants, St Mary's at Patrick Street and St Columba's - the old site at the top of Greenock. School began at 9.30am and ended at 3.50pm. We had 42 children in our class, two to a desk and we didn't have a school uniform. The Greenock Academy pupils wore uniforms but that was the only school I knew of who did. The rest of us couldn't afford them.

At school breaks we played football, football, football and fighting in the playground. Sometimes we raced each other but mostly it was playing about with balls. We didn't have full size footballs, just tennis balls and other small balls. In the morning the teacher would come out into the playground and blow his whistle and we all had to freeze. The balls would continue rolling down the playground but we had to remain still and couldn't go after them. Then the teacher would, eventually, blow the second whistle and we'd all have to get into our lines. On the third whistle we marched into school.

My teacher, Miss Barrie, told us a lot about the war. She'd been to Germany so could tell us about the Germans and what they were like. She bought charts to hang on the wall to show us the strengths of the various armies. If she saw any item of war news she thought interesting, she brought it into school and told us about it.

I was too old for a Mickey Mouse gas mask when the war started. I was 12 so I had an ordinary mask. We had to travel everywhere with them and you'd get the strap if you forgot to bring it with you to school.

We only ever had air raid drills in school. The janitor would ring the bell instead of a siren. We never had any real raids during school time as air raids only happened at night. These would get us out of our beds. The rule was that if the all clear sounded before 2am you had to go to school the next day but if it sounded after 2am you got the next morning off school.

There was no canteen in the school so we all went home for lunch. That meant I had to run from Patrick Street all the way up to my tenement in Broomhill, eat my lunch and run back down to school - all within the hour. I even had time for football when I got back. It kept me fit.

I delivered milk in the morning and newspapers in the evening when I was still at school. When I left school I became a telegram boy. I travelled around on my red bike and as soon as I stopped everybody would be looking out of their windows. With so many people away at war everyone was wondering if I was coming to give them bad news. Sometimes there was bad news and it wasn't very pleasant at all. I worked as a telegram boy for 3 years during the war.

Felix Burns with Free French Sailors

I left school at 14, which was quite common in those days. The Headmaster wanted me to stay on in school for further education but I wanted out.