War games, Edmonton 1940, a story by Phyllis Ellis

It is 1940. Evening comes early to Edmonton in the winter. Our family has finished traditional Sunday dinner of Roast Beef and Yorkshire Pudding (my mother was from Yorkshire and was an expert in the art of making it) and washing and drying the dishes. No dishwasher then!


The table is cleared and my brother brings out his treasured lead soldiers. Books, boxes and pans are placed strategically to simulate hills or other changes in the landscapes, a cloth is placed over all, indentations made in appropriate places and then the soldiers, lorries, tanks, ambulances, etc., are all painstakingly placed ready for the “battle” about to be waged.


How our imaginations went into high gear! Sometimes it was a “British Square” against the Zulus in Africa, sometimes a battle in the Khyber Pass of India, perhaps the French Foreign Legion in the Spanish Civil War or World War I in the trenches of France, but most often it was the Second World War through which we were living and hearing about every day.


There were vocal sound effects of gunfire, a groan as someone was wounded, a bugler blowing “Charge” or some other order - - - a call for “Stretcher Bearer” ... I as a little sister, pleased to be allowed by my brother to play with him and his friends, contented myself with being in charge of the Red Cross station “behind the lines”. Every so often, to keep me quiet, a patient was brought to me for medical care.


This activity went on for several hours until Mom said it was bedtime or something else tookusaway.


This activity went on for several hours until Mom said it was bedtime or something else took us away.