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When you consider the war and all the restrictions and hardships that were put on the people of Britain as a whole; children of course were in the midst of it all, but it seems generally they took it all in their stride.

In the 1990鈥檚 local historian, Phil Carradice, interviewed a number of people from Barry and the Vale of Glamorgan who shared their first hand memories of war time childhood in Wales between 1914-1918.

We hear from people like Miss Augusta Club who remembers when the Yanks arrived in the summer of 1918 and running to see them all lined up outside the Town Hall in Kings Square in Barry and Mr Ernest Plum tells us 鈥渨e seemed to spend our lives just playing.鈥�

Between 1914 and 1918 Britain didn鈥檛 have enough hospitals to cope with the casualties from the Western Front. The government wasn鈥檛 going to build more hospitals, so instead they took over school buildings. The children from these schools were sent to other schools close by. In order to accommodate everyone, their day had to be cut in half - so some children did mornings and others afternoons. As the number of war time casualties went up and up, a half day at school gradually became the norm - so half a day in school and the rest of the day off, playing.

The real war time memories of the people of Barry and the Vale of Glamorgan have been voiced by actors.

Location: Barry Town Hall, King Square
Image courtesy of The Imperial War Museum and The Vale of Glamorgan Libraries
Contributors: Historian, Phil Carradice

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