War Time Photographs of Birkenhead School

I didn’t attend Birkenhead School, but I have spent more than half of my life on the Wirral and I did live close by the school for sometime, and I did knock about with some of the boys from there – play footie, drink cider in the woods and the graveyard, chase the girls, that kind of thing.

Why do I mention this? Well, I have a couple of pre-war and during-the-war Birkenhead School photographs that are fascinating things and I have put them up for sale in my ebay store.

What has this got to do with murder mystery novels? In truth, not a lot, but it is fascinating to wonder what happened to those hundreds of boys and girls who grew up just before and during World War II.

Did they witness bombing? There was plenty of that in Birkenhead. Were any killed or wounded? Did they get enough to eat – and what kind of quality was the food? Food rationing was everywhere and very strict too. Can you imagine the kids of today having their food rationed? It’s hard to picture, isn’t it. And how did it affect them mentally? Seeing their fathers and older brothers going off to fight, and maybe not coming back, or returning with hideous wounds. And were any of their houses bombed? There was plenty of that in Birkenhead too, bombing.

Somewhere in the house I have some pics of Birkenhead Park railway station after taking a pasting, and with large docks just down the road, they must have attracted the Luftwaffe like bees to honey. And were any of those kids evacuated to the countryside? My mother lived a couple of miles away at Greasby and she was evacuated to Anglesey and deepest North Wales.   

Many of those kids would soon have gone into the armed forces and the odds are that some of them would have been killed, and some of them would have been wounded. It would be interesting to know their life stories – one thing is for sure, some of them would have some pretty horrific stories to tell.

And if you are a budding writer and are casting around for something to write about, you could do a lot worse than put yourself into the shoes of one or more of those young people and tell their story as it might have panned out. One thing is for sure, your story wouldn’t be short of incident, and with a dash of imagination you could write a memorable tale that could live long in the memory.

After being evacuated, my mother proudly went into the WRENS and here’s her picture and medals to prove it.

And here’s a link to my ebay store where you will find those fab framed photographs of Birkenhead School pupils in 1938 and 1943, but don’t delay, for I hope they won’t be there for long. 

Have a great day,

David.