In 1943 the war was taking its toll as far as materials were concerned. Everything was in short supply and one morning at assembly, our Headmistress announced that our school was taking part in a nationwide drive to see which school could collect the most waste paper.

What interested us most was the fact that there would be a prize for the boy or girl who collected the most paper and there was much speculation at playtime as to what form this prize might take.

After school I hurried home and made a start gathering up any newspapers I could find. I then had to make an important decision. Should I add my precious collection of comics to my bundle? It may seem strange to you that I considered my comics 'precious' but during the war you couldn't go into any newsagent and buy children's comics. If you had ordered on to be delivered then you might be lucky enough to get one but comics such as 'The Dandy' were only published every fortnight. Finally I made up my mind and included all the comics that I had been saving to 'swap' with my friends.

My mother suggested that after I had eaten my evening meal I should go round to other houses in my street and explain that I was collecting paper for the war effort. This I did and was able to add a considerable amount to my pile.

The next job was to find some string to tie them all up, not an easy task as string was also in short supply , but my dad had a box that he put all bits of string in, and he gave me a hand tying bits together until we had a length long enough to go round. The following morning I set off for school and soon found that my bundle was far too heavy for me to carry. I had about a mile to go but, fortunately, it was downhill all the way so I dragged it behind me

I hadn't gone far before I met up with others doing the same and some of the bundles looked bigger than mine. Sure enough, when the piles of papers were weighed, there were four that were heavier than mine. 'Never mind,' said Miss Wild, my teacher, 'it's only Tuesday and you have another three days to go.'

That night I gave it a lot of thought. I was determined to come first! Then a though struck me. Before the war my dad had been the library steward on the big ocean liners and our house was full of books and you donât have to be a genius to work out that a book weighs more than a newspaper.

Even before I was dressed I ran downstairs to ask my mother what she though of the idea. 'You'll have to wait until your father gets home and ask him.' As I trudged back upstairs the less likely it seemed that my dad would let me have any books. My dad got home from work at 6 PM after a very long day (as he left home at 6 am) so my mum had told me not to bother him until he had eaten. As soon as he was settled in his favourite armchair I said, 'Dad, can I ask you a big favour?' and so the story of my collecting salvage tumbled out. To my complete surprise and delight he told that he was pleased that I was doing something so useful and that he would sort out a few books that he wanted to keep and then I could have the rest.

The following morning I found that my mother had borrowed two army kit bags that were made of canvas so they would be 'better for dragging,' she said. When they were full of books they were very heavy so we fastened them together with a leather belt which went round my shoulders. I must have looked a strange sight as I struggled off to school , more like a cart horse than a schoolboy!

When I got to school the headmistress was already in the playground weighing-in bundles of paper. On seeing all my books she came over to me and had a look at some. My heart fell when she said, 'These are too good for salvage,' but then she went on to say that they would be sent overseas for the soldiers and airmen to read.

She then said that it would only be fair to weight them as salvage! This brought a smile to my face, although some of the other boys and girls didn't appear to agree with her. The winner was to be announced after school so for the rest of the day we were all on tenterhooks. One boy was going around at playtime saying that he knew for certain that the prize was going to be a gun to shoot at Germans with, but I don't think that anyone believed him.

After the bell had run signalling the end of the school day, we all lined up in the assembly hall. I have never know a hall full of children to be so still and quiet as everyone had made a great effort and most of the older boys and girls thought they had a chance of winning.

It was then announced that. 'As everyone had made such an effort, the prize would be divided into first, second and third.' Three names were called out and I was relieved to hear mine among them. All three of us were given an envelope with our name on it and on mine it said, 'First Place' so I was delighted by that but, we were not so pleased when we opened them to find we each had only sixpence.

While six pennies were worth a lot more then than they are today, as most things were rationed, there was very little in the shops that you could buy without coupons so, on the way home from school, I went to the greengrocers and bought some apples and carrots to share with my friends.

In wartime we used to chew a lot of raw carrots as they were supposed to improve your eyesight so that you could see better in the blackout!

We all went on collecting salvage until the end of the war, but without expecting any prize other than 'doing our bit' to help win the war.