Bert - the London Docks was a rare old place to be at that time! Glad he survived. He must have had some tales to tell of when the dock are and the East End went up in flames.

My dad was in the Home Guard at the age of 19, just before joining up in 1941, and he remembers standing on the tower of Blackrod Church (St. Katharine's) with the unit, watching Liverpool burn from the bombing. And Liverpool's a fair few miles from Blackrod...

It was my grandfather (dad's father) who did most of the singing when I was a child, and I remember sitting on his knee while he sang a song with the words "Mary Ellen at the church turned up" - to which I'll find the tune and words one day, in my copious free time!