Janet Betterton, c.1940, in the garden at 26 West Side. Her father was in the RAF — hence the Field Service Cap she is wearing (aka a "chip-bag"). (Click to enlarge.)
Janet Betterton, c.1940, in the garden at 26 West Side. Her father was in the RAF — hence the Field Service Cap she is wearing (aka a "chip-bag"). (Click to enlarge.)
Janet Paul (née Betterton) was born in 1933 and grew up at 26 West Side, Wandsworth Common, near the top of Trinity Road. She was six years old when war was declared in September 1939. The family home survived the bombing of the area but was among the houses demolished in the late 1960s to make way for the widening and extension of Trinity Road.
She moved from Wandsworth to Writtle, near Chelmsford. Later in life she moved to Coulsdon in Surrey, to be near her son and other members of her family.
In the spring of 2024, at the age of 92, Janet wrote two letters to me describing her memories of wartime life on the Common and in the surrounding area. She died on 11 May 2026, a few days after her 93rd birthday,
Her brother is Hugh Betterton, who has also contributed memories of West Side to the Chronicles.
Janet Paul (née Betterton), aged about 14 months, outside the family home at 26 West Side, Wandsworth Common, 1934. (Click to enlarge.)
My brother, Hugh, has asked me to dig into my memories of the war years as I was just turned 6 when war was declared and can remember some of it.
We lived at West Side, just at the bottom of Trinity Road — the house was pulled down in the late 1960s for road-widening. I went to All Farthing Lane school in 1937 when I was nearly four and a half, so was there at the beginning of the war.
In early 1940 my mother put me on a train “in charge of the guard” — just imagine doing that with a 7 year old now! — to go to stay with her cousin just outside of Carlisle. I was there for a few months — ironically the first school I went to there was bombed, so I moved to another — but went home later that year.
In 1941 we went as a family to Wiltshire where my paternal grandmother had a job as a housekeeper on a farm — during the war all women under 60 (I think that is the age) had to work or be in the services unless they had dependent children. My next brother and I stayed with the cowman’s family next to the farmhouse while my mother and my younger brother stayed in the next village.
That was a marvellous time because we had great freedom to play in the fields and river, and I learnt to milk a cow! I also realised how much forward London schools were compared to small village ones, when I was set to help the little ones read because I had finished the work scheduled for the under-11s!
My mother wasn’t really happy being away from home and we returned to Wandsworth Common later that year. I am a little hazy about whether All Farthing Lane had returned by then: I know that I did go to a small private school for a while but am not sure which year that was, but I am sure that I was back at AFL in 1942.
You may well know that on Wandsworth Common there was a barrage balloon site and that seemed to work because we had virtually no bomb damage in the immediate area, except for a couple of houses being destroyed further along West Side.
On the small piece of the Common there was a shelter and my mother helped there for a while as my grandmother was living with us and could keep an eye on us in the evening.
My only memory of being afraid was when I was going home from school one afternoon when a plane started shooting and bullets were dancing around me on the pavement! So I ran!
When we were at home we had proper beds down in the cellar as the theory was that that was safer than being up in the house. When the “doodle-bugs” arrived, if we could still see the tail flame through the lid of the coal hole and hear the engine, that was OK as they were still moving away, but when it went silent, they were going to come down pretty soon.
One of the things that did have a great impact was food rationing. If you were a family, as we were, I think it must have been easier to combine the ration allowances. For instance, I think it was two and a half ounces of meat a week; under fives had more milk — 5 pints a week I think — but no tea ration.
I do remember a local greengrocer having a delivery of oranges — almost literally gold dust! — and the queue was along the street. There were even stories of women going home, changing their hat (they all wore a hat then) and coming back to try for some more. And the meat rationing didn’t end until 1954.
I saw the pictures of prefabs in your email, but can’t recall where they were locally. A school friend of mine lived in one in, I think, Southfields, and we loved going there especially in the winter because it was warm!
I was at school in Putney when the war ended and we were all called into the main hall to listen to the broadcast announcing peace. As I had heard the original broadcast announcing “We are at war with Germany” in 1939, that seemed to complete the circle.
But, you know, that was how it was and, of course, as a child you don’t have the same level of fear as an adult would because you aren’t really aware of the likely consequences.
Perhaps some of this will have been of interest to you.
Janet Paul, 30 March 2024
Janet Betterton and David Paul on their wedding day at St Mary Magdalene Church, Trinity Road, Wandsworth, 1954. (Click to enlarge.)
Yes, I have seen about the balloons and I think they worked as we had very little bombing near us.
Did I say to you that when the docks were bombed, we could actually see the reflection in the sky of the flames — and that must have been some distance away. Regarding bombing, one of the targets was obviously the railway, but even with the large area of Clapham Junction station, only one bomb landed there and that was on an outside line — platform 19 comes to mind, but I wouldn’t swear to that.
I’ve been trying to remember what happened at school if an air raid siren went off. No shelters so far as I remember so I presume we just stayed put where we were. Strangely, I don’t remember being frightened, but as a child I wouldn’t have had any real idea of the likely impact I suppose. Or we just got used to it.
Looking back, it really is strange to think that for nearly six years we were at war with all that entailed. And how amazingly the women coped. In many, if not most, households, the men held the purse strings and handed out housekeeping money for food shopping for instance. Then, suddenly the men were away and the women had to deal with all of it. Just think what a task that must have been for some.
The more you think about the war years, the more things come to mind.
Something else I thought about. Do you know about the so-called salt pan on Wandsworth Common, up just before the railway line? I have no idea what it was, but it was quite deep and in the winter when it snowed it was magic with a sledge.
In fact, I remember getting into real trouble with my mother when I had taken my two brothers up there with a sledge — I suppose I was nearly nine, so they would have been rising six and three — and the younger one fell off into the snow so was soaking when we got home! I wonder what it actually was — digging for salt in Wandsworth seems a bit far-fetched to me.
I expect you have looked at the old cemetery on East Hill at the end of Trinity Road, where the Huguenots were buried? I think they came over in the 18th century, or perhaps a bit later, and were silk weavers. I’ve no idea why they should have settled in that area, but they obviously did.
When I was a child, seeing those French names on the stones was absolutely fascinating. I suppose it must still be there.
Janet Paul
Janet Doreen Holmes Paul, 5th May 1933 – 11th May 2026. Order of service, Writtle All Saints Church, 10th June 2026.
The house at 26 West Side where Janet grew up was demolished, along with numbers 27–31, in the late 1960s to make way for temporary works offices during the construction of the Trinity Road extension. After the road was completed, the site offices themselves were demolished and a block of maisonettes erected in their place. Read more about the Trinity Road widening in June’s Chronicles.
The “salt pan” Janet recalls sledging on is more usually called the Frying Pan.
Janet's comments about the barrage balloons are particularly interesting because her father had been actively involved with them.
Hugh Betterton (born 1949):
My father was in RAF and looked after barrage balloons on Myatt's Field in Camberwell. I believe that my mother visited him on occasions and my sister claims that our mother walked from there back to Wandsworth while an air raid was happening... knowing my mother, I would believe that!
Trevor Betterton (b.1936), Janet and Hugh's brother:
The site on Wandsworth Common was part of 904 Squadron, Auxiliary Air Force, formed in March 1938.
The squadron had numerous sites around south west London, one of them opposite 26 West Side, the personnel were housed in 1 Trefoil Road.
I seem to remember Dad was based at Clapham at some time in 1939.
904 Sqn was embodied in 2 Balloon Command, Royal Air Force, on 6 August 1939.
Dad joined 904 Squadron in November 1938. He went on to become an Airfield Controller in 1942.
Warm thanks are due, once again, to Hugh, for making the introductions and sending photographs. Thanks, Hugh! And of course to Janet herself, whose recollections give us so much pleasure.
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