This personal wartime memoir by Robert Douglas Peckett, originally shared as part of the BBC’s People’s War project, offers a unique and vivid insight into life in Limpsfield Chart, a small village nestled under the North Downs on the Surrey–Kent border. Though remote and rural, the village found itself at the heart of the war effort due to its strategic position directly in line with France, London, and key RAF airfields such as Biggin Hill, Redhill, and Kenley.

Robert’s recollections paint a detailed picture of wartime Britain from the eyes of a child—where barrage balloons hovered above the village common, German and Italian POW camps lay hidden in nearby woods, and military convoys rumbled past on their way to Dover. With local dignitaries like Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Field Marshal Viscount Slim living nearby, and the skies filled with Hurricanes and Mustangs, Limpsfield Chart was anything but a quiet backwater.

This account brings to life not just the dangers and disruption of war, but also the remarkable resilience, curiosity, and community spirit that defined the Home Front—complete with air raid shelters, Home Guard rifle ranges, and an unforgettable VE Day parade led by a Canadian pipe and drum band. It is a heartfelt and valuable window into how global conflict shaped even the most rural corners of Britain.

“Our village, Limpsfield Chart, Surrey, lies under the North Downs on the Surrey / Kent border,it has about 150 houses and is directly in line with France, London and Biggin Hill Airfield. Gatwick, Redhill and Kenley Airfields, flying Mustang’s and Hurricanes are all in the surrounding 8 to 10 mile area.On the common by the Mill and the Pub, The Carpenters Arms, was an RAF Barrage Balloon Squadron located on the approaches to Biggin Hill and London, I still have some of the ropes used to hold down the balloons, they appear as good as the day they were made.

Local Dignitaries include The Prime Minister Winston Churchill,(later Sir Winston), Field Marshal Viscount Slim and Major General Fuller instigator of the Battle Tank.

In the local woods was a German POW camp and close by an Italian POW camp, to the south was an ammunition dump so you could say we were in the thick of it considering we were surrounded by fields and woodland way out in the country.

On leaving the Chart School I went to Limpsfield C of E School and of course we had to walk to school, this took us past the German POW camp. I remember seeing the Officer in charge with a pistol on his belt. On the road outside there was a guard in German uniform and I wondered why a German was guarding German POW’s, but of course he was a Polish soldier and his uniform looked a bit like the German uniform.

Limpsfield School is located on the main A25 road from the Military Garrison at Aldershot to the Port of Dover. Regularly convoys of soldiers and their support vehicles of Bren Gun carriers, Heavy Guns and Tanks all on there way to Dover and the RAF with their long low articulated recovery lories loaded with crashed aircraft on there way to Biggin Hill, all passing by with a friendly wave, of course we didn’t know where they were off to and what hardships they would have to face.

The Chart school only had an Anderson shelter in the event of an air raid, but Limpsfield had underground concrete shelters, wooden seats and electric lighting with wooden doors and an escape hatch at the other end, they were sited in the woods on the edge of the playing field by the sand pit. The sand pit was used by the Home Guard as a rifle range.
I wonder if the shelters are still there? [They are!!]

After the capitulation of Italy, a Canadian Scottish Regiment [Seaforth Highlanders – pictured] was billeted in the empty Italian camp and on VE day performed the Victory Parade on the village common with their Pipe and Drum Band. An impressive sight for a 6 year old!”

Robert Douglas Peckett – Published in the BBC’s The People’s War Archives.