Sandhurst Road School bombing survivor launches war podcast

Eric Brady spent his isolation during the Covid pandemic recording a weekly podcast on being a Second World War evacuee from London to Folkestone, then Tredegar in Wales.

The now Great Sankey resident is also a survivor of the notorious Sandhurst Road School bombing, which occurred 79 years ago this month and killed 38 children, including his sister Kitty, and six staff.

The podcast consists of episodes of around six to eight minutes long posted to YouTube every Saturday, which are based on his 2012 memoir ‘Adolf Hitler, his bombers – and me’.

The inspiration for the podcast came when Covid restrictions made it impossible for Eric’s son Mike to visit him, and episodes were recorded over Skype.

Eric said: “After I published my memoir a few years ago, I gave talks to groups around the country until my wife became ill and needed me at home.

“With the lockdown, I was unable to visit Westy Hall Care Home where she now resides – a wonderful place but where she was living alone.

“My son suggested this project, which has kept us both busy.

Eric Brady decided to record a podcast during Covid lockdowns

“Revisiting these events of around 80 years ago has sometimes been an emotional experience, particularly my memories of my sister Kitty and the tough decisions my parents faced.

“We were refugees really, sent away as young children to be cared for by strangers.

“Some resented us at first because of the way the London Government had broken the miners’ strikes in Wales, but we were well looked after by our adopted families.”

Eric and Kitty returned to London in September 1942, three years after leaving home.

But just four months later on January 20, 1943, Sandhurst Road School was bombed by a lone German plane at lunchtime.

Eric was eating his sandwiches in the dining hall when the air raid warning sounded.

The headteacher sent his sister to the hall to order the children to the shelters, but there was no time.

A newspaper cutting from Eric’s archive remembering the bombing

In the emotional episode recalling the events, Eric explains: “My position was fairly near the entrance, and I saw her come in, just as the teacher shouted to us to get under the tables, and the bomb hit.

“I had been excited up to that moment until I saw the school falling down on us. Kitty came running towards me, and all the rubble hit.”

Eric was pulled from the rubble seven hours later, seriously injured, including a head injury that doctors warned could have caused brain damage.

Kitty was one of the 38 children killed, whereas Eric later married Irene, had three children and worked as a probation officer.

Since then, he has published articles and written many books, from children’s adventures to science fiction and adult thrillers.

To listen to Eric’s podcast, in which he also discusses topics such as the rise of Hitler, causes of the war, civil defence measures and Churchill’s history with Welsh mining communities visit ericbrady.blogspot.com

Eric’s full library of books meanwhile is available via ericbradybooks.co.uk