The Young People’s Fellowship during wartime York

There was also the horror of the York Blitz, which has stayed in the minds of everyone who lived through it ever since.

But the everyday reality of life in York was blackouts, rationing and queuing.

There were black blinds on every window, and sticky tape to try to stop the glass shattering and causing serious injury in the event of a nearby bomb, recalls Alec Hemenway, who grew up with his family in a large, double-fronted rented house on the corner of Mansfield Street and Foss Islands Road.

As for the rationing… “You had to eat what you could get for your rations,” admits the former Archbishop Holgate’s pupil. If anything new or different suddenly became available in a shop, long queues would quickly form, he recalls.

“You’d see people queuing, and the big question was; ‘what are you queuing for?’ If it was something worthwhile your mother quickly joined the end of the queue!”

At the height of wartime austerity, however, there was one club in York that provided a social lifeline for schoolchildren who were too young to join the civil defence forces or be called up.

It was called The Young People’s Fellowship. It met twice a week at the Friends Meeting House, and it was the place to go, says Alec.

Now 85, he started going to the Young People’s Fellowship in 1941, at the age of 13 – and continued to go until he was conscripted after the war in 1946.

The club was started by Russell Betts, and though it met in the Friends Meeting House – which in those days was in Clifford Street – it wasn’t a Quaker organisation. “It was non-denominational: young people from all over,” Alec recalls.

Both boys and girls used to go – there were well over 100 members of the club – and evenings used to start with educational classes. “We had natural history classes,” Alec, who now lives in Knapton, recalls.

The second part of the evening, however, would be given over to fun. “We shifted all the benches out of the way, then we used to dance!” he says. The music was usually live – Alec’s older sister, Winnie, was a dab hand on the piano.

The boys played football on Saturdays, and the girls hockey. They quite often used to meet up, too, to go to the Theatre Royal on a Saturday night. “We’d sit in the back row on the upper circle. Leslie Phillips used to be a member of the York Rep.”

In summer, there were summer camps, to Acaster Malbis or further field. “They were mixed camps, which was looked at a bit askance,” says Alec. “It was great fun – but there was no ‘trouble’.”

Lots of young people did meet their future husband or wife at the club, however – including Alec, whose late wife, Madeleine, was a club member. His older brother, Fred, and older sister, Mavis, also both met their future spouses through the club. “It was a real marriage market!” he jokes.

The absolute highlight of the club’s year was the pantomime, performed for three nights a year at the Joseph Rowntree Theatre.

Alec, who after his military service worked for Shepherd Construction, preferred being backstage to treading the boards. “I used to do the electrical side, the lighting and such.” He was once persuaded to step out on stage, however. “I got called up to play Friar Tuck. But it wasn’t much of a part!”

His dad, another Fred like his brother, once had a much bigger part in the pantomime. “He was the Dame, Widow Twankey!”

In its heyday the club had well over 100 members, Alec recalls. “Whole families of people were members.”

Today, many are still around, and attend reunions twice a year, usually organised by Shirley Myers, from Goole, and generally held at the Indoor Bowls Club in Thanet Road.

The last one was in September – and the next will be on April 14 next year.

Regular reunion-goers would love to see any other former club members who want to turn up, Alec says.

Meanwhile, if you’re a former club member who’d like to get back in touch, contact us here at The Press and we’ll pass your details on.

• We welcome contributions from readers to Yesterday Once More. However, we would ask you not to send in original old photographs, as we cannot guarantee that these will be returned.

If you have old photographs or documents you would like to share with us, either send copies, or phone Stephen Lewis on 01904 567263, email stephen.lewis@nqyne.co.uk

Helping hands

Young people tried to be useful during the war, recalls Alec Hemenway. He himself was a member of the Air Training Corps at Archbishop Holgate’s School – which, apart from training, involved occasional visits to local aerodromes. “There were about 40 around Yorkshire,” he recalls.

He and other youngsters also used to make camouflage nets. “There was a pattern underneath, and we’d use different colour roller bandages to make 20ft square camouflage nets. They went out to the forces.”

Then there were the ‘harvest camps’. “We went out to surrounding villages in the summer holidays to help get the harvest in.”

March 1941 and a new recruiting office for the WAAF is opened in Blossom Street, York, with  new recruits wished good luck as they leave for a WAAF depot

​Lieutenant General Sir Ronald Adam, GOC in Charge, Northern Command, takes the salute in Coney Street in April 1941 at the opening of an ATS campaign

The Young People's Fellowship reunion at the Indoor Bowls Club, Thanet Road, earlier this year. Alec Hemenway is stood fourth from left