Oh what a lovely war!

Playing peek-a-boo inside an air raid shelter. Posing with a gas mask. And a rare moment of uninterrupted child's play between the screech of air-raid sirens.

These images capture the innocent joys of one family's wartime life. Captured by Geoff Price-Gowlland, these still shots have been extracted from the reels of footage he shot on his beloved movie camera.

They show his children, Rosemary, John and baby Mark, surrounded by ration stamps and home-made clothes, knitted and stitched by their mother Peggy in the family's five bedroom house in Croydon, Surrey.

And what a strangely glorious childhood they had - despite the bombs that rained down on the surrounding area and in places blew out the windows.

'People who didn't live through the War are surprised at how happy we actually were,' says John, now 69. 'Our parents protected us, so we had it comparatively easy. I can still remember the hardships, though.

'The rations, the fusty-smelling Anderson air raid shelter at the bottom of the garden. I didn't even see a banana until I was five years old!

'But I also remember that my sister and brother and I played together and had wonderful times.'

Rosemary, John and Mark passed days playing cricket and croquet, while their father ran the family business, which made medical instruments, and their mother trained as an ambulance driver.

Every couple of months, their father would get out his prized cinecamera and make amateur films of the family.

Then they would all sit down together and watch the films on a projector, over and over again. When her father died aged 67, Rosemary sealed the film reels in dozens of cardboard boxes in the attic of her Kent home, until eight years ago.

Afraid they would disintegrate, she then deposited them at the Screen Archive South East in Brighton - where they can be viewed by visitors.

And as these remarkable images prove, they are well worth the visit Rosemary says: 'My father's cine camera really was one of his treasured artefacts. He spent a long time editing films, splicing them and putting short films together into a long reel and he only stopped using it when we grew up and left home.'

Continue Reading Here

How the Foreign Office declared war on Germany with a type-written note

How Jack the Ripper's five victims turned to prostitution

The non-PC guide to policing: How to apprehend a criminal, 1907-style