His father, William 'Lar' Kernohan, had already been overseas with the local Royal Artillery battery for almost a year .. and it was not until 1945 that Roy was to meet up with his father again.

To keep the young Roy's spirits up, his grandmother, Mrs. Lizzie Kernohan of Casement Street, knocked together a 'play uniform' complete with side hat and toy gun, and, as you can see, Roy was well pleased with her tailoring efforts!

"I remember that outfit very well," laughs Roy. "I can't say I remember the day that the picture was taken but I can remember that the Moat Road then was packed with childrenin those days - the streets were a playground for everyone."

Back in 1940, Roy had no less than nine uncles and an aunt in the armed forces - which must be some kind of record considering that there was no conscription in Northern Ireland at the time.

"I suppose my main memories of the war are centred around food," he recalls. "I remember the big pancakes my mother made from the powdered egg mixture. And then there was the day right after the war when a big shipment of bananas and other fruit came into the town ... there was a queue from Pedlow's shop at broadway right down to Linenhall Street.

"You never got sweets or luxuries during the war. I do remember a big Yank soldier giving me a piece of chewing gum one day but we'd heard that many tales of them taking drugs and pills that I never put it in my mouth!"

Roy, who split his time between his home near Ballycowan and his granny's house in Casement Street, can also vividly remember German POWs out on parole walks from camps in the locality.

"There was no real animosity towards them," he says. "People would say hello to them and they would speak back. And when the summer football matches were going on at Summerfield, you used to see a whole line of their heads peeking over their camp fence to watch the matches.

"We also used to go up the Moat Hill and watch the tank crews doing their training - that was some excitement for a bunch of wee boys."
The nights of the Belfast Blitz are also imprinted on Roy's memory.
"We could see the whole skyline lit up with the flames and when a big explosion went off, the flash was tremendous."

One day in 1945,Roy was at his lessons in Harryvile School when he was told to head home at short notice.

"I walked in to my granny's house and there was my father sitting. It was strange one ... he didn;t know what to do and I didn;t know what to do! It had been five years since I'd seen him ... and my sister hadn't seen him at all. She was born about a month after he left for the Middle East."

If you have memories of WW2 childhood in Ballymena and District, why not get in touch and play a part in our ongoing community history project?