A woman who toured schools on the South Coast with stories of her childhood sleeping in air-raid shelters during the Blitz in London’s East End has left £1,000 to the Alzheimer’s Research charity in her will.

East London Advertiser: Delia with daughter NicoletteDelia with daughter Nicolette (Image: [Zaidman family])

Delia Rauf-Baron, who grew up in Milward Street in Whitechapel during the Second World War, died earlier this year aged 84, after a short illness.

She bequeathed the gift “to give hope to people living with dementia.”

Her interest was partly influenced by her grandson Sebastian, now 20, who visited a care home with his Sunday school and continued the visits when he grew up, playing the piano and singing to residents. Delia joined him on several occasions.

Delia’s daughter Nicolette Zaidman said: “My mum grew up in Whitechapel during the War in great poverty. Her parents were so poor that Mum and her older brother Harold had to sleep on chairs as makeshift beds.”

Delia retired to Bournemouth in 1988 where she visited schools recounting her life in the East End during the Blitz. She talked about her time in the air-raid shelters, wearing gas masks and coping with food rationing.

Her gift of £1,000 will pay for 50 hours of world-class research and equipment for scientists to bring the Alzheimer’s charity closer to finding ways to diagnose, prevent, treat and cure dementia, which affects 64,000 people in London alone. Donations and bequests like Delia’s make up a third of the charity’s income.