大象传媒

This story was submitted to the Peoples War site by a voluteer from CSV on behalf of Asphodel Winifred Cornwell and has been added to the site with her permission.Asphodel Winifred Cornwell fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

I was 12 in 1940 when they closed my school-Seaford Senior because of the treat of invasion as we were on the south coast.My brother Steven(10,who stayed at home) had suspected measles at the time so me and my sister Ethel had to be isolated in a bedroom of our own in a big old house that had been requisitioned.After about two weeks we were billeted with a family just outside the town in quite a smart area.They were very kind.Recently I found a receipt for six shillings-that was what my mum had to pay for our board in Bedford.

We went to Silver Jubillie School where we got a very good education.My parents came to see us from time to time when they could get a permit.When we left school we went to work at the Mica factory making parts for aircraft-the breathing apparatus.

To make a bit of extra money we went potato and pea picking-we got "one and six" a bag!We did it for a bit of fun as much as anything.We made friends in Bedford that we kept in touch with for sixty years.We had a few bombs in Bedford-doodlebugs. You could hear the noise as they were swooping down.One night we heard them coming, I just instinctively picked up Edward-the little boy in the house and took him downstairs to the Morrison shelter under the table.It passed over us and dropped on the town and I believe people died.

My older brother Raymond,20, was captured at Dunkirk, we heard that he was in a prisoner of war camp in Germany just before we were evacuated.I remember sending him Red Cross parcels from Bedford.He had a bad time towards the end when they took them out of the camps and marched them across Germany-his feet were never the same again.
We celebrated VE day in Bedford.The suspension bridge over the River Ouse was shaking with the weight of all the people dancing on it. You couldn't really move -you just had to go with the crowd! People were picking up cars it was dangerous when you think about it!A few days later we had a street party, the people we lived with organised it, collecting from everyone in the street.

We stayed in Bedford until 1946 we were sad to leave our new friends but glad to get home.

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