大象传媒

"This story was submitted to the People's War site by the Barnsley Archives and Local Studies Department on behalf of Kathleen Helen Jones and has been added to the site with his/her permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions."

When war broke out I was in service in Blackpool. My sisters were also in service there. Mary and Martha came back to Hoyland but I stayed there longer and Mrs Thompson brought me all the way back to Hoyland when I came home.

I was in the Royal Hospital when Sheffield was bombed. I鈥檇 had an operation on my back, I had abscesses on my back and when the bombs fell we were taken and put in the cellars there. After the bombing of the Royal Hospital I was taken by stretcher to Fulwood Annexe.

When I came home I developed abscesses in my insides and had to go back in.

When my parents visited me in hospital they had to come through all the bomb damage. I had to lie on my stomach because the operation had been on my back. Then a few months later I had to lie on my back because the operation was on my stomach.

My husband served in the Royal Scots Fusiliers. He was in the Middle East and was reported missing but he returned home safely. His mother was sent a letter saying that he was in a convalescent home wounded.

We got married in February 1947 when the snow was on the ground. I had a baby boy, Fred, and when he was two my husband died, he was only 28 years old. I got a pension of 43/- a week to bring him up. I lived at my father-in-law鈥檚 house, a back to back house. The rent was 7/6 a week. I lived there for about 10 years until I got married again.

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