大象传媒

"This story was submitted to the site by the 大象传媒's Peoples War Team in the East Midlands with Beryl Bickerstaffe's permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions."

I was born in May 1929 and so, when the war started in September 1939 I was 10. For at least a year before the war commenced the shadow of impending conflict had been hanging over us all. In order to put things into perspective maybe I need to give a little back ground information.

I had no brothers or sisters and lived in a terraced house at the top of one of Nottingham鈥檚 seven hills. My father worked at Ericssons, my mother, although not employed, worked almost full time with the WRVS, the red cross, church fund raising efforts etc etc. However, there was no doubt at all who was the boss of the house 鈥� definitely my mother. So every summer for the first two weeks in July we went on holiday to a resort of her choice usually with my mothers widowed sister Gertrude and my fathers spinster sister Elsie and , quite often my fathers mother and occasionally my grandfather. I was very fond of Aunt Elsie and Gertie as with them I was allowed to do things of which my mother would have undoubtedly disapproved.

Due to my suffering from asthma and, more importantly, my mothers over protection of her one and only chick, I did not go to school, apart from a spell in the infants until September 1939. I say 鈥渁t school鈥�, but in fact due to the fact that the school did not have any air raid shelters, we were not allowed to use the building so we had one hours teaching per day in groups of 6/7/8 at the house of one of the pupils. Our teacher Miss Viggers, moved from venue to venue. When I began to attend school, I was one of two new girls, the other was Etta Crause, a German Jewish girl who had been sent by her parents to live with her aunt and uncle a few months earlier. Naturally we gravitated towards each other and became friends. Because hitherto I had been educated at home by a Miss Shepherd, a friend of the family, I was in advance of my peers and won a scholarship to the Grammar School to start in September 1940. Etta, maybe because she was Jewish (a clever race) or because she worked hard also passed the entrance examination to Mundella Grammar school, situated on the banks of the River Trent.

My scholarship was three-quarters of the full fee so at the beginning of each term we queued up together to hand in our cheques, mine for nine guineas and hers for thirty six, quite a lot really when you consider the weekly wage. It was only years later that I wondered who paid the fees, maybe her parents had passed on money to her aunt and uncle for her or maybe they paid it themselves as they never had parents of their own. Incidentally Etta never saw her parents again and the assumption was that they were two of the many victims of the holocaust. After the war she married a Jewish American Air Force Man and moved to America and we eventually lost touch.

I seemed to have rushed a bit, I must go back to 1938 when there was such a lot of general anxiety over the Nazis going into Czechoslovakia and whether we would be going to war but Mr Chamberlain saw Hitler and brought time for us by selling Czecholoslovakia down the river. All during this year preparations for war were going on, Air Raid shelters were being built, cellars being reinforced and many of Nottingham鈥檚 caves had steel doors built into entrances, armament factories increased their staffs by hundreds and began stockpiling whilst other factories made plans to change their manufacture slightly to meet wartime needs. Public building of military items such as Pill boxes went on all around our coasts, particularly the east and south east.

Gas masks were issued to everyone at this time and we all had to queue for hours to collect them. They were supplied in cardboard boxes which, naturally, people being what they are, were put into leather covers (later special containers could be bought and there were even hand bags produced with a bottom section to contain the gas masks). There were Mickey Mouse ones for small children and carry cot sized ones for babies which parents had to pump all the time. When the war began we were supposed to carry our gas masks at all times 鈥� imagine the fun this was with a satchel full of books etc, twice a week a sports bag full of hockey or tennis equipment and the gas mask!

All through 1938 and 1939 my mother was stockpiling masses of various goods, tinned food, paraffin, candles, soap, isinglass, toothpaste and powder, lengths of fabric from thick woollens to thin cottons, sheets and towels, needles and threads, show laces, stockings and socks, even down to writing paper and envelopes and Christmas cards! What a squire! Maybe it鈥檚 this early training but I can鈥檛 throw things away easily, after all, they might come in useful one day. All of mother鈥檚 hoardings were stored in labelled wooden boxes and placed in second of our cellars which, like many in Nottingham, were cut into the sandstone rock and, consequently were extremely dry, even so they were stood on bricks.

In July 1939 our holiday was spent on the Isle of Wight. All in the Solent there were heavy defences built on in course construction everywhere. There were also very many warships in and near Southampton and Portsmouth. On this holiday at Sandown there my parents, Aunts Gertie and Elsie, Grandma and myself. We stayed in pleasant accommodation not far from the beach and booked a beach hut for the duration of our stay. From the terrace of the beach hut we could watch warships practising techniques and planes landing on and taking off from aircraft carriers. My father binoculars were in constant use. There were boat trips to see the defences and offences at close quarters. Auntie Gertie was convinced that everyone taking these trips were German spies. All of this was very frightening for me as I didn鈥檛 really understand what was going on.

As everyone knows the war began at 1100am on the 3rd September 1939. There were a lot of changes immediately noticeable. Houses with wrought iron gates and railings had them sawn off by the government to use for making munitions. Signs 鈥淭o the public air raid shelter鈥� appeared everywhere as if by magic and posters such as 鈥渃areless talk costs lives鈥� etc began to appear. At this time signposts directing travellers were removed, it was said in case we were invaded so that the Germans wouldn鈥檛 know which road to take.

All around new airfields were being constructed and older existing ones refurbished and extended. My uncle Archie Davidson had inherited a cabinet making and upholstery business from his father and this was taken over by the government for making sectional army wooden huts. Before the war my mother had sometimes taken me with her when she visited her brother at the factory. My parents bedroom suite, the three piece, the heavy leather backed and seated dining chairs as well as the bookcase base were all made there. Whilst she talked to her brothers I used to go and see the workers and this is where I learned to upholstery 鈥� by observation. The men initially objected to making the utility furniture etc as this was not suitable work for craftsmen but they were given large, brass badges and saying 鈥渙n war service鈥� to wear and later on most of them were glad that they were in protected employment and could not be called up for the forces. Of course quite a few of them would have been over call up age anyway.

Initially my father had worked at University College on Shakespeare Street, later Trent Polytechnic but now part of Nottingham Trent University. Some time before the war he had taken a job at an apprentice鈥檚 training school but, from the beginning of the war, the school was closed down and his job was changed to admiralty liaison officer.

Immediately war was declared all cinemas and theatres were closed together with football and cricket grounds. It was promised that these would re-open once adequate air raid shelters were constructed. They did and were very busy indeed all through the war. Petrol was rationed, luxury imports banned and the planned evacuation of school children scheme put into operation. My cousin Michael was evacuated to Stamford but returned to Nottingham after less than a year, as did most of the children evacuated from Nottingham. His father, Uncle Horace, had a bungalow on the side of the river Trent at Barton in Fabis.

Right from the beginning of the war we had to black out our houses and my father was appointed Air raid Warden. His duties were to ensure that everyone in a certain group of houses was up and their shelters and the gas in each house switched off at the tap. This was a difficult job as people were loath to get up before the bombing 鈥� after that no problem. Before we had any real raids most of the younger men had been called up. In the event of a raid and air raid warden had to notify the control centre of the amount of damage and the approximate number of casualties so that appropriate rescue services could be sent.

Initially we went through the phoney war during which the following were set up and manned:
First Aid Posts 鈥� at least one in each electoral ward, with one Dr, one or more nurses, several nursing auxiliaries and some messengers. There were also some mobile units in modified double decker buses.
First Aid Parties 鈥� four men trained in first aid, whose job it was to release trapped casualties.
Auxiliary Fire Service 鈥� to back up the existing professional force.
Auxiliary police men 鈥� to back up the existing professional police force
There were also training courses in putting out incendiary bombs, working with stirrup pumps and making sand bags etc

Mr and Mrs Burt from across the road and their son, Tony, who was about my age were shelter marshals. They kept it clean, put up posters and installed cushions etc. I imported a small table, some cups and saucers and tea making facilities and a tin in which we kept a few biscuits. I also made a cover for the utensils to keep them free of dust and Tony refilled the water container each time it was emptied. If the raid was a long one and we needed go to the loo, we had to go over the road to the Burts house which was nearer than ours. The home guard was also formed at this time to guard essential sites and oppose any paratroops that might descend.

Before camps were built for them troops were billeted in private houses. They were marched along each road in turn and the billeting officers visited each house and stated how many could be billeted there. We were allocated two as we had two single beds in out attic room. My mother agreed to take two but demanded that she selected them herself. The billeting officer, unused to assertive ladies agreed. She walked among the officers and finally selected two. As it happened she chose two from the same village who had been friends all their lives. Both of them sent letters when they were sent abroad and both came back safely; they both sent my mother birthday cards up until her death.

Ration books were issued during these early stages together with identity cards (my ID number was RMEA 55 3). The quantities of rationed goods varied from time to time but always rationed were tea, sugar, butter, margarine, cooking fat, lard, cheese, meat, milk and eggs. I don鈥檛 recall vegetables ever being rationed but bread, biscuits and cake were for a long time, also chocolate and sweets. We only had home produced fruit in season so people preserved a lot of fruits in kilner jars. Eggs were preserved in isinglass. Because we could not get fruit, we children used to purchase scrubbed carrots to eat instead.

During the war people paid extra and received post war credit certificates which they were told they could claim back after the war. Actually these were only paid as people reached retirement age and of course inflation was such that the money received was only about one eighth of its original value.

As the war progressed things became more and more difficult as it became impossible to replace broken items of crockery; bedding and other linen items wore out and couldn鈥檛 easily be replaced. My mother hoarding paid off as she was able to exchange some of these items for other things that we needed.

Many women began doing men鈥檚 jobs. Women became factory workers in munitions; they also became bus conductors, train guards and ticket collectors, postmen and many other jobs only considered suitable for men. They also became land workers via the women鈥檚 land army and of course joined the forces. Other carried on doing women鈥檚 work, making uniforms black out curtains etc. Only women with a child under 14 did not have to work 鈥� all others did.

Many things were in short supply or not available at all so we had some alleviation of the restrictions re school uniform. It was also difficult to obtain tennis racquets, shows and balls, hockey sticks, shoes and balls and other sports gear and there was a big rush at the end of term to buy items from people who were leaving. School text books were at a premium too and everyone was anxious to buy these second hand too. We had to buy everything in the usual system with regard to notebooks, exercise books, jotters and all other day to day needs. With regard to homework 鈥� school said that we were to start each new piece at the top of a page; my mother if she saw me doing this insisted that I use up all the paper so that we were more economical. Whatever I did I got in trouble at one place or another.

When we had an air raid warning during the night, we were allowed to arrive at school 20 minutes later than normal. Big deal! We had air raid shelters at school built on part of the playing fields. When the sirens went during the raids we went to these shelters as a class complete with the teacher of which ever subject we were studying at the moment and lessons were carried on so far as was possible depending on the subject. By the time the all clear sounded we were often well into the next lesson.

One day when I was in the third form I was on a bus going from Trent Bridge up Arkwright Street towards the market square. A German plane, a two seater came along flying very low and machine gunned the road, carried along up past Angel Row and the Odeon Cinema and on up to Derby road past the Albert Hall and the Catholic Cathedral before it flew off. I never discovered what had happened to it after that. Our bus had smashed windows and holes in the roof 鈥� we were on the top deck but some how none of us were hurt. Some boys added to the damage by digging into the sheet to get the bullets out as souvenirs. There was complete chaos. I received a nagging when I got home for being late and another for inventing stupid tales to cover up what I had been doing. Even when she discovered that I had been telling the truth, there was no apology.

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