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Kitty Blackburn nee Collins

My name is Kitty Blackburn. I was born November 1920 in Wallsend. I lived in either 17 or 33 Cuzon Road in Wallsend during World War II. The house still stands to this day in spite the bombing it took at the time when I lived at home with my mother and father.

I was employed as a Junior Nurse at the time of World War II and later progressed on to become a staff nurse. I worked at a number of hospitals across Tyneside but mainly the Newcastle General and Royal Victoria Infirmary. I helped nurse young soldiers back to health. Many of the soldiers had shell shock and shrapnel wounds as well as the mental scars of fighting in the war. I remember my junior nurse uniform was blue and white stripes with a white hat tied in a bow behind my neck. Later, when I became a staff nurse, my uniform was an all blue uniform. The material was very thick and uncomfortable to wear. Even with all that was happening, spirits remained high and we always had fun at work and that helped to ease the pain of our country being at war.

I recall one day my parents’ house was bombed by a stray air raid bomb intended either for the railway, which ran behind our house, or one of the frequent bombs that was meant for the Tyne shipyards. The small bomb came straight through the roof of our terraced house, through the ceiling and then the floor of my parents’ bedroom and finally exploded on the stairs. A fire quickly erupted on the staircase and my mum and dad poured buckets of water on to put out the flames. Men ran up from the nearby shipyards to help with people after the explosions that had hit a number of homes in our street. I can still remember being excited and not really terrified about the time that a bomb from an airplane had landed in my house.

The air raid sirens were relayed from the My mother would not let us go to the nearby air raid shelters when the sirens went off. She thought that we would catch diseases from so many people being crowded together. Instead, we hid under the cupboard below our stairs. My mum kept emergency rations under the stairs, such as bottles of water and bread. At times, we spent the whole night under the stairs in the darkness and damp, but I always felt safe.

When the sirens started the young soldiers would always run up from the shipyards since this was always an intended target. The primary job of the soldiers was to make sure everyone was safe but they were really terrified. My mum often felt sorry for them and would offer the shelter from the bombings.

I remember queuing for my ration book at the nearby Town Hall. We had to queue every month for a new book and vouchers. We ate as healthily as we could. I remember we always had bread, milk and fruit. Mum was often annoyed that there were no cooking apples at the nearby shops on Wallsend Front Street. She always loved making apple pies for us, which was a real favourite.

We were lucky to have a radio. We listened to war bulletins every day on the news. I used to visit St. Columbus Church in Wallsend every day to pray and join in the services. I think the vicar then was called Father Toner.

I now live in St. Peter’s Court Residential Home in Wallsend.
As told to the student’s of Churchill Community College on Friday 28th November 2003.

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