大象传媒

During the war Dorothy Norman, mam, was too young to join up but she still tried to do her bit. When she was about 15/16, around 1944, she went to work on the railways, cleaning the carriages which fetched and carried troops up and down the country. Then, the mainlines were LMS and GWR. She used to enjoy polishing the brass handles of the carriages. Often, in quiet times, the fire-men would give her a ride on the steam engines as they moved the engines up and down the sidings.

American troops could often be the passengers of the trains that she encountered at Leeds Railway Station. As the trains were arriving or leaving, the 'yanks' as they were known, would shout 'Hey Red' at mam on account of her ginger hair, and throw sweets or sometimes nylons out of the carriage windows for her and the other girls. I don't think she managed to get hold of the nylons as they were like gold-dust, and the older girls would grab them. Mam really enjoyed this job and, although she was glad when the war ended, she was sad to leave it. She understood though, and felt it was only fair, that the men returning from the front had to have their jobs back.

After the war mam joined the ATS for a while, in about 1946/7. Her elder sister Kathleen had enjoyed being in the ATS, somewhere in Gloucestershire I think, during the war. As mam joined up in peace time, it was a very different experience to what she had expected, but she still gave it her best anyway. Mam's other elder sister, Gladys had worked in a munitions factory in Leeds.

Her eldest brother Ronald was in Italy during the war where he was captured. When they tried to interrogate him he pretended he could not speak, whereupon they tried various inducements to catch him out but to no avail. One day, Mam spotted a familiar figure coming down their street. It looked just like Ronald, and after doing a double take, she ran home to tell her mother, Ivy, who thought she must be mistaken as he was a prisoner of war. But mam was right, it was Ronald, and the family were surprised and delighted to see him walking towards their house in Leeds. He had managed to escape and the story was later covered in the local newspaper.

漏 Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.