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This story was submitted to the People’s War site by Sarah Housden of Norfolk Adult Education’s reminiscence team on behalf of Violet Murton and has been added to the site with her permission. The author fully understands the site’s terms and conditions.

I’m over 100 years old, so I have seen both the Great War and the Second World War. Both my mother-in-law and my mother were bombed out during the war. Mother lived in Rupert Street in Norwich, and my father was a market gardener with a piece of land where he grew all sorts. There was an American boy we got friendly with and he died on father’s land after being shot down over it.

When a bomb dropped on the terrace where mother lived, she was with me that week, because I was unwell. She had gone home earlier, but came back because I had no wood chopped and needed her to do it for me. If it hadn’t been for me being ill, she would likely have been killed like so many of her neighbours. There was one thing that survived the bombing of her house – her feather bed was sitting on top of all the rubble. She saved it and took it to be repaired.

During the war I worked for a shoe manufacturer. I had been working on the shoes, but during the war years I worked in the office at the factory.

We had an Anderson shelter in our back garden where we went each night. Fortunately we were on high ground so we didn’t have the problems with flooding that some people had.

I enjoyed cooking during the war, despite the difficulties of rationing. I cooked short cakes because of the lack of eggs. Sometimes we used dried egg to make scrambled eggs on toast. We often had to queue for shopping and had to give up coupons from our ration books when we bought things.

My husband worked in the shoe factory where I worked, but was also a Major in the Home Guard. He was too old to serve in the forces again, and had had lots of experience in the Great War.

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