大象传媒

On reaching my 18th birthday in 1942 I received my 'calling up' papers advising me to report to Yeadon, Leeds. Having left home for the first time I caught the train to Leeds. Upon arrival I found myself assigned to aircraft manufacture at the Avro factory as an 'electrician'. My role was to wire the circuits for the cabin lights in Lancaster bombers. All the conscripts were housed in a hostel close by. We all had a single room with all meals served in a canteen. For entertainment dances were organised. The working day lasted for 12 hours and we worked for 4 weeks on days, followed by 4 weeks of night work. Leave was permitted over the weekend on change over days. Alol my leave was taken in returning home to see my parents.
Prior to my call up I was living at home and had worked at Reckitts since the age of 15. Reckitts was one of the town's largest employers. I was a machinist in the 'fancy box' department, where we made drums and canisters for the company.
Due to the concentration of bombing by the Luftwafer one always left work at night, not knowing who would be missing on the following morning. The air raids were constant and we spent many nights in the air raid shelter. I recall one night when, unknown to my parents, I had met a friend and gone to the cinema. Whilst at the pictures an air-raid took place and the local store of Hammonds and the Shell Mex building were both hit, causing large fires to start, with many casualties and deaths being reported. Immediately all buses stopped running, as was the normal practice. This resulted in me having to walk home, a distance of several miles. The devastation, following the air raid, was severe and I remember having to walk in the road to avoid the shards of glass on the footpaths.
On another occasion, when I was at home in Bilton Grove, Hull, a landmine fell behind our house. At the time I was sat in the lounge, writing an insertion to put into the Hull Daily Mail evening paper, to mark my parents silver wedding day. The bomb caused much damage to our house. After I had recovered from the blast I found I had been blown into the kitchen!
One good thing that came out of these difficult times was that I met my future husband, Allan Dale, who, as a result of his home in Rensburg Street being damaged, was allocated a house in Bilton Grove, near to my home. He also worked at Reckitts ane so we eventually cycled to work together. In 1949 we married and this year celebrate our 56th wedding anniversary.

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