大象传媒

EXTRACTS FROM 鈥淢Y LIFE BY HILDA MARIS

nee Davidson. Hilda lived in Sheffield during the war years and she wrote her life story which the family printed after she died, aged 82 in 2000.

We became engaged on December 6th, 1937, planning to marry in two years time. I was then 20 years old and Ron was 22 years old
There was much talk of war at this time and Ron joined the Auxiliary Fire Service in 1938 for part time training in case of emergency. I was quite settled at Atkinsons (a department store) by this time and had worked in several departments. Then came the big day when war was declared, September 3rd, 1939. A beautiful sunny autumn day. Before this it had seemed inevitable and the store was awash with millions of yards of blackout material for everyone to darken their windows. Gas masks were issued and had to be carried at all times. We bought sticky tape for the windows to prevent flying glass. All the street lights went out, torches had to be reduced to a narrow strip of light, car lights too. Buses and Tram windows were covered with a black mesh, with little peep holes at each seat for you to peer out to see where you were. First Aid and Air Raid wardens were busy everywhere.

Life was interrupted for everybody and things would never be the same again. Ron spent that first day digging in an Anderson Air Raid shelter for his grandmother and I went along to watch. I was wearing, I remember, a new mustard coloured suit and new black shoes that nipped a bit round the toes. Ron was called into the fire service straight away and was kept busy at first helping to erect emergency water tanks, all marked E.W.S for emergency water supply. This was a dirty job because Bitumen was used to seal the tanks.

At the store, things were pretty chaotic. Members of staff were being called into service and we had to prepare cards and papers for them in the office. At the same time, my young brother Eric was called up as he had joined the Territorials the year before. As my mother was away visiting Somerset, I was allowed home to attend to Eric鈥檚 needs for departure. I also had the job of sorting out the blackout materials and making curtains for the Western Road house. My parents and family had moved there some months previously, a much larger house with four bedrooms.

Ron鈥檚 brother Ernest was also called up at the same time as he was also in the Territorials. Both Ron and I went to seek them out in a schoolyard where they had to report. They were all locked into the yard, like animals in a cage. It was very upsetting for us all.

During this time, Ron and I were trying to arrange our wedding. We had planned for September originally but the date was finally fixed for December 26th, Boxing Day when Ron would just be allowed the day off. Then we also had to find somewhere to live, visiting various sites in the blackout was not easy. We eventually decided on a new semidetached house at Intake. This had been sold and back word given because of the war. They were now prepared to rent it. It never occurred to us to borrow money to buy. It was just not done then. It was a tricky time to buy anyway when we expected to be blown to smithereens
We were married at St. Timothy鈥檚 Church, Crookes, Sheffield .One of the firemen provided the transport and drove us to the church, which was just around the corner. After the ceremony he ran away with us to visit the Fire Station where we were toasted by the men on duty.
Ron had to be at work at the Fire Station at 7am the next morning, across the other side of the city. It had always been a private joke that he arrived an hour too early and sat in the local park till it was time to go on duty. He was so determined not to be late and we did not know how the transport was so early in the morning.
I had a week off work to settle down in our new house With the extra expenses we were going to have, plus the fact that Ron would be due for call up into the forces, I decided to look for a better paid job.

Our cashier Mr Ryder was very good at letting me have time off to go for interviews as he realised the situation. After about three interviews I took a job with the Ministry of Food on the meat rationing scheme. This meant working at the corporation abattoir. What a change from a luxury store to a steel and concrete building! So within a short period I had received a wedding present (clock) followed by a gold signet ring as a leaving present. I was sad to leave all my old friends at Atkinsons.

We settled down into a new routine. When Ron was working nights I saw him briefly at the bus stop in town on my way to work. It was a strange sort of life. We did not see much of each other. When we did Ron was always so tired. He was doing overtime most days working on new schemes. Apart from the sirens going on the first day of the war things seemed pretty quiet while everybody prepared as much as they could for whatever might happen.

We did have a week鈥檚 holiday in Blackpool, a sort of delayed honeymoon.

Ron was called up to serve in the army on June 6th, 1940 in the Royal Corps of Signals to report to Catterick Camp. I saw him off at the railway station and went back to work feeling really lost. Wondering what the future had in store and of course if I would ever see him again. We did not know what would happen. The future was so uncertain. So, once again a new phase started in our lives. Ron was fully occupied with his army training at Catterick and also taking part in the sports programme, playing cricket, football, running and even boxing - all of which he thoroughly enjoyed and he felt very fit. He was not allowed any leave at all while at Catterick, but I went up to see him one weekend. The trains were very crowded; sitting on your case in the corridor. I had to change at Darlington and was met at Richmond by a stranger. Apparently Ron was running in a race and could not get away, so asked a friend to meet me and take me up to the sports ground. I bought him a signet ring on that occasion, but he never really took to wearing it.

I had booked to stay at the local Sawmill guest house, where I had for supper cauliflower cheese on toast for the first time. It was a quaint place but they made me feel very welcome. Ron was still unable to get leave so I had to see him in between his duties. I also met some of his new pals and was secreted into the barrack room to see how they lived.

He did eventually get a lift home one weekend going absent without leave with some pals. It was a big risk but they were all fed up of being cooped up in camp. I prepared a meal for six when they were due to pick him up to return, but when they arrived they were so 鈥榦n edge鈥� they would not stay for the meal. I was left with a table full of food and felt devastated. Fortunately, they got back without being stopped by the military police, quite an adventure, but was it worth it?

I was kept busy working at the abattoir for N.E.W.M.S.A (North Eastern Wholesale Meat Supply Association). I allocated (on paper) the shipments of meat to various towns around the area. I had friendly people to work with and it was a happy office, mostly men but two girls arrived later, both of whom I knew and had worked at Atkinsons. The meat was costed out to one eighth of a penny per pound and books had to balance at the end of each week. Canteen meals were available, so that helped out with the food rationing. Some days we finished early or worked late according to the job in hand.

I also had my house and garden to attend to and wrote to Ron every day, numbering each letter. I visited my parents and Ron鈥檚 parents at the weekends. We had of course the sirens to contend with, getting up in the night and going to shelters. We even started to come home early and bring our work home with us. As the abattoir was next to the railway and considered a big risk, after some time our office was transferred to a private house, in a safer area at Nether Edge and later still to a much larger listed property called Thrift House on the edge of the town near Ringinglow. This was much further to go to work but a very pleasant area and grounds.

After a few months I was roused one morning by my next door neighbour who had heard on the early news that servicemen with fire fighting experience were to be released back home to help fight the fires caused by the Blitz. This would affect Ron of course and he was eventually sent back in November 1940. We settled down again to a different kind of life. Ron was on duty for long hours. Whenever the sirens went off day or night, no matter how often, he had to report to the nearest fire station, preferably his own. Eventually we had the Blitz on Sheffield, December 12th, 1940.

I was already at home and Ron was on his way home when the sirens went. He decided to continue and report at our local fire station as soon as he could. Our house was quite near the fire station, but the one Ron was permanently attached to was the other side of town. Ron had realised it was going to be a busy night as the tram he was travelling home on stopped part way because of the shrapnel falling from our own guns. He finished his journey to the fire station on the running board of a private car and after reporting for duty, slipped home to warn me to get into the shelter.

This I did, along with my neighbours the Clements, who I had spent many sleepless nights sitting up with until we heard the all clear. We went to an Anderson shelter in the garden of another neighbour, which incidentally was half filled with water. We sat with our legs across listening to the planes droning over and the bombs falling, not knowing what to expect of our own property. When daylight was breaking the all clear sounded and we stiffly got out of the shelter to go and see what had happened to our houses.

We were fortunate because our houses were intact and it seemed the area had missed any damage. The sight looking over to the city was appalling as it was ablaze with fire. I wondered where Ron was and if he had escaped the bombs. I tried to get a little rest and after some time Ron arrived with two more firemen, all absolutely filthy, wet and weary, in need of hot drinks and food. I made breakfast for them all and they went back on duty and I tried to get to work. No trams were running, people were wandering about trying to get to work and eventually I got a lift on a lorry part way and walked the rest, bravely skirting bomb craters on the way. I was last to arrive in the office and there was a sigh of relief when I did as they thought something might have happened to me. I tried to contact someone near to my parents and was told they were all right. In fact the top floor had been badly damaged from the blast of a landmine. Apart from the dirt they were all right. By that time my brother Jim had married and they were living with my parents, so they had help with them. What an experience it all was, many people had been to town and come back in tears as the whole of the town centre was a shambles. All the lovely shops full of Christmas gifts lay in ruins and many people buried beneath them.

Ron had been fighting the fires in several areas and had finished up in the centre of town with buildings falling all around. I was still working at the abattoir and it was after this that we were evacuated for safety reasons. I could not get to my parents of course and Ron鈥檚 parents had left their house because of the firebombs, but no great damage was done and they were soon home again. I decided to walk home that first day over the top, passing a huge crater on my way. It was very scary. I called on Ron鈥檚 auntie part way home, but they had been evacuated because of an unexploded bomb, so I got out of there quick.

My workmate Tommy Marshall took me up to town to see the damage the next day. The shops all burned out with models strewn all over looking like people and trams burnt out. He helped me to get a lift home in a lorry. He lived in my area. We managed to keep going. Ron said that when they were in town and the buildings were collapsing around them, they were so busy getting water to the fires that they did not notice what was going on around them and were astonished when they saw it in daylight.

We were subjected to another Blitz on the 15th. The bombing started where they had left off before. This time it was the works end of the city going towards Rotherham. Ron was again called to the area. This time I sheltered in a brick built shelter not far away from where I lived and from the door way of the shelter I could see fire bombs being dropped. All this happened just before Christmas and I remember wrapping up presents by candle light with tears streaming down my face. There was no electricity for a short while, I guess it was some sort of reaction. We did not know if the bombing would continue. We were much more fortunate than many other towns, who endured so much more concentrated bombing and havoc in their everyday lives.

Very gradually we got back to something like normal and we had the first move of office to a safer area. Ron was promoted to Assistant Communications Officer for the Southern Division and spent most of his time planning new underground routes of communication. He was also taken over to Liverpool to work on the docks. He could not even let me know where he was as he had very little money with him having left at short notice. The winter of 1940 was very severe with snow and ice around for a long time. This made clearing up very difficult. My old firm of Atkinsons was badly damaged. I wondered what happened to all those thick ledgers I used to write in and lock away at the end of each day in a large safe in the China department. Also, of course I lost touch with a lot of friends who were scattered about in different jobs.

So we came to the summer of 1941 and by that time our office had been evacuated to Thrift House at Ringinglow. We arrived home one evening to find a note from my mother informing us of the dreadful news that my young brother Eric had been killed at Plummer Barracks in Plymouth on July 17th. He had been in a party of 15 being shown how to defuse an anti tank mine when it exploded and killed eight of them, including the sergeant in charge and injured the rest of them. Words cannot express how devastated we all were. He was only 19 years old and had just been home on a week鈥檚 leave. I had the job of making most of the arrangements for the funeral and bringing his body home. I was the only one with contact to a phone at work. It was a very sad time for us all. He was the baby of the family. He had a girlfriend Flo who we kept in touch with for sometime until she met someone else and married.

Life must go on and we coped with our everyday lives as best we could. We were now back working at the abattoir again. I had transferred to the retail side from N.E.W.M.S.A where we dealt with the individual butchers and their accounts and allocations. One of my new colleagues worked at the Greyhound Track and as I had been used to handling money in previous jobs she said I would be sure to be taken on. So, I got the opportunity to do a part time job working at the Greyhound Track on the Tote payout. This was mainly Friday night and Saturday afternoons, extra at Bank Holidays. The meetings were held at Darnall and I enjoyed the work. It enabled me to save some money for the future.

My brother Harry lived at Darnall, so I used to visit them and sometimes stay overnight eventually. He had married the year before us and had been diagnosed with tuberculosis. This was a great blow to us as there was no real cure at that time and especially when the war was on.

We did manage to get another holiday to an inn on Cloughton Moor near Scarborough. We went with our friends Alice and Bill Hulley. Good food and lovely scenery were the order of the day and it was a good break from the war. One day we walked along the coast to Robin Hood鈥檚 Bay, watching the convoys sailing past. We had happy memories of the time spent there.

Then in January 1943 Ron was recalled to the Royal Corps of Signals and had to report to Huddersfield. The first two weeks he was home on leave each weekend. He was surplus to the regiment at that time. I saw more of him then than I had when he had been at home. Eventually he got his posting to Henley-on-Thames, but not before he had been cajoled into a boxing match for the Regiment. He had just had dental treatment and had a bad cold, but it made no difference, the honour of the regiment was at stake. He sustained a broken nose which left its mark for the rest of his life. He ended up in hospital in Huddersfield.

At Henley he was put on an intensive training scheme before being sent abroad with Force 136 to the Middle East. I did visit him at Henley for the weekend. He was stationed in close proximity to the Pyramids, which he used to climb for exercise. He spent some time in Egypt and was then transferred to Bari in Italy with Force 266. While at Bari he frequented the Corner House, which was run as a forces recreation centre by the W.V.S. He made friends with the W.V.S ladies, helped them with their duties and organised events etc. He kept in touch with Mary Dyott of Lichfield for the rest of her life. We were also invited to meet her at Freeford Manor, Lichfield. While in Bari Ron was nearly drowned while bathing in the sea. A freak wave took him from the shoreline and swept him in a curve back shoreward again. He felt his feet touch ground and struggled out with help. He was in hospital for a while, but soon recovered.

While in Italy Ron volunteered to go to Australia and was promised a home leave before he went. He came home on January 7th, 1945 and left to go abroad again on March 7th, 1945. Fortunately as things turned out, he did not go to Australia, but got off the boat at Bombay. He travelled across India, by train, arriving at Delhi and on to a large training centre; a signals station at Meerut, reported to be one of the hottest places.

After a while he was returned to Calcutta with Force 136 again, where he enjoyed playing football and cricket. He was still not allocated to a special duty and after making inquiries he was informed that he was still on the strength at Calcutta, but was awaiting a posting to China. This was a shock, but he flew over the Himalayas in the company of an American F.A.N.Y (First Aid Nursing Yeomanry) by the name of Rita. I think they were both apprehensive about the flight, but landed safely at Kunming where Rita was stationed. He travelled on to Hsi Shan by jeep. He was situated on the edge of the Yunnan Lake in the house of a female missionary Miss Tindall. There were only about 20 of them there. He enjoyed the time in China and was eventually demobbed from there, flying to Calcutta, Bombay, Delhi and sailing on the Strathnaven, docking at Southampton on February 12th, 1946.

He was finally demobbed from Taunton, Somerset, arriving home in the early hours of the morning. I did not go to work that day. We had kept in touch every day by letter numbering each one. He sent a telegram when he arrived in England. It seemed very strange having him about the house again, especially as he was smoking at that time. He started in the Middle East to counteract the mosquitoes. He soon gave up after he arrived home.

On the whole, I think Ron thoroughly enjoyed the challenge of the war years. He worked hard at what he was given to do and was very fit. Who would have dreamt that he would visit all those far away places! Fortunately he was never in the firing line, which of course would have made a big difference, although he did lose some of his pals. I think on reflection that his release back to the fire service was probably responsible for his 鈥楥ook鈥檚 tour鈥� as he never caught up with his first admission group.

While Ron was away, my eldest brother George died. He was only 44 years old and had suffered since he was on army service abroad after the First World War.

During the time that Ron was abroad I carried on with my two jobs and was also obliged to join the A.R.P for first aid work, in case of need. For this I attended first aid classes at a local school and was obliged to sleep there one night a week. Did I write sleep? The beds were makeshift bunks in the old school cloakroom. Sleep was almost impossible. Then getting up early morning to go home to my cold house, breakfast and then on to work. I did a training stint in the gas chamber but was never called on for duty. With all this I managed to get bronchitis after friends kept telling me to go to the doctors with that cough. I eventually gave in. When my doctor heard what I had been doing, he said, 鈥淚鈥檒l soon put a stop to that bloody nonsense鈥�. He did too, he wrote and told them I was not fit for the job. I must say I was very relieved. I also had all my teeth extracted, having had a lot of toothache and fillings. I was very nervous about it. My brother took me in his car and mother came with me. Everybody at work was extremely kind bringing me oxtails to make nourishing soup and other titbits to cheer me up, so I survived until I got my new dentures.

We had the occasional butcher鈥檚 ball to attend and the odd cinema visit. to my. We had sold the tandem years ago as we never got chance to use it after we were married. I did have a holiday in Somerset with my mother and brother William. We stayed with my mother鈥檚 brother Bill, a cheerful old chap of 90 years, still living in the old family home, Pear Tree Cottage, The Green, Winscombe. It is still there today.
On the actual V.E night the butchers had a ball planned at the Cutlers Hall. I attended wearing my wedding dress. My partner was the girl next door to mothers who also worked for a butcher. We were escorted home that night by one of the butchers who had heard tales of what happened to young ladies after the First World War.

Ron had a few weeks paid leave when he came home from the forces, but he went out and got a job at a manufacturing chemists, delivering orders to various shops and towns. This was meant to be a stop gap job but he felt he must do something. I would have preferred him to have a week or two at home to settle down. He enjoyed the freedom of driving around but eventually was asked to be a salesman for the firm. He settled for that for the next few years

Life was gradually getting back to normal generally. We still had some rationing and shortages. It鈥檚 hard to describe the feeling when the black out was lifted. I went round the estate, just looking at the lighted windows and the coloured curtains after the drab years without street lights.

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