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When I was at boarding school at Bramley, Surrey we were encouraged to knit socks and balaclavas for soldiers and airmen, we used to put little notes in them for them but I expect they were taken out before they were sent.

We were directly under the flight path of the V 1s and V2s at Bramley as they were on their way to London. They were commonly known as ‘doodlebugs.’ We spent many nights in the air raid shelter. Lying on top of our beds in trousers and coats waiting for the siren to go, we would often see a Doodlebug going over with its funny noise and its tail alight. If the light went out we would make a dash for the shelter.

One day whilst we were out of school one landed on the village cricket field and shattered many of our windows. We were all sent to our homes early that term, but the pair of pyjamas in the tree haunted me for a long time.

Dances and entertainment

Tetbury in Gloucestershire was my home and it was surrounded by airfields. Whilst I was at home on holiday, they held dances in the Town Hall for the airmen. My mother used to help out, and I longed to join in but at fourteen I was too young. When the American troops came I was given the task of asking them for chocolate for my married pregnant sister who was yearning for it. I never got to taste it.

We never saw the sea until 1945 when we were taken to Brighton for the day. As we had no access to a swimming pool, I never learnt to swim.

When I left school and returned home to work, I was waiting to be picked up by my employer when a group of German prisoners of war cycled by on their way to the farm where thy worked, they were not allowed to get off their bicycles or they would confined to the barracks. One very good-looking German pushed a note, written in very good English into my hand asking me to meet him outside the camp that night. My mother though it was very funny, but I had to admit to feeling flattered.

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