大象传媒

This story was submitted to the people war Website by a volunteer from Tiverton Museum of Mid Devon Life on behalf of Jose Dray.

JOSE DRAY

Before the war I worked in an electricity showroom 鈥� before SWEB it was The Culm Valley Electric Supply Company and Christie Brothers.

When a number of the young men were called up the girls had to step in.

I became a part time meter reader and bookkeeper in Cullompton offices.

On my bicycle I set off for Bradninch, Willand and all parts of Cullompton with Meter Books and pencil.

My young man at the time became rather anxious when he realised there were always other young men happy to hold the stepladder when I climbed to read their meters.

So he prevailed upon his father, who was a tailor and cutter, to make me a trouser suit 鈥� which was pinstriped and rather smart 鈥� and when I retired from SWEB (21 years ago) the headlines in the local paper read 鈥渢he first one to wear the trousers鈥� though the young man who I married (the same young man) would have insisted that he only had my welfare at heart!

In addition to this I belonged to the St. John鈥檚 Ambulance Brigade and often accompanied patients to and from hospital. We also had to attend village dances and the Regal Cinema in Cullompton.

I must admit the main attraction being my uniform with a wide white belt 鈥� and after 11 p.m. we were allowed to getup and dance with the soldiers stationed in the town 鈥� so we had our moments and it wasn鈥檛 all hard work. Happy Days!!!

When the war broke out I was sixteen and living in Cullompton and working for the Electricity Company. To be honest the first thing I thought when the war broke out was: Oh dear. It鈥檚 going to put an end to some of my fun. You see, when you鈥檙e sixteen you think about that. You don鈥檛 realize what is going to happen. Nothing much happened in Cullompton for some time except when some of the men were called up I was given one or two extra jobs working on what was called the weekly collection books. And then every quarter I was given the meter books for Cullompton, Bradninch and Willand and I used to go out on my bicycle to read the meters which was quite fun actually. And I also belonged to the Ambulance Brigade at Cullompton and we really needed it. And there again rather nice things happened, it was rather fun, because we had a cinema called the The Regal and two of us always had to be on duty for every cinema performance. Of course we could watch the film for free. And then at the Assembly Rooms they had a dance regularly and by that time the soldiers were coming into Cullompton and we had to be there on duty again but at eleven o鈥檆lock we were allowed to get up and dance, and of course that was great fun. I began to realize soon after the war broke out that when I went on my favourite walks up Old Hill at Cullompton there were no lights on and it was all dark looking out over. When the war was over that was when we went up to Old Hill and saw the lights were on and that was lovely.

I got married. We hadn鈥檛 really thought much about the bombing because it hadn鈥檛 happened to us at Cullompton. And my husband came home from the Air Force for a weekend and we went down to Exeter to visit his aunt and uncle and cousin who lived in Exeter near the prison. My parents realized where we鈥檇 gone and that night Exeter was bombed terribly and my parents were frantic. They didn鈥檛 know where we were. IN actual fact we had visited auntie and uncle and moved on down to Dawlish and stayed in a pub there and watched all the bombing from the Dawlish window. And the next morning we came back into Exeter and we found my uncle and auntie鈥檚 house was completely wiped out and uncle and cousin had been killed and auntie and her daughter they鈥檇 been saved. But that really brought it home to me. It was absolutely dreadful. And, of course, as soon as I got home I telephoned my parents. They were so relieved because they thought we had been bombed as well. But one thing I remember very clearly about the day. When we got back into Exeter the WVS, they had little stand in Exeter where they were handing out food and drinks for free to anybody who needed it. And that was lovely. I though that was lovely.

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