大象传媒

1939 鈥�1945 The Second World War

In 1939 when I was 7 years old, we had a family summer holiday in North Wales. The first thing that I remember about the coming war (after we had returned home) was having to 鈥渂lack-out鈥� the part of the school building in which we lived in Dungannon, Northern Ireland. This was to prevent lights being seen after dark by enemy aircraft. A high window on the stairs was covered with black paper, which was not removed for 6 years. Many of the old windows had shutters which had been painted up, not having been used for many years. These were prised open to add to the effect of the normal curtains, and it was interesting to see the old wall papers behind the shutters.

Everyone had to have an Identity Card, and I think I can remember a man coming with forms for us to fill in to apply for them. My father鈥檚 number was UAQP 886 1, my mother鈥檚 was UAQP 886 2, and mine was UAQP 886 3. Mine became my first National Health Service number. The other thing that we all had to have was a gas mask. Later in 1941 when my sister Christine was born, we had a big one for her that came right down to her waist. Someone had to constantly pump air into it for her to breathe. In 1942 when Philip was born he had the big one, and Christine was provided with a special children鈥檚 one which had a Mickey Mouse face. In the beginning , in order to get us used to wearing them, we used to have to wear them for roll call in school once a week. There was a change too in the hymns that we sang in our school assembly. I particularly remember having 鈥淓ternal father strong to save, Whose arm doth bind the restless wave,...................Oh hear us when we cry to Thee, For those in peril on the sea鈥� once every week.

In Northern Ireland we were never rationed for milk, and meat was reasonably plentiful. Our butcher鈥檚 bill implied that we ate a lot of sausages (they were not rationed), as the butcher could not charge us for more than our allowance of meat. Otherwise our rations were the same as for the rest of Britain for butter, cheese, tea, sugar, eggs, tinned goods etc and sweets! Cream was not available (my mother had a machine to make cream from butter and milk), and I remember going to a party in the country where they had their own cow, and most of the visiting children did not like the cream on the deserts! Two of my mother鈥檚 attempts to vary our diet were not successful. One was chocolate porridge, and the other was a chocolate jelly made from seaweed (carrageen?) 鈥� it still tasted of seaweed!

We bought 6 hens (Rhode Island Reds?) and a hen house that had 4 nesting boxes down one side, and put them in a wire netting enclosure on the grass under the trees at the front of the school. If we forgot to shut the hens in the hen house before dark they would roost in the low branches of the trees, and it was a terrible job to wake them up and shoo them inside. I was the only member of the family small enough to climb inside the hen house to clean it! When the eggs were plentiful we saved some, by putting them in a bucket containing 鈥榳ater glass鈥� in the cellar, to use during the winter.

There was a shortage of paper and therefore of new books. If we had a copy at home of the book that we were reading in class, we were expected to use it. Some that I remember taking to school were:- 鈥楢lice in Wonderland鈥�, 鈥楾he Water Babies鈥�, 鈥楧avid Copperfield鈥�, and 鈥楢 Midsummer Night鈥檚 Dream鈥�. One of my aunts gave me her own copy of 鈥榃hat Katy Did Next鈥� as a birthday present. We did not have many special postage stamps in those days, but in order to save coloured ink, all the regular stamps were printed a paler colour.

Because so many men were in the army, there were not enough people available to decorate china, and crayons were not painted on the outside. Before the war my mother had two maids to help her run the headmaster鈥檚 house; a cook Ellie, and a housemaid Nellie. They slept in a room on the top floor, where the school maids also slept. During the war I remember having just one maid Eva, who used to give me the stamps off the letters from her boyfriend who was in the army in Burma.

My father started a 鈥榢itchen garden鈥� to provide fresh vegetables for the school. He paid the gardener and then sold the vegetables to the school. Since he was paying the gardener, there was a corner where fruit such as raspberries, gooseberries and blackcurrants were grown especially for us. On weekdays he had lunch in the school dining hall, and on Sundays we had three of the boarders to lunch in our house. My school was quite close so I came home for lunch, and some how the rations were worked out that my mother and I would have food from the school kitchen on weekdays. We had it in the school museum, which was quite close to the kitchen.

During the first winter of the war my grandmother from Birmingham came to live with us, but she decided that the bombing was not too bad and went back to England to stay in the country near Birmingham. Bombs were dropped on Belfast, aiming for the shipyards there. It was only 40 miles from Dungannon so that light from the fires could be seen. My father was an Air Raid Warden, he had a navy blue uniform and a tin hat, and had to keep watch for any incendiary bombs that might fall on the school. The cellars beneath our house were strengthened to provide an air raid shelter for the boarders. However no bombs ever fell near Dungannon and my parents never woke me up in the night.

Some parents wanted their children out of Belfast, so several boys from one particular school were evacuated to Dungannon and joined my father鈥檚 school. They slept in a house across the road with some of their own teachers. During the second winter of the war we had a girl from Belfast, Sidney Foster, living with us and sharing my bedroom. Her younger brother, Terence, was with another family in Dungannon. Sidney did not like the school dinners that we had in the Museum! My father always listened to the 9 o鈥檆lock news on the wireless (radio); we had to be very quiet so that he did not miss any important information.

Petrol was another thing that was rationed. As my father did not need a car for his work, there was a time when it was not used at all. It was supported on wooden blocks in the garage so that it would not be standing on the same part of the tyres for a long period. In the summer of 1942 when Philip was a tiny baby, we had a taxi to take us on holiday to Ballycastle on the north coast. My parents both bought bicycles (black 鈥� the only colour available), but I do not remember my mother using hers very much. Many years later I used it when I was at university.

Southern Ireland (Eire) was a neutral country, not taking part in the war, so there were Germans visiting it. The border between the North and South was very difficult to police, so very strict rules were in force concerning travel between Northern Ireland and the rest of Britain, and some of our letters were censored. Parents were allowed to visit their children, and children their parents, twice a year, but otherwise travel was very restricted and I did not see much of my relations during those years. All our holidays were spent in Northern Ireland.

An army camp was built next to the school playing fields. The first occupants were the 鈥楩ife and Forfars鈥�, a Scottish regiment. Their commander, Colonel Mackintosh, knew my father and he was billeted in a house owned by the parents of one of my school friends (they moved into an annexe). I became quite friendly with his daughter Fiona Mackintosh who was about 2 years younger than I was. The next occupants of the camp were American soldiers. They thought the school playing fields were for their use, and they started playing baseball on the cricket pitch! I remember folding paper tails for darts (feathers were not available), for a party to entertain the Americans, but I was not old enough to go to the party.

There was another army camp in what was known as 鈥楾he Park鈥�, and it was later occupied by 鈥榣ow risk鈥� German prisoners of war, but I do not remember anything about them.

Clothing was rationed, only a certain number of 鈥榗oupons鈥� being allowed for each year. When it became fairly obvious in 1944 that our side was winning, my parents decided that it was safe to send me to boarding school in York. All my coupons were soon used up buying new uniform, so my Edinburgh grandmother gave me most of hers saying that she could manage without new clothes. There were still not enough to buy all the other clothes that I needed, and I can remember two second hand summer dresses that I never liked but had to wear, as at boarding school we changed from uniform to our own clothes everyday after games in the afternoon.

During my first year at boarding school (the last year of the war), it was quite tricky getting me across the Irish Sea six times, with all the travel restrictions. I had to have my own 鈥榯ravel document鈥� (passport) with my photograph in it. My mother took me in September on a visit to her mother in Birmingham 鈥� I remember there was a pear tree up against a wall in her garden. At the end of that term I travelled to Edinburgh to visit my grandparents there. My father came to visit them and took me home by plane. He and I were the only passengers not in uniform in a fairly small plane. All the windows were painted black so that we could not see out.

After Christmas I travelled on the boat from Larne to Stranraer (the shortest crossing) by myself and was met by the parents of another girl at the school. At the end of that term I travelled to Liverpool with Sheila Eccles and her parents put me on the boat to Belfast. I cannot remember how I travelled back to school after Easter, and by the end of the summer term the war in Europe was over.

During my first winter in York the air raid sirens sounded twice. There was no basement in the house where we were sleeping, so we all sat on the floor in the hall or on the bottom of the stairs 鈥� well away from any windows that might be broken by a blast. The senior member of staff in the house, Miss Shepherd, read us a story called 鈥楾he Ten Little Niggers鈥�. We enjoyed it so much that we asked our class teacher, Miss Grant, to finish it, when she read to us regularly on Wednesday and Sunday evenings.

On VE (Victory in Europe) Day in the summer term, we were each given a packet of sandwiches and told that we could do what ever we liked as long as we were back in school in time for tea! I seem to remember that it was a nice sunny day so I and some of my friends went for a walk along the bank of the River Ouse. VJ (Victory over Japan) Day came in the summer holidays, the day that we started our holiday in Donaghadee, and I remember seeing an enormous bonfire there as we arrived.

Rationing continued for quite a while as everything was still in short supply. Bread even had to be rationed for the first time. When our local greengrocer first had some fresh lemons, she gave me one, and I think my mother must have allowed me to have half of it. I can remember sitting at the open doorway at the top of the steps leading down into our garden just licking it!
Written for my granddaughters aged 9 and 7
Ann Lees March 2003

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