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This story was submitted to the People’s War site by Fay Heard of Tollesbury, a People’s War volunteer on behalf of Ann Pearce (Wright) and is added to the site with her permission. She understands the sites terms and conditions.

I was living in London at the beginning of the war. I volunteered for the Fire Service as my three brothers were in the Fire Service. I went to the local Fire station to see the man in charge; they would have accepted me but the Ministry of Labour wouldn’t allow me to go. The said I’d got to wait till I was called up.

I was called up in 1942 and went into the ATS. First I went to Guildford for training at the Queen’s Camp - A strange experience for lots of girls who had never been away from home before.

Next, I was sent to Newcastle and then to York where I was stationed for the rest of the war. It was a good place. I worked in the company office. I made friends. It was a quiet time and war seemed far away.

It was very different when I went home on leave to Hackney- we were bombed out. I was up at the church when the flying bombs came over. You didn’t know where they would drop. When we came out of the church we could see the smoke. The bomb had hit the church tower and bounced to the shops opposite and destroyed them The blast from the explosion had badly damaged all of our houses — the windows were out, the doors gone, what was left of the building was unsafe — it was terrible !

I was glad to get back to the peace and quiet of my army barracks in York.

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