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This story was submitted to the People's War site by Elizabeth Perez of Stockport Libraries on behalf of Elsie Bamforth and has been added to the site with her permission. Elsie Bamforth fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

"I lived in Crumpsall, North Manchester, when the war was on and as I worked in a food shop I was exempt from serving in the Forces. I joined the W.V.S. (now the WRVS) and did duty on the ‘Rest Centre’.

The Public Hall and the public baths were situated next to each other. The hall was equipped to look after a hundred people if there was a bombing raid. In 1940 Manchester was bombed and we had one hundred and sixty people to look after.

There were little children from poor families just in a singlet, so we washed them in a big tin bath in the kitchen. A nurse came from Crumpsall Hospital and attended to the elderly people in the public baths next door.

We had a clothing store and clothes were provided. There was one incident when our leader, a rather wealthy lady, came straight from a party and took her posh frock off and hung it in the kitchen and one of the helpers gave it to an old lady who hadn’t a dress!
We were sent very good quality cutlery and caught one or two women putting them down their blouses. They were so poor we couldn’t blame them.

We put the bunk beds into sort of squares so families could stay together and have a bit of privacy. I was one of the ‘First Aiders’ so had a few cuts and bruises to attend to. It was a sad time, but with the British sense of humour there was also much laughter. We looked after the people for about three days and then they were found other places to live.

After the war had been on a bit, a transit camp was opened in Heaton Park and airmen were there for about a fortnight. After they had been to the cinema they had nowhere to go and just wandered up and down the road. There was a small empty church nearby so the six local churches and the synagogue got together and through the auspicies of the YMCA, the building was cleaned and equipped with furniture and staffed by members of a different church each night. We served various snacks with various toppings, one of which was grated carrot and grated cheese put under the grill and was very popular with the airmen. My two brothers were in the Forces and my dad sent their billiard table to the canteen and we had various games and cards for the airmen to play.

If there happened to be any meat pies left where I worked, my boss would give them to me as well as some fat from the hams they cooked themselves. So every Thursday half a dozen or so women came to my home and my mother cooked chips and half a meat pie. We had a piano so there were lots of singing around it.

We ourselves had a rota and we used to go to Broughton House where there were still wounded soldiers from the First World War. We used to hold their playing cards for them and we all gave a penny a week to take them some sweets.

We also had people from our churches who contributed some money every week until we had enough money to pay for a travelling NAFFI canteen. A high ranking officer came to accept it and asked for volunteers to staff it so I did so, but I wasn’t treated very well by the lady who interviewed me at the YMCA in Manchester (I won’t give her name). She told me I would have to buy my own uniform and there would only be out of pocket expenses paid to me and they were really looking for young widows of independent means. I was upset and angry so didn’t pursue the matter any further and there was plenty of voluntary work at home anyway.

There was some sadness but lots of fun and happy times and I made a lot of new friends some of whom I still keep in contact with. We who were at home did our very best for the war effort and in our spare time we knitted sea boot stockings and balaclava helmets for the sailors. Life was never boring and ‘stress’ was a word we didn’t know."

Elsie Bamforth

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