- Contributed by听
- nt-yorkshire
- People in story:听
- Catherine Lofthouse
- Location of story:听
- Keighley
- Background to story:听
- Civilian
- Article ID:听
- A8853113
- Contributed on:听
- 26 January 2006
I remember the war starting. My father was a sergeant in the Duke of Wellington鈥檚 Territorial Regiment. He was brought out of bed in the middle of the night to go to the drill hall to group all his men together and that was it then, we didn鈥檛 see him no more until he come home on leave. They were taken to the drill hall in Keighley and then they were taken to the drill hall in Halifax.
I remember my days as a schoolgirl, going to school with my gas mask. The war didn鈥檛 affect my schooling a big lot, apart from not being able to buy sweets, we had to eat carrots. My Mother used to send us to the market when the fruit came. We all had to go down to the market with our ration books and we all used to get two pieces of fruit each. If they stamped it with an indelible stamp, well that was it, but if they marked it with a pencil, my Mum used to rub it out and send us back, and we鈥檇 be quaking in our shoes then in case we got found out going for some more fruit.
The worst thing I remember about the war was when my uncle was taken prisoner of war by the Japanese. He was on HMS Jupiter sunk in the Indian Ocean, and we were three and-a-half years before we knew whether he was alive or not. I think that was my worst experience of the war.
My Mother had us to look after, my brother and I and my sister, so she just did cleaning work in the cinemas and things like that.
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