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15 October 2014
WW2 - People's War

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Margaret Byrnes

by championSacredHeart

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Contributed by听
championSacredHeart
People in story:听
Margaret Byrnes
Location of story:听
Redcar(Cleveland)
Background to story:听
Civilian
Article ID:听
A4373714
Contributed on:听
06 July 2005

Margaret Byrnes was only six, nearly seven, when the war started. But she still has a vivid memory of what went on.

Margaret lived and was brought up in Grangetown, she attended St.Mary鈥檚 school, and later in life she moved to Redcar.

The day that war started was a Sunday morning. Families were home from church; the children changed out of their Sunday bests and went out to play in the streets. With a look of worry on their faces, all the mothers took a break from cooking the Sunday lunch and congregated in the streets in their flowery pinnies, as they had just heard the news that war had been declared.

Her father was just a couple of months too old to join the army, so he joined the Home Guard. So none of her immediate family went out to war, as she didn鈥檛 have any brothers either, they were a family of three girls. But some of her extended family were killed.

She was evacuated twice, both times to her grandma鈥檚 who also lived in Grangetown. But luckily, on both occasions, their house was safe.

Margaret never remembers of a time when she was hungry, her mother was a great cook and could rustle anything out of not a lot. But there was a time when she longed for chocolate. Eventually, sweets were even being rationed. There was a black market around where you were able to get extra food and clothing for extremely high prices.

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