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At the outbreak of war in 1939 my father, Bill Beedles, was the local coal merchant and general haulage contractor but as soon as rationing of coal started he was only allowed to deliver one sack (1 cwt.) of coal to each house per month during the summer months and two sacks per month in the winter-these restrictions were carefully recorded by my mother; Rose, and subject to examination by the National; Coal Board-supplies came from the pits in Lancashire and were delivered by rail to Spital station on the Wirral — at this time wooden huts were being erected at nearby Clatterbridge Hospital to accommodate wounded service personnel — also at this time a local engineering company — Fawcett Preston — had transferred their plant to the production of shell cases which were then transported to Spital station by my father using his coal lorry-the shell cases were then dispatched by rail to a munitions factory to be filled. Medical supplies and foodstuffs were beginning to arrive at Spital station to be delivered to Clatterbridge Hospital — this gave my father additional work — now very busy as there were very few privately owned lorries available — fuel rationing, of course meant more record had to be kept to maintain the petrol allocation.
As the wounded service personnel began to occupy the huts at Clatterbridge Emergency Hospital my Mother decided to start a collection of eggs to be taken to the hospital — eggs, of course were rationed — so my job was to call at every house in the village to collect eggs which were freely given — quite often messages were written on eggs, such as ‘Get well Soon’, ‘Keep smiling’, and many others. Mother received many letters of appreciation for each monthly delivery from the Matron — copies of some of these are enclosed showing a collection of approximately 200 per month.
My elder brother, Ron, who was working in the signal box at Hooton railway station, passed his medical for the forces, but was drawn in the ‘Bevin Boy’ ballot and directed to a colliery at Maestag in South Wales. In the meantime, at the age of 14, I started employment with Lever Bros.at Port Sunlight as an office junior. At 17, I joined the Women’s land army and was posted to a farm in Herefordshire but unfortunately following the horrendous winter of 1947/48 I was diagnosed with Rheumatoid arthritis and discharged through ill health.
While in Herefordshire, I met my future husband who had volunteered for the Fleet air Arm, passed the medicals but was instructed to remain with his employer with whom he was employed as a design draughtsman working on the development of refuelling in flight for the Royal Air Force.
After many months in a number of hospitals I eventually returned to work for Unilever at ‘Stork Margarine’ at Bromborough — we were married at St. Barnabas Church in Bromborough in 1950 and recently celebrated 55 years of a very happy marriage with two married daughters and four lovable grandchildren.

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