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This is Joyce Jones (nee Kempster) from Rhyl's memories of the war.

The first thing I remember is when my parents had a telegram with the news that my brother had gone down with his ship HMS Royal Oak on October 14th 1939 right at the beginning of the war. It was torpedoed by a German U Boat with 833 lives lost.

We had an air raid drill once a week at school, and had to carry our gas masks at all times - one of our neighbours had an Aderson Shelter built in his back garden.

In 1941 a bomb was dropped in the field in front of our houses, our windows were blown out but there were no casualties. A couple of houses were damaged, all the bombing was in Liverpool, which isn’t very far from here.
The hotels on the promenade were taken over by the Ministry of Food and the Ministry of Works - quite a lot of local people worked for them.

A lot of the boarding houses were used to house young soldiers that were billeted here. The soldiers used to get invitations to people’s houses, and they were also entertained at St Thomas’ Church House. Even my own sister ended up marrying one of them 58 years ago!

We had a British Restaurant in the town, which people could go in and have a two-meal course for 1 shilling or 12 pence in our money now. With all the food being rationed, people were glad to go for a meal.

The Home Guard and the Air Raid wardens were always busy watching the big building, the houses and the people who filled sandbags in case of a raid.

A lot of children were evacuated here from the cities, and we had quite a few French and Jewish children in our school.

Television was in its infancy, so radio became a big part of everyone’s life. Entertainment was sparse, the cinemas were open as well as the Queen Dance Hall, but all the amusements were closed. Everything was on ration — food, clothes, furnishing. There were a few sweets when you could get them but no chocolate.

There was great jubilation in May 1945 when the war ended, and the street parties were great!

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