大象传媒

"This story was submitted to the People's War site by the Barnsley Archives and Local Studies Department on behalf of Marion Hodge and has been added to the site with his/her permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions."
My wartime experiences reveal that there was nothing very traumatic in my life in the war years. There were no extremes of danger or injury, no close personal tragedies to record, no great acts of heroism, and no extreme hardship. My three brothers and I served in the RAF. We all returned to civilian life with no exciting tales to tell, no war wounds, no experiences in far away lands. One was a Cpl. Instructor on Balloons who later retrained as an Electrician after the WAAF鈥檚 took over Balloon duties. One was a Cpl. Armourer Bombs (as opposed to Guns) and the third was a Cpl. Instructor Fitter Airframes (as opposed to Engines). I was a Cpl. Postal Duties dealing with mail coming in and going out of the camp.

My brothers always seemed to be on the move to different RAF stations 鈥� I was only on two during 4 years service, apart from 2 weeks in London for training, a weekend at West Drayton for a Trade Test and 3 weeks at R.A.F. Weeton when Army personnel were being transferred to the RAF.

I was 16 yrs. old when war was declared in September 1939. My brothers were 18 yrs., 23 yrs. and 25yrs. My father was 52 yrs. and mother was 50 yrs.

I had left the Girls High School at Barnsley at the end of July. We had a wireless set at home and took a daily paper, and went to the local cinema, which showed Pathe Gazette newsreels so we did get the news, but I have to confess I was more concerned about my School Certificate exam results than about the outbreak of war. The postcard bearing the list of grades arrived on the Saturday morning September 2nd. but although I鈥檇 matriculated, no-one was particularly bothered about that and I suppose it would have been just the same had I done badly.

Up to that point my only involvement with the impending event was during the week or so between the end of sitting exams and the end of term. We had to attend school but there were no lessons for the fifth-formers, so we were sent out to help with the issue of gas masks 鈥� in my case at Wilthorpe School.

It was a very strange feeling listening to Mr. Chamberlain that Sunday morning and realising that Britain was at war, but in spite of knowing nothing about politics, my peers at least were supremely confident that it would all be over by Christmas and naturally, being British, we were going to win quite easily! There was a feeling of excitement I suppose, tinged with just a little apprehension as the older generation had often spoken of the shortages etc. during WW1.

I knew of no family casualties of that war and so the prospect of death or injury did not spring to mind - I doubt if teen-agers gave it a second thought then.
The sound of the air raid siren seemed a little theatrical, as if on cue, but the warning didn鈥檛 last very long, and added to the sense that it wasn鈥檛 quite real.

My eldest brother lived and worked in Sheffield at the time and had joined the RAF Volunteer Reserve so he was mobilised straight away. First of all he was based at RAF Norton and later at Firth Park as part of a barrage balloon crew. I remember going on Penistone moors one Sunday with the rest of the family and they were all talking about the number of balloons they could see over in the direction of Sheffield. It was the first indication to me that I was shortsighted, as I couldn鈥檛 see what they were looking at in the distance.

I was looking for a job and with about 14 other people I volunteered to help with the issue of ration books. We worked from schedules that had been completed by each head of household and were a sort of Census. All residents were given an identity number starting with KMNG (for Cudworth) then followed the number for that household and then the number giving your position in the household 鈥� thus my father鈥檚 number was KMNG/171/1, my mother鈥檚 was KMNG/171/2 and so on.
My other two brothers joined the RAF in 1940 and I joined the WAAF in 1943. Our identity numbers were changed for service numbers. On demobilisation we were given another identity number starting with the letters KMN. I don鈥檛 recall anyone objecting to the idea of identity cards then!

My parents had a hardware shop, which had a large cellar so we did not have an Anderson or a Morrison shelter and would only have needed to use a public shelter if the siren sounded when we were away from home. The siren was fixed to the roof of one of the Council Office buildings; we didn鈥檛 have many 鈥渁lerts鈥� up to my leaving to join up. The alert was always called "Wailing Willie" as it was a continuous noise, repeatedly rising and falling. The "All clear" was a long steady note created by the same apparatus.
Pots and pans etc. were in short supply and I remember my father getting a consignment of tin kettles, which sold like hot cakes. I can鈥檛 imagine where they had been kept, prior to the outbreak of war. There was a big demand for hurricane lamps and torches. The blackout was so depressing.
Black curtains or shutters up at the windows and in the doorways so that no light could be seen outside. The streets were dark and doorways, steps, lampposts and path edges were painted white. Bicycles, cars, buses, lorries all had to have hoods fitted onto the lamps and just a little chink of light showed through onto the road. 鈥楤us and train windows were obscured with just a slit to see through. It could be quite difficult to work out if you had reached your destination.
When the German planes were overhead we could hear the drone of the engines, at least we assumed they were enemy planes on the way to bomb the big cities. I cannot put into words this sound but after all these years I can hear it in my mind.

I cannot remember the precise details of the different types of civilian ration books but there were different types of ration books for different age groups. We wrote the name and address on each book using pen and ink. It took about 2 weeks for the team to complete the first issue for the whole of Cudworth 鈥� we worked in the front bedroom of the bay - windowed house at 26, Snydale Road, a private house which had been bought and adapted for use as the Local Food Office.

My friend, Dorothy and I were appointed as Temporary Typists 鈥� we were now Civil Servants and in spite of the job title the typing work was only a small part of the routine office work. Cecil Myers Pratt, a partner in the firm of Raley & Pratt was the Food Executive Officer. He was also Clerk to the Cudworth Urban District Council and being a solicitor he did not actually work on the day-to-day Ministry of Food business, but he looked after the legal side of things and presided over the meetings of the Food Control Committee. The Food Control Officer was Mr. A. E. Waterfield. There were 2 other clerks, Mrs. Florence Warrington and Mr. Fred. Smith. Later on, when milk was rationed, Mr. William (Billy) Dodd was appointed and he was in charge of the issue of National Dried Milk (for babies), cod liver oil and concentrated orange juice.

Mrs. Lincoln, wife of Charlie Lincoln, a slaughterhouseman who worked for Joe Holmes, was the caretaker at first, and later it was Mrs. Stanley, wife of Tom Stanley the plumber.

Dorothy and I were mainly concerned with the issue of permits to shop-keepers and 鈥淐atering Establishments鈥�. This term always seemed rather grand to me as it applied to small snack bars, cafes etc. The baker and confectioner allowances were based on previous purchases of meat, bacon, fats (butter, margarine, lard) and sugar. The grocery shops permits were calculated on the number of people who had 鈥渞egistered 鈥渨ith them. The ration books had 鈥渃ounterfoils鈥� which were filled in with the name of the shopkeeper supplying their ration of the commodities and the shop-keeper sent these counterfoils to the Food Office. For some food items the appropriate square on the printed grid was marked in ink when the week鈥檚 ration was bought but for some commodities (like sweets, soap and clothes) the coupons were cut out of the book and each month they were sent to the Food Office. It was an impossible task to check every package of coupons; the retailer declared what was in the envelope and random checks were made to calculate what the amount of the next month鈥檚 permit should be.

Most of the food permits included a proportionate 鈥渨eighing鈥� or 鈥渃utting up鈥� allowance so the bigger the shop, the bigger this allowance. This was very advantageous to the multiple firms 鈥� Hunters, Melias, Globe, Co-operative Society as by careful weighing and measuring they could accumulate enough of the allowance to be able to supply new customers, and honour the ration cards presented by soldiers etc. who came home on leave, but the smaller retailers must have found it very trying when sometimes the ration would be as small as 2 oz. per person and there was next to nothing allowed for cutting up. The smaller shop-keeper had very little chance of increasing the number of customers on the books.

Corned beef, previously a relatively cheap food and therefore popular in working class families, was counted as part of the meat ration. Cheese was also rationed and this too had been a large part of the diet 鈥� 鈥渉eavy鈥� workers (farm-workers, miners etc.) got an extra allowance of cheese.

I think the ration books were issued twice a year. It may have been once a year. The bulk supply of books was delivered to the Police Station and was locked away in one of the cells and withdrawn as necessary. The current supply was kept in a safe in the Food Office.

The ration books did not specify the amount of any particular item. The amounts varied according to the supply situation and by 1942 all these were rationed:

Meat, Bacon/Ham Cheese
Butter Margarine Cooking Fat
Tea Sugar Sweets/chocolate
Milk Eggs Dried Eggs
Dried Fruit Tinned foods Coal
Soap Clothes Petrol

Occasionally when bread and potatoes were in short supply they too were rationed but this varied considerably according local conditions. White flour disappeared and the unbleached stuff produced an almost grey type of bread and pastry.
Silk stockings, cosmetics, toiletries, razor blades 鈥� you name it 鈥� there was a problem.

Even furniture was rationed 鈥� it was called 鈥淯tility鈥� (very plain and mass-produced). 鈥淒ockets鈥漟or replacements could be obtained if you were unlucky enough to be bombed out of your home, or were newly-weds setting up home for the first time. I鈥檓 not sure where the dockets were issued 鈥� I don鈥檛 think the Food Office had anything to do with them. Second-hand furniture was much sought after. New pushchairs and prams etc. were very scarce.
The phrase that was constantly heard was "Don't you know there's a war on?"

Cigarettes were in short supply 鈥� we often heard women say they would get 鈥渨hat for鈥� if they hadn鈥檛 been able to get them for when their husbands got home from work. There were queues for everything 鈥� people would join a queue not knowing what for, on the off chance that the shopkeeper had had a delivery of extras such as oranges. Supplies of fish were restricted but I don鈥檛 remember if it was ever officially rationed.
Newcomers to the village had to report to the Food Office to have their new address entered on their ration books and identity cards.

Everyone was encouraged to grow vegetables etc. and those with facilities to keep chickens or a pig were able to supplement their diet with these commodities but had to sacrifice their egg and bacon ration in order to get food for the animals. I doubt whether there was any commercially-produced food for domestic pets.

We had to order our stationery supplies twice a year from His Majesty鈥檚 Stationery Office using a pre-printed form listing all the items available. I remember all the staff wondering what a 鈥淏anker鈥檚 assistant鈥� was - it was a rubber thimble which came in very handy when counting coupons and counterfoils. I seem to remember that we had to do some fire-watching duty at the Food Office. We had tin hats issued 鈥� they were not the same as the ones the air raid wardens or police had, they were grey painted metal with a long black 鈥渟hoe lace鈥� threaded through the ring of holes, almost like a hatband, which secured the adjustable lining. We kept a stirrup pump and galvanised buckets for water and sand in the attic in case incendiary bombs were dropped on the roof.

Dorothy and I joined the First Aid Party and we were eventually issued with a blue and white striped dress and a grey gabardine type of coat.
We had to attend the 鈥淔irst Aid Post鈥� that was installed in the Wesley Hall, putting in a specified number of hours each month. The hall had been structurally altered inside and looked very austere. In my time we were never called upon to deal with any real war casualties but anyone who fell in the street etc. came to us for attention. Mr. Madeley, a St. John鈥檚 Ambulanceman, instructed us and we gained a certificate. We had routine practices with other services taking part 鈥� I remember one when we had schoolchildren passing through the De-contamination Centre, built on Church Street, opposite the side entrance to Snydale Road School. The older ladies had most contact with these children as they had to strip and take a shower, Dorothy and I helped with the clerical side of the operation. I remember Mrs. Knight (a retired nurse), Mrs. Field, Mrs. Cockburn, Mrs. Buckley, Mrs. Madeley, Mrs. Rigby, Mrs. Barnsley, Mrs. Wardle, Edna Brown, a Miss Costello, sisters Nellie and Muriel Brown who with Mary Green went into nursing as a career later on.

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