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I was 6 years old when the war started on 3rd September 1939; I can still remember people shouting ‘War has been declared’.

My father was a carpet weaver at MacKay's factory in Durham.

My father wasn’t called into the army till around 1941 because he was 31 at the time and the younger men were called into service first. Other members of the family were also called into service, my uncle was conscripted and joined Dunkirk where he was rescued, and unfortunately however he was taken prisoner in 1943 in Italy.

My father was on service in France and Germany. During the time that my father was in the army, my mother was given an army allowance of 3 pound per week; this was to cover all of our needs for myself, my mother and my sister. There was no free school meals, no family allowance, nothing like there is today.

Sometimes we had no money to buy coal, so the family had to live without heating, as there were no other means of heating the house. To earn some extra money my mother sometimes sold our meat ration coupon, this was illegal, but was the only way to get some extra money.

I wanted to let people know just how hard it was for the families left back in England, it was a real struggle to cope, living in poverty.

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