大象传媒

This story was gathered by Jemma Bellingham at the VJ Day Commemoration event at the Border Regiment Museum, Carlisle Castle on 15th August 2005.
This story has been transcribed and added to the site by Jemma Bellingham on behalf of Rita Buckley.

"My story goes back to the age of 15 actually when I was still at school but I was desperate to do something for the war effort. I went to the Police and said I would like to start some organisation to help in some way, and they introduced me to the WVS and I started a thing called Youth Voluntary Service. I gathered all of my school friends, I was at the High School in South Shields...gathered all my school friends and we used to knit things for the troops, gloves and scarves and you know helmets and all sorts of things. Then from there we went on to helping in the canteens, serving tea and coffee, making sandwiches, anything we could do to help the war effort.
I was still desperate to do something more, so at the age of 18 I volunteered, well before that I was a volunteer for the Fire Service, I used to work on the switchboard when I was still at school. Then at 18 I volunteered and went into the ATS and I served in London, mostly in Rugby and London, and then eventually I was posted to Germany and there I met my husband who had come back from serving in Burma, he was injured in Burma, flown out to India and was posted to Germany and we then met in Germany and we married. Its his story I want to talk about more than mine. That he was serving in Burma, because this is what its all about.

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