大象传媒

I was born Marjorie Hickling in 1918 in Derbyshire and so was in my early twenties during World War II. I was married to Stanley Pare in 1941. Due to the rationing, we couldn鈥檛 get a wedding dress and we couldn鈥檛 go on a honeymoon because we both had to be back at work on the following Monday! (The week after the war finished we took the train to Blackpool for a week). My husband was a coal miner and so he didn鈥檛 have to go to fight, but some of my brothers and sisters went - George fought in India and France and Joe fought in the Army, Ken was in the Navy and my sister Kath worked for the RAF (plotting flights on large maps on boards). George was at Dunkirk and he had to swim out from the shore to the boats that were evacuating them 鈥� except that he couldn鈥檛 swim! He said afterwards that you learn pretty quickly in that kind of situation. Luckily all of my brothers and sisters survived the war although Kath lost her fianc茅.

I stayed at home and worked as an ARP (Air Raid Patrol) Warden 鈥� whenever there was an air raid I had to report immediately to a control point and then patrol the area to make sure everyone found their way safely to the air raid shelters. You always found someone who wanted to stay out and watch the bombs falling!

I also worked at a factory making rucksacks and uniforms for the soldiers, and at one point I also helped to make Barrage Balloons to protect the workers at Rolls Royce and Stanton Iron Works, which were often targeted by the Germans. It was nice to know that I was doing my bit to help the people there. I will always remember the day when one of the German planes flew beneath the protective barrier made by the balloons and machine-gunned all of the workers leaving Rolls Royce.

When I was 22, Stan and I took in three evacuees from London 鈥� Reggie, Tony and Michael. They stayed with us in our little house for just over two years. They were all eleven years old when they arrived. I remember taking them to the cinema as often as we could. We stayed in touch for a while after the war and I know Reggie got married and had a little girl but after that we lost touch.

My other memories of the war included the Germans that lived here. There was one who was my friend, and who鈥檚 father owned a jewellers shop in Heanor. He refused to go back to Germany but he was forced to close his shop in the end. There was another German who lived in Ilkeston and he was forced back to Germany where he was recruited to drop bombs on Stanton Iron Works (where he used to work) but when he flew over, he dropped the bombs in a field nearby instead so that none of his friends would be killed 鈥� we called him the 鈥楩riend of Ilkeston鈥� 鈥� but I don鈥檛 know what happened to him after that.

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