大象传媒

It should have been a very exciting time for me. I was eleven years old, coming from a large family holidays away other than with aunties in Kent were unknown but Mum and Dad decided we would be going to Ramsgate for a week with an aunt and uncle from Kent 鈥� the date of departure was 3 September. Our holiday was cancelled on 2 September.

Sunday morning the whole family sat round the radio and heard Neville Chamberlains鈥� dreaded words 鈥榃e are at war with Germany鈥� I shall never forget the fear that enveloped me and went out in the garden on my own, and the tears just came. I was brought down to earth with a sound of a whistle. It was the local Air Raid Warden on his bike shouting, 鈥淭ake cover!鈥� Then the horrific wailing of the siren, which meant take cover.

My youngest brother and I, being the youngest, were promptly put under the table 鈥� it was a large oak table with an iron bar going through and Mum and Dad reckoned it would take any weight!!! Under the table with us came the biscuit barrel 鈥� no biscuits in it but the insurance policy that Mum paid one penny each week for each member of the family. There was also a tin marked 鈥業ron Rations鈥� that people were told to have with emergency food in i.e. chocolate, biscuits, etc. This was in case we were bombed, or trapped somewhere with no means of access to food.

Well my brother decided that as the war had started and we did feel trapped under the table, he decided to investigate the Iron Rations. By the time the All Clear had started the Iron Rations had gone - the rest of the family had decided not to come under the table, so had no idea until the All Clear went and my brother and I were told to come out that Mum discovered we had consumed the lot. Mum was not a happy bunny!

Two weeks later I was due to start at the Epsom Central School and we were greeted with 鈥榃e do not have enough air raid shelters for you all, but if you are prepared to knit red cross blankets, and sea boot stockings for the Russian Convoys there is room for you in the shelters. I found that very puzzling. I had a thirst for learning and it was very frustrating. I was in the local free library and enjoyed reading, and my Mother bought me the Children鈥檚 Newspaper and Enid Blytons Sunny Stories. I decided to sign on for Evening Classes for English. Sadly that too was closed because of shelter shortage.

I was in the Girls Life Brigade, which met at the Lecture Hall in Upper High Street in Epsom. The YMCA took it over as a canteen and the Girls Life Brigade volunteered to work in the canteen and I went all keen to help. Unfortunately the counter was so high and I was short so I wasn鈥檛 allowed to serve 鈥� but just clear the tables which wasn鈥檛 as much fun as serving. The Canadian Soldiers were stationed in Epsom, and used the YMCA a lot.

I left school in 1942 and was fourteen years old. The Lady Superintendent from the Legal and General Assurance Society came to our school to try to encourage any of us who were about to leave school to start at the Legal and General in their Training School to learn the rudiments of Office Work for 17/6d (87p) per week. I had planned to train as a Nurse at Guildford College, but when this offer came up, I felt I ought to go there as I had a brother in the Army, a sister in the ATS, sister in the VAD (Voluntary Aid Detachment (Nursing) and with just my younger brother left at home I thought I would be more use at the Legal and General. I spent many happy years there.

I enjoyed being a member of the WJAC (a pre service unit for the WAAF) became a side drummer in the band where I met the sergeant in the Army Cadets who was bugler, cornet player and drummer in 1945 who I fell in love with and married. Happy days!

Even though it was a sad and frightening time, if only there could be now some of the camaraderie that was around then. There was no counseling in those days 鈥� the answer in our house was Mum saying I鈥檒l put the kettle on and we will have a nice cup of tea. I think the greatest gift that God ever gave us was a sense of humor.

One of the saddest memories of the war was to do with D Day and the days that followed. My brother was in the Army and round about the time my brother came on leave and seemed a bit preoccupied. He went back off leave. Then the news of D Day broke. We had no idea where my brother was then one day a post card arrived from the Ministry to say they regretted my brother was missing presumed killed. That was a terrible day. Some time later another post card arrived informing us that my brother was in hospital in Lancashire. That was a wonderful day. The good news was some time later he married one of the nurses who brought him back to health. My brother found it difficult to talk about his experiences 鈥� he had shell shock quite badly. As he improved, but very slowly, he was able to talk to my sister, and told her he was sent out the day after D Day and it was hell. He found himself in a field where the German soldiers were going round bayoneting those they thought were still alive. He just lay there pretending he was dead. For years he had the most terrible nightmares. Sadly he was very ill with cancer, and the night he died the nurses said he was just back on the battlefield.

I have so many memories, some sad and some happy, but I can honestly say one of the happiest was VE Day (Victory in Europe). To celebrate Mum opened a tin of peaches she had been saving, which we enjoyed with evaporated milk. All the windows in the house were opened, and Mum put the gramophone on full blast and played Land of Hope and Glory. It was indeed that day.

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