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This story was submitted to the People's War site by Judith Harridge of Leamington Library on behalf of Gertie Cale and has been added with her permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions.
I had a whole family of Cockneys living with us. They’re nice to live with, they’re very humerous. My husband was on the railway and so was this Cockney and that’s how we got all friendly. You shared everything in the war. I think I did all the cooking in the war. I had many billeted on me because I had four or five bedrooms. They’d come from London. My husband worked on the railway so he didn’t have to go to the war. He wanted to go; he really did want to go. He felt like a cissy that he couldn’t do what other men were doing but I said you’re doing your share what else can you do. They wouldn’t release him off the railway – they needed him to do things women couldn’t do.
You don’t realise what you went through! I had how many billeted on me! I had a man and a woman and two daughters both grown up and they had young men. They used to swarm my house and never pay for anything. They were pushy! I wouldn’t live it again for all the tea in China. The details of the thing …oh! Let’s hope we never have another war.

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