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It started off with evacuees from Ilford area of London and these were mainly school children who had a very different life style to us country girls. These girls must have felt out of place but we tried to make them welcome. Later on, though, there were various army units stationed in the area, there were Poles who manned the armored train which was on the Saxmundham to Aldeburgh line. An influx of Scotsmen with the Cameroonian Regiment and the Royal Scots Fusiliers as well as members of various county regiments such as the 2nd and 4th Essex, Royal Berkshire Regiment, and latterly joined by American forces. Many Leiston people became involved with these newcomers through work or socially. To a young teenager the war was quite an exciting event with so many new faces. My father, a farmer, had lost a leg as the result of wounds in the First World War and had an artificial leg, amazingly in 1939 he somehow managed to join the 8th Battalion of the Suffolk Regiment which consisted of men unfit for active service. They guarded bomb dumps and other strategic points. Meanwhile my mother was left to manage our 120 acre farm and herd of cows. Eventually the farm had to be let out, and at various times there were Army and RAF personnel billeted in the house and an artillery unit was based for a while in the farm buildings also we had two light guns situated in wooded parts of the farm. On one occasion the troops had cause to fire a Lewis gun at a German fighter cruising the area.
After the American fighter base became operational at Leiston airfield we often enjoyed seeing the pilots making triumphant manouveres overhead. We lived at the Red House Farm, Red House Lane at the southern end of the town and Red House Lane was a real lane with hedges and fields on the northern side.
The planes would come roaring down the side of the hedge and if we were lucky the Mustangs would give us a wing waggle while we waved frantically. The pilot was clearly visible and a special favorite was a Mustang named ‘HURRY HOME HONEY’
Of course the arrival of the Americans caused a very mixed reaction locally. For us teenagers one excitement was to go to the dances at Parham airfield [flying fortresses]. We were picked up in transport lorries chaperoned by BVS members. This introduced us to some pretty wild parties, and American style dancing.

Whilst at school I was a boarder in nearby Ipswich. We frequently had to go down to the shelters. In the boarding house we had to go down to the bunker when the sirens sounded. It was amazing how quickly the shelters were dug in 1939. Rationing was fair and not particularly short. We had our own pot of butter and limited sugar per week. The black-out meant we had to keep our curtains well drawn.

Like many local girls I met my future husband when he was stationed in the area in 1942 when he was attached to the 2nd and 4th Essex Regiment. We met in the Leiston Picture House one Sunday evening at a community hymn singing. I was still at school at this time but we kept in touch when he went to OCTU in 1943. We eventually married in 1949.

One day there was an officer’s coffin that was being put aboard a train at Leiston station.
At the station the bagpipes were playing the La mete (the translation of the La mete is ‘The Flowers of the Forest’). The Scottish regiments held a gathering on Benhall Layers in Saxmundham. The finale was a march past with 100 pipers accompanied by drums.

I was at the Red House with my mother when four incendiary bombers landed within the area. Three crossed the field nearby and one harmlessly fell in our stable.

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