大象传媒

The bombing continued into 1942, and we never knew when the All-clear would be sounded, but we all carried on with our work until we could hear action over head, then took shelter. By the time I celebrated my 16th birthday in May, I was getting bored with my job. I had very little social life. The youth club attached to the local Methodist church had closed down, and my school friends were either in jobs or at the Technical School so we never seemed to meet. I had almost finished my short-hand and typing course, and felt I might look for a better job. I told my mother I would like to go to London one afternoon to find work, and she was very much against it. But I persisted and on my afternoon off caught the train to Charing Cross station, and made my way to the nearest Labour Exchange. There I was given two firms to approach, and chose to go to a publishing house situated in a small turning at the bottom of Leicester Square. This was a short walk from the station, and when I entered the door I found myself in an impressive entry hall with deep red carpets and oak panelling! I was interviewed by the Office Manager, and then offered the post of Invoice clerk at a wage of 拢2. per week. I thought this was wonderful, and went home with the good news. Of course, I would have train fares, but we all had luncheon vouchers that allowed us to have a meal in the restaurant on the top floor of the Leicester Square Lyons Corner House. I started work a week later, and by catching the Workman鈥檚 train at 7.30a.m. each day I could have a very cheap fare. I was able to give Mum more money for the housekeeping 鈥� 25shillings- and this gave me 15shillings for myself. I was never able to save money, but I enjoyed my new job and met some very nice young people who also worked in the main office. One girl, Phyllis, is still my friend and we are still in touch 63 years later! I also met a very nice young man who worked in the ground-floor office, and we used to smile at each other when we met on an errand, until we had lunch together one day 鈥� found that we had a lot in common, and then spent most of our spare time together. We worked very near the National Gallery and often went there after lunch. Then we began going to the theatre or to a concert, and then we were sweethearts. We were both 17 years old, and that romance has lasted until this very day. We married when we were 21, and will celebrate our 58th anniversary in July鈥︹��
During the early summer we heard from brother Doug that he was in North Africa, but that was all he could tell us. However a few weeks later, my parents received a letter from a lady who had heard a broadcast by Lord Haw-haw. This man was an Englishman who admired Hitler, and had stayed in Germany and then started to broadcast to Britain, telling us how many planes they had shot down, or how many ships they had sunk 鈥� he was obviously trying to break our morale 鈥� but he had a very 鈥減osh鈥� voice, and we soon learned to make fun of him, and instead of his real name, William Joyce, we called him Lord Haw-haw! Occasionally this horrid man would give out the names and addresses of soldiers and airmen who had been taken prisoner, and this kind lady had made notes, and wrote to us to tell us that Doug had been taken prisoner by the Italians, and was now in a P.O.W. camp in Italy, and was not injured. It was a great shock to us all, and my boy-friend ,Stuart, came with me to The Red Cross Office in London to try to find out more. However, the Red Cross had not received the official lists from Italy, and it was many months before we heard from the War Office, and then received a very brief, printed card from Doug himself.
I was the person who did most of the letter-writing in our household, and so I wrote to Doug in his camp, and to Jim who was on the air-craft carrier Indomitable in the Pacific. I would give them news of the family, but never mention bombs or subjects like that. I鈥檇 also tell of films we鈥檇 seen, or of friends, or the weather, or books I鈥檇 read. Anything to keep them in touch. By this time our little sister, Jill, was 6years old and going to school, and Pat was 9.
1943 was a year much like the previous one, except that rationing became more strict. We all worked hard and tried to keep cheerful. American soldiers began to appear in the streets of London, and some girls had a gay time with them, for they were much better paid than the British boys, and when Nylon stockings began to be gifts from the Yanks, then a lot more girls went out with them. I had Stuart, so felt no need of any other boy-friend. But our lives changed in 1944, when , in April, at the age of 18, Stuart was called-up to join the Air-Force. We missed each other terribly, and as the only way we could teach in touch was by mail, we wrote often to each other. All the young man had to do a basic training, and Stuart spent three months in Skegness . During this period D-Day took place 鈥� the invasion of Europe to free the countries from the years they had spent under the rule of the Nazi鈥檚. St the end of his training, Stuart and all the other young men received a letter from the War Office telling them that more soldiers were needed, and the whole squadron was to be moved into the Army鈥︹��..It was a great shock to everyone, and within a few weeks they found themselves in Northern Ireland undergoing the Army鈥檚 basic training! They were there another three months, and it was during this time that Hitler started bombarding southern England with flying bombs. My family and I spent the night in our shelter listening to the different sound of the planes going overhead. The anti-aircraft guns were blasting away, and search-lights trying to catch the planes in their beams. The noise went on for hours, and by the time Dad and I had to leave home to go to the station the guns were still firing. We didn鈥檛 know what had happened, but started walking only to find pieces of shrapnel hitting the ground about us, and we scurried along and were exceeding lucky not to get injured. Later on the news, we were told that 鈥渇lying bombs鈥� had been launched against us 鈥� these needed no pilot, and just flew until they ran out of fuel, and then fell to the ground and exploded. It was purely to try to terrify us civilians, but we learned to carry on till the engines stopped and then to take cover. We teen-agers at work were instructed to take shelter in the big safe that contained all the account-books, and the older people had to crouch under their desks. I wrote to Stuart telling him all about this, but when he received the letter it said 鈥淒ear Stuart,鈥� then all the words on the next two pages had been cut out leaving a border, and just my ending 鈥淲ith all my love, Joyce鈥�. It had been censored, and it wasn鈥檛 until he at last came home on leave that he learned what I had written.
I have just realised that I haven鈥檛 mentioned bomb-sites at all, but I must tell you about them. When bombs destroyed housed and shops etc. there weren鈥檛 the materials or men to re-build them. Small damage would be repaired to enable families to go back into their home, but when buildings were completely destroyed any dangerous parts were pulled down, and large fences put up around them. These sights were all over the place in London and district where I lived and worked, so we got used to them. They remained there for many years, until rebuilding began six or seven years after the war had ended.
At the beginning of 1945, when Stuart nd his comrades had finished their training they were brought back to Britain 鈥� to Wales 鈥� where they all became members of the Royal Welsh Fusiliers. After a few weeks in a very cold, snowy camp they at last came home on embarkation leave. How lovely it was to see him, though I had to share the seven days leave whilst he visited his mother in Bedfordshire, but then he came to London where he stayed at the Y.M.C.A. and I managed to get a couple of days off work. All too soon we two young people, who loved each other very much, had to say 鈥楪oodbye鈥� on a draughty railway station 鈥� not knowing where he would go and what laid ahead. The battles in Europe were proceeding slowly, but we knew that a large part of northern France and most of Belgium had been liberated! Through his letters I learned that Stuart was moved about Belgium, and each day the soldiers had to look at the notice-board to see if they had been allocated to some other regiment. On one occasion Stuart saw that men who had office experience and could type were needed to work in Orderly Rooms 鈥� which are the organising offices of regiments. He put his name on the list, and within a couple of days was transferred to the Buckinghamshire Regiment, who were on a special mission to capture and investigate the sites from which the 鈥榙oodle-bugs鈥� had been fired. They were accompanied by scientists who wanted to discover the secrets of the special engines that fired these flying bombs. All Stuart鈥檚 comrades were sent straight to the front to take part in the fighting, and his unit followed on closely. We wrote to each other as often as possible, and one day I was able to give him the good news that I had a new job! In the office I heard that the elderly lady who was secretary in the Art Department was retiring, and so I applied for the post. After an interview I was given a months trial. My new boss was a very kind man, and we got on well, so I was delighted when after a weeks trial he told me the job was mine! At last I could use my shorthand and typing and the work was very interesting, and it made a wonderful change to checking invoices!
Soon after this we, in the south-east of England, suffered another blow. I was on my way home on the train one evening when we all heard an enormous explosion! All in the carriage looked at each other and wondered what could have happened. The next day we heard that a gas main had exploded in south-west London, but shortly after the government announced that Hitler had a new weapon 鈥� a huge rocket full of explosives 鈥� and it was that which had landed! After that we never knew when one of these monsters would land, and that was the only time when I felt really nervous about working in London. Of course, Hitler hoped these would make us give in, but he was unlucky and we made the best of it and carried on.
Stuart spent his 19th birthday living in a tent in an orchard in Holland and a little while after they moved to a small town near the German border which had recently been liberated. The same month I received a letter ordering me to report for entry into one of the forces. Of course, I chose the Army, and then waited to be called-up.
As it happened I didn鈥檛 have to for the European war ended on May 8th, and at last we were at peace. Stuart had befriended a Dutch family, and a few days earlier when they learned that the whole of Holland had been freed, the whole turned out to attend a service of thanksgiving in the church, and afterwards they all joined hands and danced round the church in celebration. We kept in touch with that family, and visited them years later, and even now are still in touch with the 鈥渢wo little girls鈥� of the family. Fifty years later we were invited to go back to Haaksbergan to celebrate the liberation of Holland, and the people of the town would shake Stuart鈥檚 hand, and thank you for helping to free them.
Of course, the war in the East hadn鈥檛 ended and the struggle out there went on for another three months. My brother Doug weas released from his P.O.W. camp by the American troops and he arrived home just before the war ended. He was very thin and all his hair had been shaved off because he tried to take a loaf of bread that a farmer had given him into the camp. But with Mum鈥檚 good cooking and the rest of a leave from the Army, he soon began to look like his old self. He served a few months more in the Army and was then de-mobbed. Brother Jim was some months returning from the Pacific and was demobbed in the October. Stuart had another two and a half years before he was demobbed, and served in various places in Germany, Italy and Yugoslavia. We had to live through our letters and the few leaves he had about every six months. We married in July 1947 and he came out to civvy live six months later. We have now been married nearly 58 years and those war days are long behind us, but we didn鈥檛 let all the separations part us, and they only made our love for each other stronger.

漏 Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.