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My name’s Margaret Davies, and I’m 88.
I was carrying a baby when the war started. My husband went into the army, into the medical corps. He went to West Africa, and he was there for a couple of years. He looked dreadful when he came back. He took these tablets for malaria, and he was yellow, you see, after that. Dreadful.
I was living in Acrefair, near Wrexham, at the time. I wasn’t asked to go into the war effort, because of having a baby. I had my own hair dressing business in Acrefair, but I had to give that up, with having the baby. But when he got bigger, my mother looked after him for me, and I went back to hairdressing. I had a good business, and the Londoners who had come to work in Monsanto.. I used to work after tea and all, to please them, you see.
During the war, when the bombing was on, the Germans thought they were bombing Monsanto, but instead of that, they were dropping bombs on Garth mountain. It was ooo, a flare, the blaze was terrific, and most frightening.
Michael was a very nervous child. If there was a bang, he’d be frightened to death. We used to have to leave the door open when he went to bed. That’s how it affected him.
My husband wasn’t in the fighting at all, you see, being in the medical corps. He was treating malaria with a team.
He was never right after coming back out. He was six years altogether in the army, and he hated it. They tried to get him out, through his work, but he was too young. If he’d have been 25, they’d have got him off with his work, you see, but anyway, they said they’d let him know when they would send for him. And they sent for him just a fortnight before Christmas. His father had gone to order a goose, and when he came back I said ‘It’s no good. His calling papers have come.’ He hated the army. He had medals when he came out. I said to him ‘Where are your medals?!’ and he said ‘I’ve thrown them in the water.’ He didn’t like the army at all. He didn’t want anything to do with it. They wanted him to take an officer’s job, but he wouldn’t do it. ‘No, I want to get out, that’s all I want’ he said.

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