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This story was told to Christine Barker at the VE Celebrations in Beverley in 2005

My husband was in the Far East during the war, he went away when I was 20. My mum thought I was too young to marry at 20 so he went away, first he was in Burma, and he was away for four years. If he’d been a bit nearer in Europe we might have been able to get married if he’d come home on leave, but the Far East was too far. During this time I used to get telegrams for my birthday and that. Anyway I got a telegram one day saying ‘home love, wire back, come over’. So I went over and we stayed that night at his home, we came over to my mums the following day. I think that was the 19th June and we got married on the 25th June at Beverley Minster by special licence. So it must have been true love.

It was a quiet do, he was in his uniform, I was wore a blue dress, you had to use your coupons for everything so there were not big weddings.

Before I met him I was in town, in Beverley, near the picture playhouse and the sirens went off and we had to get to the shelter until the all clear. Some soldiers came in, and one of them was laying on the seat snoozing seeming not interested. There was me and another girl chatting a bit, and I kept saying ‘oh I will have to go home because I will get into trouble’, because my dad was real strict. Anyway this one who’d been laid down not joining in said ‘oh I’ll take you home’ and he was the one I married!

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