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This story was submitted to the Peoples War site by Paul Suter of Leicester City Libraries on behalf of Jean Holdsworth and has been added to the site with her permission. The author fully understands the site鈥檚 terms and conditions.

I was at school during the war; at the Wyggeston Girls Grammar School, which was one of the Leicester grammar schools subsequently turned into a comprehensive school or sixth-form college.

As the school's war effort we were sent pea picking in the summer and potato picking in the winter, which was extremely cold!!!

Whilst actually in school we packed small arms parts in one of the gyms. We had to wrap the small parts in oiled paper; the oil would get all over our hands. The wrapped parts were then packed into boxes, that was the last we saw of them. We were told by the Head; Miss Caress, we were NOT allowed to tell ANYBODY about what we were doing - we took more notice of her than we did of Hitler!

I have heard since, we were only one of two schools within the whole country who took part in the packing of these small parts and furthermore we were the only girls' school.

When the Doodlebugs - flying bombs - began to fall on London, children living there were sent to Leicester as part of the evacuation procedures. They went into Leicester schools where sixth-form pupils from Wyggeston were sent to support the staff. This was a most enjoyable experience for myself and my friends. This experience gave me the desire to become an infant teacher after the war at Moat Infant School (now Spinney Hill Primary School), where I spent 30 happy years.

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