大象传媒

During the war, when i was about 30, I was in a reserved occupation. I was called up but didn't have to go because my job was classed as important. I worked in the office at Williamsons in Lancaster as a Comptometer operator, it was a very clever calculating machine.

I had to do night duty once in so many days at Rylands House, which was a large house James Williamson had built in memory of his 3rd wife. (He was the inventor of linoleum, and he discovered that, by wiping his paint brush on a cloth and noticed it dried hard).

On night duty, if the sirens had gone off, we would have had to have gone out and rendered first-aid duty. The sirens never went once, when i was on duty.

One weekend, I was on duty Saturday to Sunday. There were about 14 of us (women on one side of the house, men on the other) sleeping in a big room, just lit by gas light.

One Sunday morning I woke up late, around 8am, to find myself absolutley alone in this big house! All the others had dismantled their folding iron bedsteads, and put them away and left. I had never heard a thing! They didnt wake me up, knowing I didn't have to go to work on Sunday mornings. It was semi dark and I was scared because it was a huge house to be alone in. I didn't know if there were any men in the other side of the house, which would have been embarassing. I have never got dressed so quickly in all my life! I was dressing myself as i went for the bus - i wanted to get to civilisation as quickly as possible, and was relieved once I was outside!

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