大象传媒

I left school at 14yrs in 1939, a few months before World War II was declared. I really wanted to do something to help. I wanted to be a nurse, but was too young. So I did the next best thing and volunteered to help the A.R.P. first aid post. I kept my day job, so life got a bit tiring at times.

One night a land mine (a mine which floated down on a parachute) exploded at the end of our road. It blew windows and doors out and slates off the roof. A sash window in my bedroom was hanging from a corner. We had a very cold spell at the time - no central heating in those days. I remember snowdrifts up against the walls. I went to bed in sweaters, gloves, socks and woolly hats - the lot!

My Father was a fireman in the Walthamstow brigade, in the days of brass helmets. When war started they changed to the same helmets like the services. During the incendary air raid over the City of London all the London boroughs sent their brigades into the City, but once the water tanks in their engines were empty, they couldn't get more water, as the water in the Thames was very low tide. The Germans had obviously timed it well. My father said there were so many hoses all over the place, it was just like walking on spaghetti.

I was married in January 1945. Friends and family helped me with clothing coupons and bakers made white cardboard decorated covers for wedding cakes to give the illusion of iced cakes, despite the rationing of sugar. I had a choir and organ music, but couldn't have the church bells as that would have been a warning of invasion, which thankfully never came. One thing I did have was a real white wedding with deep snow. During the reception rockets were exploding, plaster fell from walls and ceilings, we just kept on dancing.

I worked on London until it was all bombed out. The trains and stations were blacked out with defused lights and our hand torches had to have slotted covers over them. Everywhere was so dark. But our spirits were light. We not only won the War in Europe, but also on the home front. I can remember people queuing up for bread and having a moan when a loaf went up tuppence, but laughing it off. It seemed you couldn't get the people down. They picked themselves up and started over again.

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