大象传媒

There was only one thing wrong with the police officer's request for mother to report to the baby clinic. Yes, she had done voluntary duty there for years, but that did not explian the officer's call at the house. It was between 9pm and 10pm, Friday 1st September 1939. The time of the request is what kept Father, Mary, Bob and I from sipping obligatory cups of tea for the next hour or so until the return of "she who was called".

Calm under many family crises, she knew her news would have unheard-of reactions. The door opened with a flourish and she stepped inside, gazing around at us. "Well", she said, "I've got a job, and if we all work together we'll manage fine". The chorus of who's, why's and wherefore's eventually produced the fact that Mother's interest in First Aid had resulted in her being "called up" to become a member of the First Aid Group to be formed in case of war.

On Monday 4th September, Father's job of arranging, unloading and auctioning fish fell apart, because vessels were no longer allowed to sail. By the end of the week he was a group leader in the report centre.

During the First World War he had been a skipper of a minesweeper, so it was no surprise to us to find him back at sea. This time he was in the Merchant Navy, on loan to the Navy, or was it the other way around? In addition to the crew there were six airmen in charge of an airborn balloon. This vessel escorted other ships out into the North Sea.

Back to Monday. I was still at school when I received a telegram cancelling my attendance at a Civil Service exam in Newcastle the next day, as "the authorities did not advise large gatherings, eg exam rooms or packed trains". I left school in disgust and started work with the ICI, 15 miles away. Within the year Mary was in the army, Bob was in North Africa, and Bill (who did not live at home anyway) was doing things with bombs. Within the year, I met my future husband and we did most of our courting by post - he having to visit most of the world oceans, courtesy of their majesties. Should I mention the six weeks we had to spend out of the family home while part of the foundations were repaired? Yes! It was the result of a bomb - but that's another story. "Pull together, but in different directions I think".

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