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This story has been submitted to the People’s War website by Anne Wareing of the Lancashire Home Guard on behalf of Edna Franklin and has been added to the site with her permission…

I was 19 at the beginning of the war and living in Sheffield with mum and dad. On that Sunday morning when war was declared I went to church and there was just myself, the vicar, two ladies and one man in the congregation, so the prayers he said included, ‘When two or three are gathered together’ which happened to be true that morning.

The family shared an Anderson shelter with neighbours. Dad who had served with the Coldstream Guards, was made a Company Sergeant Major in the Home Guard.

As for the rationing, there was no sugar, no sweets or bananas and I remember having a cake made with liquid paraffin and my Auntie Jessie had a stock of tinned salmon tucked away in her cupboard.

I was working for a company manufacturing special steel for submarines, whilst at night I was training to work with the ambulance service.

On the night of the heavy bombing I went out with the ambulance on my first real job, and whilst waiting for a shout, I had an accident in the back. I bumped my head and had to be treated for my injuries and so I became the first casualty of the Sheffield blitz.

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