大象传媒

This story was entered onto the Peoples War Website by Rod Sutton on behalf of Mrs Alma Darke, the author, with her full permission. She understands the sites terms and conditions.

I was born June 10th 1941 so I really cannot recall anything bad happening, i.e. bombs falling etc. but both my parents were stationed at Bodmin Barracks, my mother with the A.T.S and my father with The Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry. They married in Bodmin parish church, 17th August 1940 as mum was married she could no longer serve in the A.T's so she had to leave.

They lived in a flat in Bodmin, Dad was waiting to be sent abroad on active service. Soon they were expecting me, the day my mother felt labour pains she was standing in a queue in Bodmin post office to pick up her allotment money. She hurried back to the flat got her case and made her way to the hospital in Bodmin, when she got there she was told that all expecting mums had to go to Looe, a large house called Polvellan which had become available as an emergency maternity hospital, because they needed Bodmin hospital for wounded soldiers coming back from overseas. Apparently I became the first girl born there on 10/6/41, a boy was the first baby born the day before. The Western Morning News carried the story.

The Matron asked my parents if they would call me Polly after Polvellan, but my father wanted me called after an aunt. If you see my surname now, and I was called Polly I would be Polly Darke (after Poldark novels.) My mother called me Polly when she wanted a cup of tea.

When I was about 2 or 3 yrs old I had whooping cough. I was sitting on the step by the gate and I began coughing, an American G.I. apparently picked me up and gave my back a pat to remove any obstruction from my throat. My mother came out screaming at the soldier to put me down because it was not the thing in those days to be talking to anyone in uniform because of nosy neighbours. Mum did tell me some time later in life about the incident and that he was coloured but very polite. The G.I.s were billeted nearby at Scorrier, we were living at Redruth Highway at the time.

We had a postman where we lived, he only had one arm which he lost during WW1. While making his deliveries of letters he would inform the neighbours in the village, that certain shops in the town had received certain things like scarce food items but they have to move fast before they sold out. My mother wore a wrap over apron and she use to take the corners of the apron and bring them up to the ties and tucking the ends in, and getting on her bike she would make as dash into town.

Also during the war my mother would put the battery from her radio in the oven of the Cornish range, to get some extra life from it so she could listen to the news. It was found that if the battery was warmed slightly, it could be plugged back into the radio along with a charged accumulator.

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