大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People's War by Judith Harridge on behalf of Mary Ball and has been added to the site with her permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions.
I did fire watch work in Leamington. I worked for the County Council and there were six men and women. We had fun, I don鈥檛 think we realised what we were there for! I was 28. We had very little training; we wouldn鈥檛 have been a scrap of use! No uniform. We did this once a week. Nothing really happened. There weren鈥檛 many bombs when we were on; we were pretty lucky. I was living in digs on Clarendon Avenue with a friend of mine. I was very fortunate when rationing came in because I happened to be going away to Devon for three months leave and I鈥檇 just got new clothes and I went the day after rationing started so I was lucky. It was surprising how the week just disappeared. There was always a band on a Sunday in Jephson Gardens (Sunday to Sunday there was a military band). There was a concert party Monday to Saturday one week and then the band Sunday to Sunday. I used to play tennis in the Jephson Gardens, which was wonderful. It was lovely.
Do you remember where you were when they said the war was over?
I think I was in Clarendon Avenue. I went out on the town and I remember going with some friends. I remember it was crowded down by the Pump Rooms.

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