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鈥淭his story was submitted to the site by the 大象传媒 Radio Derby鈥檚 CSV Action Desk with Nelly Mellors permission. The author fully understands the site鈥檚 terms and conditions鈥�

Nellie and Geoff became engaged in 1938 with the intention of marrying at Easter 1940. Shortly after the engagement, Geoff joined the Territorials 137 North Midlands Field Ambulance Unit (his first choice, the Engineers was full).

The war-like atmosphere hung over everyone. Nellie was working in a dress shop in Belper when Geoff came to tell her of his call up. The manager suggested they walk and talk in the garden of the shop to decide their immediate future. The following day, war was declared. Nellie was allowed to visit Geoff in the Barracks in Derby for 2 hours on the following Saturday.

At the same time, Nellie鈥檚 father joined the Auxilliary Fire Service; her sister was still at school and her mother was a housewife and remained so throughout the war.

Geoff was sent to Gainford, County Durham for a while from where on 17th February 1940, he rang Nellie at the shop (Belper 100) to say he had been issued with white uniform and would be going abroad 鈥� Finland 鈥� next week! Nellie asked about their wedding and they decided to bring it forward. The Vicar was very strict and wouldn鈥檛 marry them in Lent without special dispensation form the Bishop. Nellie and her mother went to see the Bishop and managed to persuade him to issue a Special Licence for which they paid 2 guineas (拢2.10p).

Geoff was granted 4 days leave. He traveled with his full kit and had to walk from Derby station to Belper on arrival. The following day they went to buy the ring and were given 6 silver teaspoons as a gift with their purchase!

She and her sister wore dress and edge-to-edge jackets whilst the remainder of the family continued to observe the 3 months period of mourning for Nellie鈥檚 Auntie who died at Christmas. Friends and family donated rations in order to make a Wedding Cake to have with the ham salad wedding breakfast. The Best Man was Frank Watson from the Regiment and both the Bridegroom and Best Man wore their uniforms. The honeymoon was in Nellie鈥檚 Mother鈥檚 sister鈥檚 house in Belper.

Geoff returned to County Durham to find that the trip to Finland had been cancelled and he was posted to Scotland near the Solway Firth. Geoff found a small flat in a lady鈥檚 house and Nellie went to live in Scotland. The local Chemist shop sold tins of Tea Tablets which Nellie bought and sent to her mother in Belper as tea was rationed: these were said to make a good cup of tea!

The Regiment moved to East Kilbride and Geoff again found accommodation and Nellie moved too. She used to catch the bus into Edinburgh or Glasgow to look around the sights. One day, Nellie and Geoff came out of the theatre in Glasgow, where they had seen Pat Kirkwood, to find that a Barrage Balloon had been struck by lightening and was on fire and descending fast. Everyone dived for shelter and they found themselves in a pub 鈥� not a place for ladies in those days! The Auxilliary Fire Service dealt with the emergency.

Their next move was to Lairg in the Highlands, north of Inverness, and to travel that far north required an ID Card. This had Nellie鈥檚 photograph and No. RBDC/3 and she has kept it safely all this time. They had a flat with the local Bank Manager and his wife and young son whom she took for long walks. The local hotel held dances at which Nellie had to dance with all the regimental men as the local ladies only knew Scottish country dances!

In between the postings, Nellie returned to Belper until Geoff had found a suitable place to stay. These journeys were made by steam train and could take hours. One night there was an air raid just outside Sheffield and an aeroplane shadowed the train. It took more than three hours for the train to crawl into Derby as the engine could not be fired for fear of showing a light. All the passengers were ok and made no sounds of dissent.

In 1942 Geoff was moved to Goldsby but Nellie was unable to follow this time. However, Geoff became ill with peritonitis and Nellie was sent for. She was met at the station after a 24hour journey during which she was looked after by two airmen (they wrote to her later and she still has the letter). Major Mitchell, the hospital Doctor, met her at the station and took her to the hospital and thereafter she was escorted back to her hotel at night by two nurses to ensure her safety. Nellie was there over Christmas and New Year and has never experienced such a riotous New Year again!

Nellie was now required to register for war work or to join the forces. Geoff didn鈥檛 want her to go into uniform as he could see them working in different parts of the world and making contact very difficult. Nellie therefore started to work in Park Foundry at Belper where she drilled holes in aerlions. Each aerlion required 250 holes drilling and then deburring on the underneath. She used a Desoutter drill which broke easily attracting the wrath of the foreman. A shift was from 8.00a.m. until 7.00p.m. with a break for tea in the morning and afternoon and a short lunch break. Geoff was in Perth at this time and they met up occasionally when Nellie had leave.

Geoff was now part of the 51st Highland Division and had disembarkation leave prior to going to N. Africa. Nellie was refused leave initially but later the decision was reversed but Nellie was advised not to return to work with the same boss. Nellie then went to work in the accounts office of Rolls Royce where she was bored to tears, often working figures 2 and 3 times over in order to appear busy. The boss sat behind the clerks and kept an eye on them! She made a very good friend there whose friendship lasted many years and also discovered a liking for brown bread and beetroot sandwiches which she likes to this day! Nellie stayed at Rolls Royce 3-4 years.

Meanwhile Geoff experienced scenes so horrible in N. Africa that he rarely spoke of them but the nightmares continued sporadically throughout his life. Later he moved to Northern Italy and then to Naples. It was while Geoff was on leave on the island of Ischia that he sent Nellie a handbag, box of face powder and a lipstick. All letters and parcels had to be routed through the censors and in their wisdom, they cut the bottom off the box of face powder. Finding nothing untoward, the face powder was replaced in the handbag and forwarded to Nellie. The powder was of course ruined and it took ages for Nellie to rid her handbag of face powder! However, the handbag was a good one 鈥� Nellie still has it today!

Rationing encouraged ingenuity. Nellie had a jacket made from a navy mattress cover; everyone would flock to Boots on hearing they had a stock of Menthol and Eucolyptus tablets or Glycerine and Thymol tablets and buy them to suck as sweets. Underskirts were made of rayon material which wore into holes; girls would embroider around the holes so the material resembled broderie anglais. Lipsticks were in short supply, almost always red, broke easily, and were housed in cardboard tubes the metal cylinders having been taken for cartridge cases.

On May 8th 1946 there was a VE Day dance in Belper which Nellie and her sister attended 鈥� red eyed. Their cat, Monty, had died that morning and the two girls had been crying. They had everyone鈥檚 sympathy at the dance as they thought something had happened to Geoff.

Later that year, Nellie met Geoff at the LNER Station in Friar Gate dressed in a grey/white pin striped demob suit and resembling a spiv. It was hard to settle down again and to realize that Geoff was in Derby to stay and not going to war again. He returned to work at British Cellanese who had been obliged to keep his job open for him and to whom Geoff was obliged to return for a certain amount of time. Geoff later changed jobs and eventually Geoff and Nellie worked for the same company in excess of 25 years each.

A Few Incidents.
It was very dark during the war as no street lamps were lit. Daylight saving was introduced whereby the hour that was put forward for summer was left throughout the year and an extra hour put on for summer so it was light until 11pm and after.

A tourch might be carried but it had to be covered, with just a slit to allow light. My dad was going on duty one night and almost hit himself on a shop window.

Boiled eggs were a treat at a cafe in Turnditch and cakes were always charged for the number they put on the plate so we'd take a bag and bring then home! Public houses that ran out of beer would be closed until the next delivery.

The camaraderie amongst everyone was marvellouse because we were all in it together.

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