大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People's War Site by Emma Hart, from AGC Museum WInchester on behalf of Mrs Joan Eaton, and has been added to the site with her permission. Mrs Eaton fully undertsands the site's terms and conditions.

I was 12 at the start of the war. We shared a school, and I went in the afternoons, from 12pm. We lived in Brentwood, but I went to school in Romford. There wasn't much point really, as we spent most of our time in the Air Raid Shelter with our gas masks on!
The evacuees to Brentwood came from London, which was only about 15 miles away. Evacuations weren't organised very well. The children arrived in trainloads late in the afternoon, and were bought over to the houses in a 'crocodile' walking behind their teachers and our local teachers. My mother was asked to take a couple of girls, and she wasn't happy because one of them looked unwell. It turned out she had TB and had to be sent away in the end.

Then it was decided to evacuate a boys' school in London, and my mother had to take two boys. She wasn't very happy because I was a young girl, and she worried about having two boys in the house. The evacuations didn't work anyway- In a short time, all of the evacuees had drifted back to London, as it wasn't that far away! Even their teachers drifted back. Those children were later evacuated again to Devon and Cornwall.

During the war, people had to register, both men and women. When a man was 18 and a half, he was automatically called up. In the South East they were desperate for married women workers. My mother registered when she was 35. She had never worked before - she hadnt needed to , women didnt work in those days. She was given a choice - she could work in the local mental assylum, or she could work in one of 3 local factories. The 3 factories were Marconi and Compte and Parkinson (who made secret equipment for the war) or Hoffmans, who made ball bearings. She chose the Mental Assylum, which later became a hospital for those wounded in the war. Within a few weeks she was called up to work nights, and my father was not best pleased, as he was called up and there would be no-one to look after me. My mother had to go before a tribunal to say she couldn't leave me alone in the house overnight when she was working. I often slept at my aunts house.

I had to do the shopping, cleaning etc. Our rations were so meager. We had to grow our own food to supplement it - potatoes and carrots. People supported each other in those days, and often there would be a lettuce or a bag of potatoes on the doorstep. My aunt kept chickens, so we often had eggs, and my uncle poached rabbits so we sometimes had one of those. We were allowed a small loaf of bread every other day, and about 4 to 6 ounces of meat for the two of us to share, per week. We didnt often have butter or grease, and sugar was practically unobtainable.

By the time I was 15, I wasnt really learning anything at school, as it was always being disrupted by bombs and air raid warnings. Affter Christmas in 1942, I decided that I wasn't going back to school and that I was going to get a job instead. I didn't tell my mother, she already had enought to worry about thinking of me during the air raids. I coudn't get a job locally, as it was a very small close-knit community, and someone would have told my mother I wasn't going to school, as everyone knew me! I couldn't use the train either, as the Stationmasters knew me. I had to take the bus into Ilford, about 5 miles away, to look for a job. I had to be very careful, because you needed to have a green form with your age on it to apply for a job, and I was only 15 at the time. In those days you were expected to stay at school until you were 18, and you had to pay for the privilege. I heard about a job going at the local Barclays Bank, and I went in and was interviewed by the Manager. He asked to see my school report, but I told him it wasn't available as it had my date of birth on it, and I had told him I was 16 and a half. He mentioned how mature I was for a 16 and a half year old!!! He asked what my skills were - I said shorthand typing and book-keeping, as, in those days, we were taught these at school. I got the job, and was due to start on 23rd January 1943. I had to tell my mother, who wasnt overly happy, as my education was being paid for. I had no work clothes, and we had no coupons for clothing, so I had to wear my navy school skirt, my white shirt and school navy jacket to work, until we had saved enough tokens to get me some clothing. I had to buy my stockings on the black market.

By then, we were getting air raids regularly. My father did firewatching, as he was then in the Local Defence Volunteers - which later bacame he Home Guard. Dad was usually on dawn patrol ie the early morning patrol when the LDV looked for parachutists.

The smallest things mattered in war. Having a bath was terribly difficult. My mother used to yell at us in the bath - "Dont stay in the bath, because you need to be clothed if a bomb hits us, and they come to rescue you". We never had long relaxing baths then. In fact, it took years afterwards for me to get used to having a relaxing bath, as I carried that fear of being left unclothed if a bomb hit the house and I needed rescuing, with me for a long time!

During the first few months of the war, in 1939, we could see the raids happening in distant London, and as they were so far away, we thought, 'Oh well, it doesnt matter'. But this didnt last. If the barrage balloons were too high around London, the Germans would offload their bombs over us in Essex.

The Germans also dropped landmines on parachutes. These were far worse than bombs, which were only 500lbs or so and made huge craters. Landmines obliterated everything in their path - everything turned to dust. No bodies were ever found if a house was hit by a landmine! However, we all wanted the parachute silk for clothing, so we used to go out afterwards and collect it. It was fantastic quality. I had a lovely bra made, which I embroidered. In fact, my wedding trousseau in 1952 was made entirely out of WW2 parachute silks!

My mother was one of 17 children, but there were inly 12 of her family left by WW2. I had many many cousins, and we reckoned there was one in every branch of service. I rememember one of my cousins was in the Navy, and he was home on leave when it was his 21st birthday. We had his birthday party in an Underground Tube Station. Somebody bought a radiogram, and we danced and laughed down there all night. No-one thought it was strange then, it was just part of everyday life!

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