大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War site by a volunteer from Lincolnshire CSV Action Desk on behalf of Pat Pilling and has been added to the site with her permission. Mrs Pilling fully understands the site鈥檚 terms and conditions.

My father volunteered to go to the war in 1940 as he was in a reserved trade, saying, 鈥淭his war against fascism needs to be won鈥�.

My mother worked 12hour shifts in the ammunition factory, boring Beaufor anti tank guns, right up to 2 weeks before I was born in September 1942, to save as much money as she could to keep the home running when I was born.

On 2nd August 1944 she arrived home from shopping to find a letter behind the door stating that her husband had been killed in action, nothing more. There wasn鈥檛 any counselling in those days, she just had to get on with life. One week later she got another letter stating that her pension was to be reduced from 28 shillings per week to 18 shillings and that my allowance, being 1 yr 10 months old was to be reduced from 12 shillings and sixpence to 11 shillings. We were no longer any use to the country. Ever since that day, my mother has fought and campaigned for world peace.

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