大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War web site by a volunteer on behalf of Doris Barton and has been added to the site with her permission. She fully understands the site鈥檚 terms and conditions.

My name is Doris Barton, the youngest daughter of Sidney and Elizabeth Gates of Barking in Essex. I had one half brother, Henry, who was 14 years older. My mother had been married before. My older sister, Betty, was 3 years older. My brother, Sydney was 6 years younger. Before the Second World War I lived with my parents in Cecily Road, Barking, Essex. They call me the original Essex girl. My farther worked as a Brewers Drayman before and after the Great War. During the war he had been the RSM of the 1st Royal Fusileers. I had a strict Victorian upbringing and my sister and I were not allowed to play with dolls. It was drilling with broom sticks. I attended Park Modern High School which I left when 15 years old. Because of my age I had to have special dispensation. My mother and I were similar in temperament so I was not very happy at home. All I wanted to do was to leave home and get married. I knew this local boy, John Ash, who was unemployed, as he had been made redundant because his firm closed down. We wanted to marry, but my parents would not allow it. My mother knew his mother and they did not get on. So I became pregnant, and then I had to marry him. He joined the army in 1938, to please my mother. Anyway there was talk of war, so he went into the Royal Engineers to work in Bomb Disposal. Fortunately he was stationed in London.

When war broke out I was only 18 working in Plessey鈥檚 Ilford who at that time were manufacturing Ammunition. In August 1939 my son, Christopher was born, just two weeks before the outbreak of war. Before I was evacuated I lived on an estate, where there was this big old building, called Eastbury House, where Guy Fawkes used to stay with his friend, Percy. It had big grounds around it but they shrunk as they built estates around it. There was a bit of a bombardment as the powers that be thought it rather important. They wanted to flatten it.

In the middle of 1940 I was evacuated with my toddler son to Chester. Barking was too dangerous as it lay in the path of the German bombers passing over London to the Midlands and often they would drop their loads as they came and sometimes on their way home. Also they were trying to get at Dagenham. This was not a very happy period as we were never really wanted only tolerated. Although they were paid some were reluctant to have us. Even so there were exceptional cases and over the time deep friendships were made. There were a few who had to get out after breakfast and not come back until later. John spent that Christmas with us; the first that I had spent away from home. He was a male and she did not like males. Also he was not very popular as being in the Army, he was expected to bring extra rations with him. He brought nothing. After John was killed, we came home as we were suffered. He was not very popular as being in the Army, he was expected to bring extra rations with him. He brought nothing. As a widow with a child and another on the way, I was no longer wanted as an evacuee, so had to return to my parents in Barking.

My husband had been involved with the removal of several unexploded the bombs including the one thousand pound one from St Paul鈥檚. The first of it鈥檚 type. It was as a result of a tragic accident in January 1941, whilst moving an unexploded bomb from 鈥︹�︹�� to Hackney Marshes, that it exploded killing him and four others. At the time I was pregnant with I took this loss hard but felt for the sake of my unborn child I must carry on. John never saw his daughter, Doris, who was born in April 1941. My farther took John鈥檚 death very badly. He had come to look on him as a son. The Army gave him a funeral with full military honours in Barking and then the cortege went to Brookwood Cemetry where he lies with his comrades. I always felt pride in the fact that John was buried on the same day as Baden Powell.

I worked at the telephone exchange on the main switchboard in Barking. I was sent up to London as a relief. It was here one day that I answered a call and the man asked to be put through to Buckingham Palace. You have to be so careful particularly during the war. I asked who was calling and the voice said 鈥� This is Prince Philip鈥�. I thought he was having me on so I replied 鈥榃ell I am Princess Elizabeth鈥� to which he replied, 鈥楬ello Lilibet鈥�. It was not generally know that this was the pet name for the Princess. I immediately connected the call. We also used to do 3 months on and off at Bletchley Park main switchboard. This was very interesting.

Living at Eastbury House was a temporary arrangement as I was waiting for a Council house. First of all we moved into a dilapidated house in Morby Road. We remained there for about two years before moving round the corner to Perth Road. I was very happy there. Money was very tight so I got a job as a Porter at Barking Station. It was here that I met my second husband, Bill who also had a job at the station. One day I saw this hulk of a man approaching and I said to him 鈥淎re you new here鈥� and he replied 鈥淵es please鈥�. He told his workmates that he was going to marry me. William Frederick Lester had been invalided out of the Navy with TB, having served on the Yangtse. When I met him he was a dying man. His Doctor told him if he worked he would die and if he did not work he would die. I did not know anything about TB so I had to check with his Doctor, to get the full picture, who gave him months to live. He lived for a further nine and a half years. The Doctor told me that I had given him these years of extra life. Besides his work at the station, Bill was an ARP Warden. His first daughter, named Maryln, died in 1941, when only seven months old. I put this down to bomb shock when a bomb landed very near us. The baby had a convulsive heave which must have done something to her blood as she was making to many white corpusles. They said it a type of lukemia. Then we had a second child, a daughter, called Patricia was born in April 1943. She was so different from the first. She was the dead opposite to the other one who was, dainty, fragile looking. Infact my father used to say 鈥淭hat child looks too pretty to live鈥� Patricia was big and robust and she is like a house now. Bill having got the flu; it was that epidemic year. He never really recovered and succumbed to his TB. He died in 1951.

I moved home again because I had to go to work and my mother could now look after the children. We moved to King鈥檚 Hill, Romford. The air on the hill was much better for Bill even though he had to walk a long way round as the one in three hill was too much for him. First I went to work in a shop and then I turned to Council work. This was honorary as I became a Councillor. I did not get paid or even get expenses in those days. I did it because I am a people鈥檚 person. I liked to meet people. I did a lot of voluntary work which I enjoyed. I had to go to work, as the Pension was neglegible, because when I was first widowed, I was under twenty-one and there was no pension. This was not only the Army but the Government as well. But I was a busy body. I liked to be among things. I helped to set up community meals at schools for those who did not have the rations. You went to the school and you got a dinner. The schools had the facilities so they used them. To earn a bit more money I went pea picking with some other women. I took the children with me. We were paid half a crown a 40 lb sack. There was one time when I caused a strike amongst the pickers. Ford鈥檚 were always going on strike because of the stress and bad feeling linked with the overproduction. Many of these lightning strikes were engineered. When they were on strike they used to come out pea picking. The Dagenham workers who were already on strike pay came and tried undercutting the price. So I asked them what they thought they were doing as they were already getting strike pay and were taking the bread and butter from our mouth. They replied 鈥淥oh, all for each and each for all鈥�. But we knew that the baskets were taken to market on a Tuesday, so us women were able to cut off the supply. The matter was soon resolved, but the Boss said 鈥淚 will remember you in the red coat鈥� But he knew that I was being fare so he put the price back up. Another time the lorry that brought us out to pick, broke down and left us stranded. We could not get back to town and we had children to be collected from school. I stopped a passing lorry and asked for a lift home. The driver was reluctant until surrounded by a mass of women. We got our lift home.

At the time that I was working at the telephone exchange I joined the St John Ambulance. My husband was an ambulance man, so if you can鈥檛 beat them you join them. So I became St John鈥檚. I was attached to the telephone exchange and had 147 girls under me to lookout for. I was trained in First Aid.

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