大象传媒

Mrs. Brooksbank understands that her memories will be placed on the 大象传媒 People's War website and has agreed to this.

NOTE: Mrs. Brooksbank remembers both world wars because she is a bright, sparky lady of 104 years old.

In the second World War my son was in the Royal Navy on a destroyer and then on a corvette on the Russian convoy route from Reykyavik to Murmansk. He only got home leave twice in the whole time, because it was too far and they were too busy. His chief adventure came about due to the terrible climate. During the winter weather, there was constant snow, ice and freezing conditions. On this particular occasion, the ship's whole superstructure became so loaded with ice that the ship was nearly capsizing. It became so critical that everyone was told to stand still so as not to alter the balance of the ship while they dealt with the problem. Then they had to get the ice off the superstructure which they finally managed by breaking off lumps, but then it was on the deck in huge blocks which were sliding about and couldn't fall off the ship. They had to be careful to keep biggest pieces still and break them up quickly. Then, when two men could lift them, all the other men had to balance the ship on other side while they threw it overboard.

Later in the war, my son transferred to submarines. He survived the war, but later died of lung cancer. It was believed that passive smoking had a lot to do with it because no one could get fresh air cooped up in the ships and everyone smoked.

During the second World War I was with the WVS. We were running station canteens. We had trestle tables and large urns with tea & coffee and anything else we could get. The Refugee trains would come in and we helped the poor things as much as we could. Many of them were in terrible state. A lot of them were Dutch with some French and Belgians. Fortunately, having lived in France, I spoke quite good French which was very useful. I often feel rather ashamed of us you know, so few of us speak other languages yet many other nations speak more than one. We had a 60 year old lady who kept a clothing store and we tried to fit the refugees out as best we could. Then they went off to various centres. My husband and I had lived in France so he could also speak French. At that time, Hitler was preparing to invade England. My husband was sent to the Malvern hills and many refugees went that way too. My husband was sent on an armoured train to collect gold bars from bank vaults in many places and bring them to Malvern to big cave to protect them. We had two years living there which was lovely.

In the WVS, we also used to go round to barrage balloon centres and take them drinks and books and cigarettes and anything we could. My adventure was that one day we were all set out with our trestle tables etc. ready for a train at Waterloo and a message came that the train was coming in to another station instead. That meant packing up everything and moving. We emptied out the urns, packed up and got it all out to van, but of course the driver had gone off thinking he would not be needed for some time. In those days most women didn't drive. I was asked if I could drive. Well, I could drive a car but not a van. They said 'don't make a fuss Mrs. Brooksbank' (the usual response) so I was hoisted into the van and expected to drive, but I am rather small and my little legs couldn't reach the pedals, so I had to get out again. Someone went and found a man to drive for us, so that we were able to get there in the end.

I was a married woman in the second World War. I do remember the rationing but I don't recall it being a great problem. We seemed able to get eggs all right. Of course, dried egg was awful but we seemed to manage generally. We didn't take sugar in tea so we were lucky there. We could make cakes and buns a bit. 1 don't think it worried us much. I used to make bread I remember - I liked that. We didn't get much clothing etc. and very little household things. We had to make do and mend and most people got on with that.

When we were on the stations with WVS, we had clothes people gave to try to help poor people and those bombed out. I remember someone sent in beautiful ballgown. We couldn't have made use of it as it was, but I think someone bought it for a souvenir and out of the money, I could buy winceyette for 8 children's nighties.

While we were in Malvern, we saw little enemy action; they flew over Malvern to Birmingham and the Mersey but didn't really affect us. But in London we had the doodlebugs. We never had a proper home of our own until my husband retired, because he was always being moved about, but in London during the war, we had a fumished house in Balham. The doodlebugs used to come over and we were just on the edge of the park. The children would just look you know and go on playing. If the engine stopped then it would come down and then they had to run. We had two in Balham which caused a lot of damage but they were not very near us. My mother was there with us then. The people whose house we were sharing were a young couple with a baby. She went to her parents out of London somewhere. Her husband went to tube station in the night time - she made him promise. We had house to ourselves then. During that time, I remember one rather bad night when my husband had to carry my mother down the stairs and we spent the night in the coal cellar. That was near the end of the war.

Entertainment during the war was really for the young people. Among the young there was dancing every night and they did go out and enjoy themselves, but there was not a lot for ordinary older people. We would invite people in etc. but there was not a lot to offer them - not much drink, not like there is now.

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