大象传媒

Submitted to the site on behalf of Honora Sigley by Stafford Library.

It was Sept. 1st 1939, the last day of my holiday with the Stone Secondary Modern School at Conway, North Wales. The teachers had arranged a fun day for us. At 7 o'clock we were woken up and told to get out of bed and pack everything up as we were leaving that day. No one told us why, and we got in the coaches. We got back to the school and our parents were waiting for us. My mother said that war was imminent and on Sunday 3rd September war was declared. We were at war with Germany. That was the first I heard of the war.

We had a large room over my father's workshop in Oulton Road and five days later 25 soldiers were billeted there, mostly from the Potteries and 2 from Stone. They were there for 4 weeks and when they were leaving my mother gave them each a penny and said "Keep this in your pocket and when the war is over I want them back". She got every penny back. For 6 years we had soldiers billeted with us. The Americans came straight off the boat from Liverpool.

At the bottom of Oulton Road lived a Mr. Brandon. He had one arm and was the air raid warden, and I am sure he looked through the keyhole because he shouted all the way up the road "Put that light out". It was something we all laughed about, but a memory I will never forget.

I shall never forget the day or should I say night peace was declared. The Market Square was packed with people singing, laughing, climbing up lamp posts, lights shining everywhere and the streets so crowded you could not move.

No more "Put that light out"!

漏 Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.