大象传媒

Mrs Williamson was seventeen in 1939 and lived in Hither green which is situated in Southeast London, she used to travel up to the west end as this is where she used to worked, until the firm got badly bombed. So she came back to work at home in Elliot Brothers in Lewisham because they were on war work, it was originally an engineering company, but they were doing ships instruments at this time. At first Mrs Williamson was put on coil winding and then was given the job of checking, which she found very boring, sitting of the end of this row. She was there till the end of the war, well not quite as she was married by that time, she must have been about twenty when she got married.

Her sister was evacuated at 14 years old to Loughborough, and Mrs Williamson was evacuated to have her baby, she was sent to the Midlands. She said it was nice and peaceful. She had no choice in whether she wanted to be evacuated, she was taken to the station and then onwards from there. She was staying with a family, which had been pre-organised for her. When she arrived she was taken to see the doctor and then you are taken to your billet. She was only in Midlands for a couple of weeks.

Her son was born in 1944 in the Midlands, in castle Donnington, when Mrs Williamson was around twenty-two years old. The staff were American and afterwards she can remember one of them coming over to her and saying 鈥渉ave you seen you baby with his eyes open yet?鈥� 鈥淣o not yet鈥� she said, 鈥渨ell you will be thrilled to pieces when you do, he has the most beautiful big blue eyes鈥�. Her husband had sent the pram to her via the train with a man called Mr Milner and he picked fault with everything on the pram, as it wasn鈥檛 a silver cross, which were the trend in those days. The relief of getting back to London with her new baby son was immense.

When she return, she quoted to say that it was the worst time to come back as this was the time that the V2鈥檚 were dropping with no warning. Where she had lived a bomb had gone through the roof and went into the middle of the bed, fortunately there was nobody in it and there was a landmine not far away, all the windows had been blown in, all that sort of thing.

She then lost her Aunt and Uncle and two cousins, who had lived near Burn Sea near the docks, over an oil shop. Her Aunt was told to get out of there if possible, so the family relocated and had gone to Forests Hill to live, this is where one of their own shells that had been misfired and killed them all.

One of the worst things that she can remember and said she would never forget is when she was working at Elliott鈥檚 and used to get home before her husband, who was a fireman and a home guard. This particular time he had stay on and she was on her own and the door knocked and there was a policeman stood at the door, and said 鈥淚鈥檓 afraid you have to get out, you should really be in there, how did you get in? Passed the barrier?鈥� she replied to say that she hadn鈥檛 seen any barrier. He then broke the news that there was an unexploded bomb out the back of your house. She said she wouldn鈥檛 go until her husband came back, so whilst she waited she packed the things they would both need, and when he came home he thought she was leaving her, well that was until she explained what was going on. In the end the bomb never went off, so they were able to return to their home.

Previously, in the day whilst going out for some lunch, they had seen a German plane, and then heard a boom, boom, boom, over the corrugated roof, it was the wheels of the plane, going over the roof. Afterwards the foreman said is was for them and that because he was flying too low, he had blown himself up. But unfortunately he went on to bomb the school when all the children were playing in the playground. The Lord Haw Haw lived at Forest Hill, he used to boast every night about how many planes he had bought down etc. And he said that the pilots could see the Ribbons on the little girls head because they were so close. She doesn鈥檛 know how many children were killed, but certainly more than what there would have been because they were going to go to the town hall for something to do with education, so they lost teachers as well.

Mrs Williamson鈥檚 Father in law was an ambulance driver and was there helping for around two or three days helping to get the bodies, when you think about all those little children she states, 鈥渨hat good did that do the Germans鈥�. There was a mass grave, they were all buried together. Mrs Williamson thinks that this was her worst experience during the war, which is definitely understandable. Such a huge and traumatic loss.

Another incident she recalls was when a bomb hit a station on the way to London Bridge, which meant all the trains were cancelled and they used their train tickets to go on the bus. The Number 36 bus used to pass her house and go right up to the West End and she thinks it still does. You can only imagine how long it took. So of course she was very late, but obviously there wasn鈥檛 anything she could do about it. Normally you get stopped when you are quarter of an hour late but this was normal at this time. They would pack you in the trains like sardines to get as many people in as possible on, because with men were at war, there were fewer trains running,

When she returned with her son she became a housewife and said that the rockets were the worst, as you didn鈥檛 hear them coming. Her Mother and Father both lived in London also. Her mother basically evacuated herself, and worked as a housekeeper, whilst away. Mrs Williamson鈥檚 Mother moved away because she was so scared and she had lived through the First World War and just couldn鈥檛 forget the tragedy and didn鈥檛 want to repeat it. They kept in contact via letters. Her father worked as a motor body builder and remained doing this throughout the war, he missed his wife terribly.

She kept in contact throughout the war with he sister who had been evacuated by letters, but unfortunately never got the chance to go up and see her. Although she returned for her twenty-first birthday, and that just shows how long she had been away.

On one occasion she was going to work and saw in Regents Street there were lots of hose pipes all out of the ground and one of the shops must have been bombed, so inside a fireman her and this whole front of this shelf, she says there were so many incidents, but she just cannot remember every one.

During the war Mrs Williamson and her husband still went dancing, often there would be a war and they would have to walk home, guns would be going. They would normally go dancing in Catford Town Hall or one of the Church Halls in Catford. But on this occasion she was wearing a long dress, she had to lie flat in the street. Life had to go on and so they tried to carry on as normal as they could. Her and her husband were very keen dancers, most of the music was live.

Her Mother and father had an Anderson shelter in their garden and they did use this on a few occasions. Mrs Williamson said that quite a lot of people would take shelter in the London underground or alternatively take themselves to Chislehurst caves nearby for a night, it was a case of jumping on a train and going there to keep safe. For some of them they found it to be an adventure, especially if they had children. They had music down there.

Mrs Williamson told us that one time the Germans tried to bomb Forest Hill Railway and right next to it was a German church, they actually hit the German church instead. She didn鈥檛 think for one moment that there was German鈥檚 living so close.

Everything she had in regards to the rationing, butter, tea, bread, everything nearly, if you got a tin of salmon, you were seen as very lucky. Chickens were classed as a luxury on a Sunday. Children got different amounts of points for rations and Mrs Williamsons little boy got Rations but it was mostly just baby food. She was given milk for him, orange juice for vitamins and some cod liver oil. Despite the rationing they all kept healthy. She grew her old vegetables, she had to dig up the garden before hand, but her father did the same, as well as most people. They had Runner beans, lettuce and cabbages.

Going back to the shelter, one time she remembers wrapping up her son warm in a shawl, ran across the road and then saw man sitting with a fire he got through the back gates before she did, and then he proceeded to go down and her father was baffled as he didn鈥檛 know what was happening, he admitted to pushing in front of us and apologised. He seemed terribly frightened. In the end though they stopped going to the shelters in the air raids, we just laid on the floor. They didn鈥檛 have a Morrison, as this was the type of shelter that her Aunt and Uncle died in. They spent many a night in the shelter, she got fed up with it, as it got damp, she said she never really felt safe, it was the matter of just taking the chance really. One time she said that a man whom lived down the road, didn鈥檛 go down the shelter on this particular night, but stood and watched as what he thought was somebody coming down in a parachute, but it was a bomb, killed him. When you had your windows blown out or shattered, she told us how these men would come round to replace the panes with other peoples, they had found them elsewhere and just slotted them in, she said it was that or nothing. They would have different coloured frames and things but it didn鈥檛 seem to matter. She couldn鈥檛 complain because they were so glad to have their windows back.

Another thing Mrs Williamson states is that the war brought along rats, due to the mains being bomb etc, rats came. Mrs Williamson remembers on day her cat had killed three and lined them up on the step of the front door for her and glanced up in a very proud way, almost to say, 鈥淟ook at what I have done鈥�. She instantly phoned the Town Hall to report it, when the man came around, Mr Williamson opened the back door, and the man saw one running across the lawn, he picked up a stick and before he could hit it the cat had already go there. The man turned around and said to Mrs Williamson 鈥渢hat cat is worth his weight in gold鈥�. She always loved that cat.

Due to the mains being bombed, they would use smoke bombs to find any leaks in the pipe work, Mrs Williamson remembers very vividly that there seemed to always be a lot of smoke coming from the top of the guttering. Because the fuel amount was very low, they seemed to keep warm by using coal fires and she states that they were delivered coal, but it wasn鈥檛 a lot. Sometimes Mrs Williamson states that they would go down into their coal cellar during the air raids had it all cleaned out and kept warm. The children of families whom couldn鈥檛 afford to buy coal, would go down to the railways and collect any broken or unwanted coal that was lying around on the tracks. A sack of coal cost roughly 10 shillings, in those days this to some families was a lot of money. Mrs Williamson states that even though the coal was a reasonable price during the war they just didn鈥檛 earn the money, which is why so many families had to go along the tracks to find coal.

Mrs Williamson had a dressmaker during the war that she would pay to make, alter or even make something new out of her present clothes. Clothes were rationed and this seemed the most economical way to keep things going. Unfortunately though Mrs Williamson dressmaker was disabled and made her money by doing this as her job, though when the someone said she had a factory going she was told to stop taking in any money and stop all the dressmaking. Quite a lot of people would work at home quietly trying to earn some money. Her mothers employer whom she called uncle make her the most beautiful fur coat, made out of long strips. Unfortunately she stated she never got to wear it because of the war. Unfortunately it was stolen. There was a military tailor in Lewisham and he made a suit for her, her father and her husband to be, she tells that they didn鈥檛 have enough coupons but managed to wangle it somehow. The dressmaker who was caught out in fact made Mrs Williamson鈥檚 entire bridesmaid dresses.

For Mrs Williamsons honeymoon they came down to Bournemouth and stayed in a boarding house, not a hotel, it was very near the sea up some back road, although she has looked she to this day still cannot find where it was. When they arrived at the boarding house, she can remember the lady in charge telling them to put newspapers down on the floor, as she didn鈥檛 want confetti on the floor. They went to Bournemouth on the train, which wasn鈥檛 one hundred percent safe, but she states they had to take a chance. Mrs Williamson got married in 1943, she couldn鈥檛 remember much about Bournemouth itself, but she did quote that they lapped it up being by the sea, even if you weren鈥檛 allowed to go on the beach as it was all guarded by barbed wire.

Mrs Williamson spent most of her spare time dancing, she didn鈥檛 enjoy the cinema and cannot remember going at all throughout the war. The only time they went and saw a show was when they came down on their honeymoon. She couldn鈥檛 remember where she saw the show but she did tell us how she worked on the pier after the war as a dresser, so she dressed the stars. When asked whom she met she replied 鈥� Thora Hird, she was lovely, she wears a wig, always has done I think, every time she came of stage she would change her clothes, she was so clean鈥�. This one time she goes on to tell 鈥� I was stood in the wings one time, ready to top her lipstick up when she came off stage and out of no where a gun shot, it was part of the play鈥�, but Mrs Williamson was unaware of this at the time.

She worked at the pier on two occasions the second time they sent for her was to look after the chorus girls, that was fun, the boys were next door and would always stand on things and have peep over. She had to keep all the zips undone on the costumes never do them up when they take them off, just in case they went wrong and also to be put on the next night quicker. She told how lovely there were as not only would she receive her own wage, but after every week the girls would get a small collection together and put it in an envelope and give it to Mrs Williamson, and they would say we always give a little something back to our dresser. Which was very nice, and at one time she told us that her son took one of them out for a time. All of this took place in the 1950鈥檚.

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