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The sirens would go at 11pm, and I was engaged to be married, and my young man lived a mile and a half away and he came flying down to see me, but my poor mother was so scared, she thought we would be gassed. I went to Ireland twice during the war, all the stations were blacked out, the train was in darkness, and it was such a long way, so they woke me up with a cup of tea. On the boat, if we heard 3 sharp blasts we were to put our lifejackets on. My husband was stationed in Ireland, so for the first year I joined him, then I came home because my father had a heart attack.

When I came back I worked in the Ministry of Commerce, it was the first time I had an office with a carpet on the floor. I used to read all the papers to find anything of interest about the war. Later I worked in a munitions factory as a progress clerk. I had to time the jobs that the men were doing because they used to get a bonus and they used to have fun with me, because they got a bonus on the job, as a staff we got a bonus on the whole thing, so they told me to ‘make it good for them, and it would make it good for me’.

During the war people helped each other so much, and although we had the blackout, you could come home at 12 at night and you wouldn’t be worried about someone jumping out at you like you would be now. The theatres were all open, and we used to go and buy a ‘wander ’round’ ticket and you could wander around the theatre and if no one claimed the seat you could have it.

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