大象传媒

鈥淚 was 18 and lived in Eastham next to the Docks in London. I worked in the Customs and Excise Department on Endell Street. I remember going to work and getting caught in air raids like everyone else, coming home, rushing to get through a meal before the air raid siren went again and then going down to the Anderson Shelter at the bottom of the garden. Being near the docks is quite hectic 鈥� bombs, incendiaries, fires and windows shattered. Working at the Customs and Excise was where I met my husband. After a while we were evacuated to Buxton, Derbyshire 鈥� the Palace Hotel. Everyone from Customs and Excise was evacuated.

When we arrived in Buxton there was almost 6ft of snow, we were billeted not far from the hotel so we could get to work easily. My husband and I got engaged there, and we married in February 1940. Douglas Payne was his name, he was a Clerical Officer and I was a Clerical Officer Assistant. My husband was called up three or four weeks after we were married. He - went into the navy 鈥� the Fleet Air Arm 鈥� as I thought, as an aircraft mechanic. But I soon found out that he was in fact a pilot. He told me that he was a mechanic so that I would not worry. I found out by reading a letter to his mum in which he wrote 鈥榯ook her up the other day and it was lovely.鈥� It sent my mind buzzing 鈥� who was she? Then I realised it was a plane. Our daughter was born in 1942, Lynda. My husband saw her when she was a year old, but in February 1944 my husband was shot down in Norway. He was attacking a German ship in the Fjords there.

My daughter and I moved back to Eastham and during one of the raids the windows were blown in, narrowly missing my young baby who was asleep on the floor. Luckily she wasn鈥檛 injured 鈥� she鈥檚 alive and kicking today. We still continued to live in Eastham. My daughter attended Glenarn College in Ilford, Essex. I married again when Lynda was seven years old. I met my husband Stan on a blind date. We moved to Bedford in 1995 and enjoyed 53 years of married life together until my husband died in 2002.

I was a Key Punch Operator 鈥� punching cards of exports going out on ships. The exports were coded. I worked for the war damage commission helping people who lost homes when my daughter went to school. I worked for the commission until around 1947. I interviewed the public; I briefed them on what they had to do and how to claim for things they lost in the bombing. These were roles of 鈥楴ational Importance鈥� so I wasn鈥檛 in the war.鈥�

Recorded by Karl Mansfield

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