大象传媒

This story has been entered by Rachel Steed on behalf of Doris Isaac. Doris is fully aware of the terms and conditions of this site and has given her full consent for the story to be entered.

When war started in 1939 i was 16 years old. I was living in Islington, London and was one of 7 sisters (second to the youngest). We would all go down the air raid shelter once we got home from work. My father would wear a tin helmet as he was an air raid warden. It was very frightening... we never knew where the bombs were going to hit but as time went on we got used to the shelters. Our street was bombed, no casulaties. My sisters were all working in london, 4 were married. After 2 years I was 18 years old so I got my calling-up papers to join one of the services. I picked the Land Army and my friend Edith chose the Land Army as well so we would be together.

We had to be shown how to use different saws and axes. We were in a group called the Timber Corps. We wore the same uniform as the Land Army girls but instead of working on the land we had to chop trees down. We did 2 months training in Bury-St Edmunds. We lived in Nissen huts. We were moved around to different places where the trees were the right size to be cut down for pit props. It was very hard work but we were away from the bombing and the London Blitz.

We were "Lumber Jills". The Shire horses would pull out the trees that were attached to a chain. Sometimes a tractor would pull the trees out. We would lop and top the trees. They had to be cut for pit props to shore up the coal mines. The trees were cut into 6 foot lengths. Sometimes we would have to go to the Railway Station to unload the pit props from the tractor. They were then taken to the mines where they were needed.

In 1941 I remember one day we were all told we were moving on to Launceston in Cornwall (to a place called Lewdown). We lived in Nissen huts there but had to go up to the big house for meals. It was called "Hayne House". We were there for quite a while. Living there you would not have thought there was a war going on - except for the hard work we were doing. We looked forward to letters from our families - always hoping they would be safe from the bombing.

In 1943 we were moved to Clyst Hydon in Devon. Several of us were billeted with different families. Miss Best, who was in charge of us, found us all lodgings in the village. Edith and I were billeted with a Mrs Chalk. She was a widow and was paid 25/- per week for each of us and we gave her our Ration Books out of our wages which were 拢3.18s a week.

We worked in pairs using cross-cut saws and also axes, bush-man saws etc. Edie and i worked together and the trees we took down were mostly Scots Pine, Corsican Pine and Spruce.

We were able to rent a bicycle (which was government property) for one shilling a week, which we used for going to the forest and back to the village from work.

After a while Mrs Chalk's daughter-in-law was coming to stay with her so we had to find different lodgings. We went around the village and found lodgings with Mr and Mrs Parsons. Mr Parson helped run the saw mill in the village. We were there for quite a long time. The American troops were stationed close by at Hele Cross and also at another village called Silverton. They used to come up to the forest in their jeeps as they were fascinated to see women chopping down trees!

On Sunday we all went to the village Church. Most of the people had their own pews. We sat in Mrs Chalk's pew. One Sunday as we came out of Church there was a young man smiling at me and we learned later that he was Kenneth Isaac. He was living in the village with his Mum and sister as he was exempt from the Army. We found out later (from the couple we were lodging with) that he'd had an accident when he was a boy at school and had fallen on a broken jam jar in the playground and damaged the tendons in his fingers and damaged his hand. Being in a small village everyone knew one another and there was a lot of gossip going on. Ken would come up to the forest to watch us at work and so we got to know each other. He had a brother (three years older than him) who was in the Army and stationed at Gibraltar. As time went on Ken's brother came on leave and we were introduced to him. He was Christopher but we called him Chris.

So Ken and I and Chris and my friend Edith would go out on a date. Sometimes we went to the "Five Bells" pub in the village and would have a glass of cider which was the favourite drink at the time.

We went on many dates and Edith would go on dates with Chris when he was on leave.

Ken and I got engaged in 1944 and we were married in Exeter Register Office on 7th October 1944 and lived with Ken's Aunt and I came out of the Land Army. Ken and I both worked in the Hele Cross Paper Mill owned by Wiggins Teape.

Edith married Chris in London several months after and now lives in Cullompton, Devon.

Edith and I never went back to live in London after the war. We just visited to see our families.

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