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I was born and brought up in Victoria Avenue in Worcester and when I was 16 I met my husband, Cyril, at the Grammar School in Worcester. After 6 years courting we married in 1939, I was 22 and he was 23, we bought a house and lived in Droitwich. As Cyril was in the Territorial Army when the war started he was drafted straight away (he had the necessary skills) which meant that we only had 6 months together as a married couple before he had to go to war, we married in August and he left in January 1940. At first he was in the ROC (Royal Ordnance Corps) and then in the REME (Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers).

His first journey was to Dunkirk he managed to get home even though the destroyer he was on was bombed and many people on board were killed. He was stranded in the sand dunes for four days before he managed to get a place on a destroyer to bring him home. I met him on the steps of the Town Hall in Portsmouth — not long after the Town Hall was bombed to smithereens. We had 48 hours together before he had to leave again for Dover where he was involved in the Battle of Britain.

Once again he came home for leave, this time for a few days before he was off once again for the Far East, he didn’t have any idea where he was going but he knew it would be hot as he was issued with tropical gear! He left from Scotland to America and from there by convoy to South Africa. He travelled across India to the outskirts of Burma to a reinforcement camp. I didn’t hear from him for 3 months when an airgraph arrived and then I knew where he was as the stamp showed it had come from a reinforcement camp and I knew that was Burma. The airgraph arrived in 4 days; it came in the form of a photograph and was censored.

He wasn’t in Burma for too long — I next had an airgraph from Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) I was really thrilled to hear from him again but also really worried as the Japanese were bombing the island. Cyril had always been a cricket fan, before the war he was capped for Worcester — playing for two seasons, I still have the cap but it’s a bit moth eaten now! Whilst in Ceylon he was made an honorary member of the Colombo Cricket Club!

After his time in Ceylon Cyril travelled to India and took a commission from there he travelled to Italy to replace officers who had been killed in action. His job was to clear mines; this took him the whole length of Italy. He was involved in one of the worst battles of the war of Monte Casino which took place on top of a mountain the result of the fighting was that the monastery and the whole village were destroyed, now happily rebuilt.

As Cyril took a commission it meant that when the war ended in May 1945 he had to stay on for 3 more months. I decided to write to my MP as I thought that it was time that he had some leave, my MP at the time was the Member for Evesham (Droitwich came under Evesham) — Mr De La Vere. I sent the letter to the Houses of Parliament. I had moved back to live with my parents, one day I came home from work for lunch and found a letter from the Houses of Parliament waiting for me. Mr De La Vere was writing to tell me that he had contacted the War Office about my husband, he also said that he had been in the first war and understood why I was writing. I wish I still had the letter, but I do remember that it was a very kind letter. Three weeks later I had a telephone call from my husband to say that he was in Aldershot, he had been demobbed and was coming home. I went to the station to meet him and seeing him get off the train was the best memory I have of those war years.

This story was submitted to the People’s War website by Diana Wilkinson of the CSV Action Desk at ´óÏó´«Ã½ Hereford and Worcester on behalf of the author and has been added to the site with her permission. The author fully understands the site’s terms and conditions.

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