大象传媒

57 - Pauline Brierley was born in Sale, Cheshire, and was a schoolgirl when War broke out:

" I got to the age of 14 and left school, and went to work for a cotton company in Manchester as an office girl. I hadn鈥檛 been there six months when they had to close down, because our outlets were in the Dutch East Indies and the Japanese over-ran them, so they shut down for the war.
Well you went to the labour exchange as it was in those days, you couldn鈥檛 just accept any job because you had to go, if they wanted you on something special. So I was training for typing and book-keeping and shorthand, and I was sent to the Ministry of War Transport in Trafford Park, Manchester, which was a big industrial area and I went to work for them. I worked in the office, I used to type all the things you know that came in, and they used to take 鈥�, everything was taken from the depot, in big covered lorries and we were told when we got there, there was another young lady as well, that whatever we saw or heard we never said anything outside, nobody ever discussed it. Because as far as we were concerned in the office, we never knew what was being transported; the only thing we used to see was the soldiers come and get in the 鈥�, with their guns and get in the back of the lorry before it went off. They used to go to Glasgow to the docks, and we really had to just take it because we think that possibly it was munitions, and that was where I worked.

Well there was a thing going that when you became 16, you were expected to join something that helped out of the war effort, and a unit set up in Sale in Cheshire at the Red Cross, a junior unit, Unit 504 it was. We started training in first aid and what they called home nursing; we really weren鈥檛 allowed to do any proper nursing in a hospital because we weren鈥檛 State Registered, we helped out in other ways. Then we used to go to the local hospital which was a cottage hospital and help out, because they were short of nurses, on a Saturday and a Sunday. And about once a month, we were taken in some sort of a small bus or 鈥�, I can鈥檛 remember really what it was, and we used to be taken to a hospital and I can鈥檛 remember where it is, I told you before. There was a lot of airmen in there, and some of them were American airmen that had been in crashes and they were, I think they were starting to do the reconstruction of their faces and a lot of them were blinded. So what we did was, we read letters to them that they received; it let the other nurses, the trained nurses could do other things, and if they wanted us to write, we鈥檇 write a letter for them to be posted, and that was what we did.

How did we travel around? Walked mostly! And you see after the air raids, because we got the Manchester air raids and we did get some bombs in Sale, because they used to drop those on the way home that they hadn鈥檛 let go. And of course we had to get a bus into Trafford Park, but if there had been an awful, you know bombing raid during the night there wouldn鈥檛 be any buses, so we had an Anderson shelter in the garden, so what happened was that you spent the night in there, you got up, you got something to eat, and you got ready and you went to work, which there would be no buses running after a very bad raid, and you鈥檇 have to walk there. But I鈥檒l say this, nobody, unless they were injured in some way ever stopped away, never.

And we did have trouble, because Metropolitan Vickers were at the top of Third Avenue, and they never managed to bomb them but that鈥檚 what they were after, because they were making munitions. We were in the middle of Third Avenue, and it was nothing for us to get in and find that fire bombs had been dropped on the depot by mistake, and you would get in there and it was just a matter, you know, especially in the winter. And I can remember it was just after a very bad bombing raid, and it was snowing, so we walked to work and when we got there everything was covered in snow! The depot 鈥�, because the roof had gone, and our boss at the time, he said well all come in my office, (cos there was no windows or anything, no glass left), and he said come in my office and he told us what he wanted us to do, which was to get what was in the safe, it wasn鈥檛 money it was you know ledgers and files, and then he said clear up as much as you can and you had better all go home. But of course you tried to liven the atmosphere you know, he said I will let you know when you can come back when we get some sort of a roof on. Well one of the chaps, he had had to walk to work and he lived a long way away and he was late coming you see, and as he came in you see the door in his office was just hanging off its hinges you see, and he
sat there and said oh, you鈥檝e made it then, good morning! So he walked through the door, left it on his hinges, and said 鈥渙h shut that door鈥� he said, there鈥檚 a hell of a draught in here! That鈥檚 always stuck in my mind, but that was the sort of thing you know that we did.

But you know my mother was working, my father was dead, and she was working 鈥�, it was semi-munitions on Altringham, Broad Heath you know, but I mean yes, we did quite well.

(As well as doing the Red Cross nursing, I carried on with my job) Yes, and when I had got my training in first aid, I was asked by the boss like, to take over the first aid at the depot, because the men were always getting cuts and hurting themselves on these heavy cases you know, and stuff they were loading, the loaders, and I took over that. So I was, you know, I was, I mean I was sort of doing my best there too.

(I don't remember much about the airmen in the hospital), no, no. I think that is something that probably, some of it was horrific, I think that is something that later on I wiped out of my mind you know. I didn鈥檛 鈥�, I never knew any names, you know what I mean, you didn鈥檛 get that close, you didn鈥檛 see them that often, very often they had gone somewhere else when we got there next week. But we only went about once a month.

(Our letters were censored),oh of course, yes. Oh yes but we didn鈥檛 censor them, they did you know.
My brother who was in the Royal Engineers, abroad, I mean his letters were all censored .

(You had to be careful what you said),oh yes, I mean yes, they were just letters to family usually, you know.

The Americans were friendly, well they seemed to be, yes. I think they were, yes. I mean we did get a lot of them in Sale, used to come on the train from Burton Wood, and they did used to come to Sale and Manchester you see at the weekends or when they were off duty. I never knew any of them, some of the girls married them but I never, no, 鈥榗os I had got a boyfriend in the Merchant Navy.

I mean he鈥檚 still alive you know, I am divorced, I have been divorced 15 years now. But yes it was a worry. And his mother, she had two in the Merchant Navy, one in the army - I mean to say she never knew where they where, we never knew where they were you know.

(People just hoped), yes, and people stuck together. If say, if there was anybody, I mean neighbours were more friendly I must admit, they鈥檙e very nice here but you don鈥檛 get the camaraderie you used to. And I mean if it was anybody鈥檚 special birthday, I can always remember if anybody was 21 or it was a special birthday or somebody was poorly, I mean the neighbours would come to the house, and they would bring whatever they鈥檇 got. If somebody wanted to make a cake for a special birthday, it would be a case of well you know 鈥�, they used to say has anybody got any fruit or, you know any flour or what, and it wasn鈥檛 for payment either, it wasn鈥檛 for exchange, if you gave it you gave it.

It was more friendly in the North, it was, yes. I found that when I moved to Leamington because when my husband came out of the navy after my daughter was born, he joined the fire service, and when Lynne was 3, we went to live on a fire station in Manchester. It was a headquarters, and there was 30 families lived on there, we had a very nice flat, not as modern as these you know, it had been up a long time, a huge place on the corner of London Road and Whitton Street, and you know it was very friendly there. And when he got a transfer to Warwick County Council and he went to Leamington and handed it back, because we went into a house of our own, we bought our first house there, and oh dear, you know, the first Christmas, if it hadn鈥檛 been for the camaraderie at the fire station, and there always is that, or there always was - I don鈥檛 know if there is now, I would have been very lonely, leaving my family as well you see.

My eldest brother he was in Coventry, the fire service; the fire engines came down from Manchester to help out when they had that terrible bombing. Oh yes, they came from all over. And his wife didn鈥檛 know where he was for two days, they didn鈥檛 know where they鈥檇 gone - only that they鈥檇 gone you know! My husband, who was my boyfriend then, was at sea at that time.

How did we come to be in Leamington and Stratford? Well my husband you see, he went to the 鈥�, he studied and he passed his exams at the Fire Service College at Moreton in Marsh and he was promoted to station officer here and we had to move. We moved into their house, their fire officer鈥檚 house but we didn鈥檛 like it much so we bought a house. And you know that went from there you know.

For entertainment we had dances,oh yes. I well yes, I didn鈥檛 really need to learn much to dance because I had two older brothers and they were great dancers and they used to go and have lessons and they used to grab me, I was a child of about 8 or 9 and say come on Pam, you know, let鈥檚 try this, so I did go to this sort of place where you could learn to dance with my friend Violet, who I think is here somewhere (pointing to someone on a photograph)
Well she was one of my bridesmaids as well. There鈥檚 Violet. We used to go but we used to have to walk and it was in Stretford and that was over half an hour walk because the buses stopped running very early, so we used to walk home. And yes I learnt to ballroom dance, and then we used to go on a Saturday night to what we called 鈥渢he Saturday night hop鈥� at the town hall you know - that was in Sale. And we also took part in the Junior 鈥�, we had 鈥�, they used to go in for competitions doing plays and things like that, acting in other words, and we used to go and practise for that, I was in one or two of the shows you know. We never won a cup but we were quite good; I learnt to fence a bit in one of those plays, two girls and it was an Elizabethan play, and you picked these, you know, these fences [swords] up off the table and we went round the table and so we 鈥�, a man came to show us how not to hurt ourselves you know, it was great fun.
Oh yes, and there was the pictures which were old sometimes you know. But we managed to enjoy ourselves, we were restricted because the blackout you know, your parents or your mum, they didn鈥檛 like you to be out too late - there were much more restrictions on teenagers in those days, you didn鈥檛 stay out all night boozing like they do now.

We walked home in the Blackout. You had a torch you know, and then there would be the firewatchers and the air raid wardens, and they would be walking round, even if it wasn鈥檛 鈥�, and they鈥檇 say you know, 鈥渒eep that torch on the floor鈥� you know or you might forget, and you would be doing this with it you know.

Never, never were we hungry. My mother was a very good cook and she could make something out of nearly nothing you know. No, we used to queue for food, yes. Saturday morning was the greengrocers because he had got his supplies, fruit was very, very scarce. I mean to say it was what I call good wholesome food you know. I mean we were registered with a butcher and a grocer and a greengrocer, we registered with them you gave them your ration book and they took the tickets out of it you know, and when that was gone well you had had it you know.
But my sister鈥檚 husband, he was in the Home Guard, he was too old to go - my sister was 21 years older than me so he was too old to go in the army but he did his stint, and he used to keep chickens and he had an allotment and that helped a lot. And I can always remember my sister had a big 鈥�, oh it was like a big urn in the larder, and she used to put eggs down in isinglass, you have heard of that, you know. And that went more or less round the family, brothers鈥� wives you know.

I mean to say, we weren鈥檛 afraid really to 鈥� I mean I didn鈥檛 have a bike in those days not at that time, I did have a bike later on but I never went to work on it, it was too far really and it was the main road, and mother wouldn鈥檛 like it you know.

I never really knew where my boyfriend was. I mean I used to get letters which were all censored from different parts of the world, I mean he鈥檇 been all over the world and you know, occasionally the ship touched home and he would come home you know. But you see there was three brothers, and whoever came home on leave I used to go out dancing with.
Well, I mean my husband was a good dancer, but the eldest boy who unfortunately we buried six or seven weeks ago, he was the eldest brother, and he was in the Grenadier Guards, and he was very tall for me you know, and we used to go dancing, and he used to say Pam, are you stood in a hole!"

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