大象传媒

This story was added to the People's War Site by a volunteer from 大象传媒 Newcastle on behalf of Constance Smith. Constance Smith fully understands the site's terms and conditions and the story has been added to the site with her permission.

Dr Swindale was an officer in the Royal Army Medical Corps and before the war he used to encourage young men to join the TA. So when war was declared in 1939 most of the young men had already been called up to their units, including himself. For three months he came back and forward in unform to the surgery at Riverslade until he managed to get an assistant called Dr Stansfield and Dr Bishop, who had retired came back to work to keep the practice going.

A few days before the war was declared, some evacuaees came to the village. They were usually mothers with young children, from Walker in Newcastle. They were billeted with families in the village, but we didn't have a spare room so nobody stayed with us.

About a month into the war the first regiment came to the village. They were Northumbrian Fusiliers from Hexham. The officers were billeted in the "Fox and Hounds" and "The Bird Inn" but the men had to sleep in the Village Hall.

Since the men were from Hexham, a lot of them were known from school or had used to play Rugby with people from the village, and soon they were part of the village. I met a few of them from the Methodist church.

They went to France after their training and a lot of them were killed or taken prisoner. A friend of mine's boyfriend was held prisoner for five years. They married after the war but he wasn't the same man.

As more and more soldiers were billeted to the village we had to build a bigger canteen for them. Mrs Douglass, who lived in Street Houses and then in the council houses scrubbed it clean every monday morning. She always said "that's mee war effort". People bought furniture and bits of carpet and soon it was really homely. The ladies of the village all used to do shifts serving tea and coffee. A lot of the lads were really young and had never been away from home before and were quite lost really. We used to say "have you written to your mum" and they'd say "no", and we'd say "well put that right!". We had a lot of fun with them, they were really nice lads.

One afternoon I was on shift and three French officers (we gathered there was a French battleship on the Tyne)came in with some girls. We weren't supposed to serve the officers as they had their own mess, but since they men were on manouevres we gave them a cup of tea. We broke then rules but nobody found out... i don't think.

We had a unit of the RAMC, the medicals, and they built a field ambulance station from scratch with tents. They made stretchers from logs of wood. I suppose they had to use what there was, they couldn't acquire a great deal, they just had to use what was around.

There was also a group of engineers practicing building Bailey bridges across the river. The men were all in tents along the river, and the weather was atrocious . Old Harry Helm, a father of a friend, knocked on the doors and said "these lads are soaking wet in the tents, could i bring a couple in and gie 'em a cup of tea and a warm" and my mother said yes. She dried off their clothes and gave them some of my brothers and a bite of supper - not a great deal but she gave what she had. She suggested they stay the night and she left them to sleep in the living room. The next day their clothes were dry and off they went. Harry was a good soul. The men knocked on the door the next day to say thank you. It was a little bit for the war effort.

Later, we got a group of regular soldiers from the Pioneer Corps. We didn't much care for them coming in the canteen. They were rough harderned soldiers, not the sort we'd been used to, and they drank an awful lot. They caused a bit of trouble in the canteen and were banned. The ladies didn't care for that.

There were some WAAFs too, at Ouston Aerodrome. There was no accomodation for them so they were billeted to Wylam. Several people took a WAAF in and they went to the airport by wagon every morning. Mr Bentham, who lived in Tynewood along the Ovingham Road took in eight. He was an old bachelor and he put the beds in a billiard hall which was separate from the house. The girls staying with Mr Bentham had a ball - many of them were quite unhappy but we all tried to give them a taste of home life.

Then we got prisoners of war. The first lot were Italiams and they built huts in the field opposite the church. That was quite a novelty. They didn't speak any English, so we couldn't talk to them, but they went to work on the local farms who had lost their young workers to the war effort, so they were very important. When the Germans came a lot of them spoke English so you could chat to them. One time they built their own model Bavarian castle, which created quite a bit of interest.

One German family came to the village just before the war - Dr Neubauer and his wife and son. He was a consultant in the hospital but he knew under Hitler's regime he would end up in a concentration camp if he spoke out so he moved to England. He wasn't allowed to work as a doctor in England so he worked as an auxillery in the hospital, all the time studying for a qualification to work in England. He had to pass an English Exam too, which he did.

His son Billy was only three when they came and he went to Sunday School. He couldn't speak a word of English, but within a couple of years he was the best in the village. He was the loveliest little lad, they were a lovely family and made very welcome in the village.

The ladies of the village were very busy knitting khaki wool. There was a fund started whereby they got wool to knit balaclavas, socks, mittens and gloves. I knitted some long seaman's socks in white oiled wool, but i only made one pair as they came up to here and wool was so hard it made your hands sore. I understood they never wash them, just wear them until they fall to pieces, beacuse if they wash them they wash the oil out and they lose their warmth. I just hope the man who got mine wasn't tall as I made them a bit short!

The blackout was probably the worst thing about the war. Switch the light off before you opened the front door, or you took the bulb out of the hallway so there wasn't a light shining. We had to keep all the windoes and doors completely blacked out so every afternoon up went the frames with black paper. You went outside to see if you could see a light shining and if you didn't a Air Raid Warden would come and tell you. There were no lights in the village - the gas lights couldn't be lit so on a dark night it was black. You were allowed a torch but you had to cover half of it with paper. We longed for a moonlit night - but that encouraged the bombing, so that wasn't popular.

When the war was finished I remember my mother opening all the curtains and the door. It had been so awfully dark for so long.

The night the war was over we went to hear the Messiah in the City Hall in Newcastle. They were dancing around the Monument, dancing in Central Station, the church bells were all ringing and all the ligths were on! I don't think the Hallelujah chorus and the national anthem have ever been sung with such gusto. It was wonderful seeing all the people dancing in the street. There was a lot of liquor on board, people were so glad the war was over.

During the war there were sad days because every now and then one or two of our own young men were killed. Sidney Elliott. Dannis Barff. Arthur Herman, Mrs Herman's husband. Harold Hopkinson.

On Armsitice Day I always feel very sad . They were our friends and they would have grown old with us.

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