大象传媒

I was 20 when the war started, and I lived at Ainderby Steeple in North Yorkshire. My family had a market garden and a shop in the town, through which we sold some of our produce. A great deal of our produce was supplied to the Royal Air Force at Leeming Bar airfield, to the Army at Catterick Camp, and to the local NAAFI.

I had three brothers and two sisters. My sisters were still at school, two of my brothers and I worked in the market garden, and one brother was called up into tne Air Force. Because workers on the land were exempt from National Service, my two brothers abd I were not called up. My brother in the Air Force was based for a time at Blackpool just before his posting to West Africa. He would be travelling there by ship and he was a little apprehensive about sea sickness. My sisters and I decided to travel to Blackpool to see him before he left, and he insisted that we all take a ride on the Big Dipper to see whether he could stand the rise and fall without being sick. He was on the ground staff as a driver, and was therefore in no danger of being air sick. He survived the war.

My father was a musketry instructor in the First World War and was able to take charge of Home Guard units in four villages in the area.One member of the Home Guard was a butcher and he had a motor bike: he became a despatch rider. From time to time I would drive him to places like Thirsk to meet army officers, presumably for information and instruction. I had taken no driving test, for none was required in those days. Towards the end of the war, my father retired both from running the market garden business and the Home Guard. The rest of the family took over the market garden forming a business.

Before the war I used to work in the shop as well as on the land, but shortage of staff meant the shop could open only helf days during the war, as I had to help more on the land. We had three Land Girls working for us, and sometimed airmen from the Leeming Bar airfield would help in their spare time. I would have liked to keep in touch with the Land Girls but know only their Christian names.

Being so near to the airfield, there were periodic air raid warnings and German bombers did drop some bombs on the airfield. Northallerton was also hit.

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