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I used to work in a draper shop, as war broke out I went to make gas masks. I made the eyepiece, the thick bands and anything to do with keeping the gas away. That was all at the very beginning of the war. After that I joined the WVS and worked at a first aid post. I did one night a week, usually a Saturday. We had a blue uniform with a pinny and a silver badge with ARP on it. We worked with the doctors on duty who were Dr Steele and Dr Godfrey. The lady in charge of us was called Commandant Acton. Saturday nights were usually quiet and we would play darts and have parties in the blackout! I also worked from 2-6pm on a Thursday as well, we knitted and did puzzles. It was not all leisure time of course! We had fake casualties and plenty of training exercises. The St John’s Ambulance taught us all we needed to know about fractures and bandaging and such like. I was also still working at the drapers shop during the day.

We also had to do 30 hours in Worcester Hospital a month. We were given all the menial tasks like working in the sluice room, taking out flowers and making beds and drinks. We had fire drills and learned how to use the pump. We did that in Hounds Lane School, (where the Tech is now in Worcester).

If there was an air raid during the night we had to rush to the AR Post in full uniform. We could hear the German planes throbbing over as our eyes got used to the dark.

During that time I learned lots of useful things that have been very useful during my life.

The drapers that I worked for sold strange things. We sold a gummed back, buff coloured fabric for the windows. It looked a bit like net curtain and it stopped the windows shattering into the room. We also sold blackout material twill. Some people made this into curtains and some into blinds, however they used it they had to be careful that no light showed through or there would be the shout of ‘Put that light out!’

I also used to attend St Clements Church youth Group in Henwick Road. Rev Downey used to run a drama group where we did choruses and one-act sketches. We used the parish rooms, which was blacked out and got so hot. The condensation ran down the windows and we couldn’t open a window because of the blackout. We used to rehearse down in the crypt, mainly it was used to store blankets and emergency stuff.

Reverend Downey decided to send us out to see the servicemen’s families to get their overseas addresses so that we could send them little parcels. We had to go round periodically because the men moved so often. We packaged up little things to make their lives a little easier such as soap, razor, toothpaste, and writing paper etc. We also put in a small note from us, which we duplicated on a hand rolled printer. After we packaged up the parcels we took them all to the post office in St John’s. My mom and sister took them in a pram and at the time only two people were allowed in the shop at one time and the other customers used to queue up outside for ages. Nobody seemed to mind though because we were doing it for the troops.

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

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