大象传媒

I continued working on the Regional Director鈥檚 switchboard, doing a 7 day week service, then having the 4th Sunday off which was great to have a break, but I really enjoyed my work. It was so interesting. After several years, the Board was finally closed. I went to County Hall Switchboard, across the Bridge to Big Ben , it was in the basement. Huge building, we had to have a doorman take us to the switchboard, until we could find it ourselves, it was just a maze of corridors. Being in the basement we didn鈥檛 see any daylight until we went to Lunch and when we finished in the evening. There too a floor was commandeered for another PBX. This time it was on the 4th floor, same again, a few girls from City Area, including me and several from Central. It was called UNRRA, we had to answer United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation on every call, and put the respective callers through to their Embassies. Quite difficult at first to understand the different languages at first, but in time we could spot the different intonations in their speech, also a wild guess, if we did put them through to the wrong Extension, they quickly flashed the Board to tell us to transfer it elsewhere but we soon got into the swing of things and hardly any wrong at the finish. Later on County Hall was so busy, they had another switchboard near Admiralty Arch, which leads to The Palace. When I went, I was training to be a Supervisor, so first I had to find the Switchboard, so it was straight through Admiralty Arch, turn right immediately then it was on the left hand side. I found it, feeling new again, felt quite nervous, but being young then, you soon adapt and cope. I was only there a fortnight, I just wonder if it鈥檚 altered there now! Next I went to Headquarters, which was in the City, pas St Paul鈥檚, it was the Headquarters for the London postal Region, there too, it was free learning. No wonder they say if you are a trained GPO telephonist you can work anywhere, that鈥檚 why we always kept our buckets of information up to date, so if your colleagues were sent there afterwards, they knew you鈥檇 done your bit to kept it up to date. Help one another, which is still my motto.

It was back to the city and Central Switchboard again, there too, it was interesting. Many of our subscribers were Newspaper Companies. I noticed one supervisor had a stack tickets already made out and if a 鈥渇lash鈥� or a 鈥渇udge鈥� came through, she immediately distributed these tickets out immediately. We had to stop what we were doing and just dial these numbers right away. When you managed to get through, you connected it to the Appropriate Newspaper where I surmise they had a microphone o, because as they answered you heard people giving out news items. If you got through in the middle of a 鈥渇lash鈥� or 鈥渇udge鈥� they were told to stay on the line and they would repeat the news again so if you had a ticket and the person you were calling was engaged all the time they didn鈥檛 get the news flash for their newspaper. So you see we always had something interesting going on all the time.

Meanwhile the police were doing their bit by going round in their cars with loudspeakers, telling everyone to give at least one saucepan for the war effort. They were going door to door collecting them. Another time they took down all the railings, around the building, also for the war effort. If we ever had a raffle at work, it was always 6d a go and the prize was one egg. I never won, but I always lived in hope to surprise my mother. My mother by now had been called up to do war work. She鈥檇 been an Acetylene Welder in the first war and she had to go to do it again. By this time we鈥檇 moved back to London and was living in a flat in Hurlingham in Fulham, very salubrious area. I loved it and I could get a train from Putney Bridge to Westminster and dash across the bridge, whilst Big Ben was chiming the hour and still get in on time, for County Hall.

We often did our Sunday Duty in the exchanges, it was great to get back to Exchange work instead of PBX. I remember at Waterloo Exchange which wasn鈥檛 too far from Waterloo Station, on the switchboard the Call Boxes had painted a bright red round the Jack, which is the hole that you plug in, so when you answered you had to tell the subscriber how much the call could be and they had to put the appropriate money in and we had to listen and count it, so coins were bong, bong, bong and silver was ping, ping, ping. I always smiled when I heard this it sounded so funny. We always knew when a train had come in, the board was absolutely aglow with the red Jacks. The telephonists had seats of course to sit on but as soon as we saw the amount of calls, we all stood and worked flat out to get the calls through as quickly as we could.

Times were frightening leaving exchanges at 11 pm at night in the blackout, but apart from seeing a glow from cigarettes that someone had drawn on whilst they were doing fire watching, which startled you that moment we didn鈥檛 have any cause for concern, everyone seemed to pitch in and get on with things, it was a lovely spirit.

When we finally had some spare time after work, several telephonists and engineers with a manager in charge formed a small group and performed small funny plays and groups to sing and harmonize as it was all voluntary I got pushed into joining, we were called the Telefolllies, mostly from Faraday Buildings. We went into the Evenings if we weren鈥檛 working to entertain patients in hospital, to try and make them smile, any money that was collected went to the War effort. I had to laugh, I didn鈥檛 own many clothes, as we鈥檇 lost everything in the bombing, so I had to borrow some of the other girls dressed and be pinned into them. I wasn鈥檛 allowed to alter them as they wanted them back so I had to stand very still on the stage and on no account move otherwise everyone would have seen all the safety pins. Some of the plays were hilarious, when you had a young male engineer trying to mime a woman taking a bath 鈥� just action, no words, and see him take off imaginary corset and give a little scratch of relief, he didn鈥檛 strip or anything, just mimed, it was great to see the patients laughing for a change.

At 21 I was no doing more training as a supervisor and when you have to have authority the ruling is they send you to a new place where your friends don鈥檛 know you and try and expect you to favour time. Although I鈥檇 lost everything in the bombing and I was only earning 拢3 a week, to pay my mother, fares and canteen food, I only had 1s 9d a week for myself, so it took a while to save a few pounds, so I went to John Lewis鈥檚 store and bought some suiting material and someone knew a retired Jewish gentlemen that was a retired tailor, who along with his wife, soon measured me and made a super suit, (medium grey with a fine white stripe in it) just as I was told to report to Waterloo Exchange. I鈥檇 just finished knitting an open worked jumper in blue and it looked fine with the suit, which boosted my moral. I was always nervous trying out a new exchange and going to be a supervisor is always frightening the first day. First day, feeling a bit more confident which a new suit I entered the switch room, immediately taken a back because the exchange still had all the night telephonists on duty and all male, threw me immediately I was expecting all girls, next minute all you could hear was wolf whistles, I just went a bright pink, just wanted to run, but training will out. I just said, 鈥淕et on with your work鈥�. To be honest everything had changed. Before there were always Senior Girls that were made Supervisors s and the strict training, you had to always look slightly firm in your features and in command. At the beginning of the war so many telephonist left the civil service to join up, along with a lot of the senior supervisors retiring, they had to clamp down and make it essential services and we couldn鈥檛 leave, hence the influx of quite junior telephonists becoming supervisors and it startled these mature men seeing all us juniors being in charge of them, talk about trying to undermine you, but I soon learnt quickly to not be too confident and be prepared to have the Mickey taken out of you, made me quite humble.

The reason we had to be at least 5鈥�6鈥� tall to get into the service, some of the switchboards so tall, especially at Faraday. Although we had swivel chairs to sit on there was always a metal trim several inches up from your feet so that you could easily step on it to get your plugs in it if was at the top of the board. We were always busy so you couldn鈥檛 have smaller people doing it, it would take you all your time running up and down the board helping them. The Dials were always fixed permanently on the right, so of course you had to be right handed, otherwise you would get in other people鈥檚 way. The Vif cards were on the left, i.e. Visible Index cards, something you referred to constantly for long distant exchanges if you had to go through several operators to get that exchange, you had to look up the codes, that is why Exchange Switchboards are different from PBX.

It was a privilege to work in the Civil Service with such pleasant friends and colleagues, I鈥檒l never forget the ordeals of climbing over rubble to get to buildings that had been bombed to see if we could work the boards.

Another thing I found very strange when doing PBX relief, one day I would be sent to a ban, by Blackfriars, I was sitting all on my won, working the board, but aware everything was to do with banking so I鈥檓 thinking to myself, that鈥檚 this to do with exchange work, but I was only there a couple of days then their own telephonist came, so back to my own board, then off again to another board but this was in the evening and I had to make out I was in a doctor鈥檚 surgery and it was closed for the day and I had to tell them what number they had to ring, to crown it all, if some PBX Operators work on a switchboard, that is only open for five days, if they are GPO Operators they have to do the same hours as us, so they are extra staff on a Saturday which was a great help to us being busy, we worked a lot of time with the Stock Exchange, girls to crown it all, when the Americans joined in the War and came here, they were staffed by GPO Operators, they only thing I could think why, especially the banks they must have had an arrangement with the Civil Service and paid so that our system, they were never without an operator. The system being if our Control doesn鈥檛 tick that operator on at her specific time, remember we weren鈥檛 allowed to be late, they would wait a few minutes, then send a relief so companies never had to worry about their switchboard not being manned, an excellent system really when you think of it, so in time especially in the city you would be ringing a company and in time had one of your own colleagues working on the board. Just past St Paul鈥檚 in the city we had a huge restaurant for GPO PBX Telephonists to go, we had only 45鈥� for our lunchtime, but we could rush into this building, taking into account we only earned 拢3 a week, we could get a meal, dessert and a cup of tea for 11d, not a huge meal but quite adequate. Image in this being on one of these boards on your own, you鈥檙e relieved by a friend so that you can go to lunch if you happened to be near St Paul鈥檚 Churchyard, you went by St Paul鈥檚, for a while to keep the sprit of people I can remember for several weeks they had an Army Band playing on the steps of St Paul鈥檚 very stirring tunes so in the summer a nice day, walking to the restaurant for our meal keeping in step to the stirring tunes, it did brighten us up for a little while despite all the doom and gloom, also at the restaurant were only girls that you worked with, so it was hello, 鈥渨here are you working today鈥�.

My father, before the war was a craftsman in leather work. His sticking was perfection itself. As a child I watched in awe when he had to bring some important case he had to finish home, he made the leather cases for musical instruments for a band called Henry Hall. A very well known band it was. The pay wasn鈥檛 good, but he was happy in his work, always put his very best into any job he had to do, I鈥檓 telling you this, you will see later. He worked in the Euston Road. In time over the years they brought in mass production so he was only paid every other week, so we really struggled when we were at school, but we managed, that鈥檚 how the caretaker鈥檚 job helped, we didn鈥檛 get paid for our flat was free.

When we lost the flat in the bombing, he decided to switch to another job. He went to work for Ericsson Telephones the same time as I went into the telephone service. When I had the homework to do, he had to learn all the colour coding for the wiring so I tested him on his colours and he tested me on my codes for the tickets.

He was once working at Faraday Buildings in with the GPO Engineers the same time as I was on the switchboard. Very strange as I thought that they had only GPO Engineers there but obviously they didn鈥檛. Later like me he had to go elsewhere to Glasgow and Cornwall which broke his heart, he was a typical home loving man and couldn鈥檛 wait to get back. When we moved back to London and lived in Hurlingham, he saw an advertisement for Craftsman in Leather work at the Hospital at Roehampton as soon as he applied they engaged him right away and he was making limbs for the limbless in leather, but broke his heart when they switched to plastic, plastic doesn鈥檛 breathe like leather. He told me too that you have to wet the leather to pull it into shape to get a proper fit. He used to fit Douglas Bader for his limbs at Roehampton. A well known pilot who lost his limbs early on.

I鈥檝e had some pleasant memories but will never forget being buried. Years after I developed terrible allergies which eventually they found out in London. Because of my age, being 17, my hormones like most youngsters are all over the place and they shock broken down all the adrenalin in me so after tests I had to have three years of injections to de-sensitise me and even now if I see a war film and hear the warnings I still feel sick, it brings back that time I was under the rubble. Having said that I can feel real sympathy for others. I can appreciate the hurt that our men endured seeing their comrades killed and we must never forget what they went through and still go through when they remember.

Bless them all!

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