大象传媒

This story is submitted to the people's War site by Aileen May, volunteer of Kirriemuir Library, on behalf of Mrs Nancy Crowe, and has been added to the site with her permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

I am Nancy Crowe (nee MacRae) and a retired school teacher. I was brought up at Kirriemuir Junction, the former railway junction between Forfar and Glamis

I was almost ten years old at the outbreak of World War 2. I attended Reform Street Primary School, Kirriemuir, and was in Primary 4 at the time. The following year 1940-41 my school life was disrupted through the arrival of Polish soldiers to Kirriemuir. They were billeted in Reform Street School and other places within the town. Before this there had also been an influx of evacuee children.

My class, then Primary 5, also known as the qualifying class was accomadated at Websters' Seminary. I remained there for the rest of my school life, being in the higher grade from 1941 to 1946.

My main memories of the war are to do with shortages, everything was rationed, for example food, clothing and bedding. I remember goods were labelled CC41, which meant they were utility standard. Even furniture was labelled CC41. There were no luxuries, no new clothes and no bananas - which I missed terribly. We were encouraged to feel nationalistic. We picked up nationalistic feelings from newspapers, at home, at school and on the Pathe News bulletins. There were posters too, displayed on trains and railway stations, which also encouraged nationalistic feelings, for example posters saying 'Dig For Victory' 'Make Do And Mend' 'Be Like Dad Keep Mum' 'Careless Talk Costs Lives' and 'Walls Have Ears', we had an enemy, we were at war.

There was a great emphasis on self-suffiency and improvising. I can remember my mother had special wartime recipes - she used grated carrot and turnip in baking, also powdered egg. To economize on sugar we gradually reduced the amount of sugar we put into our tea, until we eventually drank tea without sugar.

My parents had hens, goats, bees and grew vegetables and fruit. Eggs were preserved in jars in water glass.

Parks in towns were ploughed up for growing crops. The metal railings around parks and gardens were cut down, and taken to be used for the war effort. Paper was scarce. In primary school we used to write on slates using a slate pencil. In secondary school we had jotters but the quality of the paper was poor, and there were flecks of wood in the paper. We had ink wells and wrote with pen and nib. Nothing was wasted and at the end of a lesson the unused ink was collected
in for future use.

During the war there were fewer trains so I then had to go to school by bicycle. I remember being given a very old bicycle, which was too big for me. My father fitted blocks of wood to the pedals, even then I had to ride the bike without being able to sit on the seat. As I grew up I came to love riding a bicycle and to get great enjoyment and a sense of freedom from it, I see this a positive outcome of the war for me.

Unformed servicemen became a common sight. Women began to do what had been men's work; women worked on the the land, also in the timber trade, they became train guards and porters and worked in butcher shops which they had not done before.

My family liked to make music and learned many wartime songs. We participated in fund raising comcerts. I remember singing in the V.E.Day concert at Roundyhill (near Forfar). Many of the World War 1 songs were revived.

I recall having had dreams I think due to hearing about the effects of the war, also hearing planes, sirens and seeing searchlights in the sky at night.

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