大象传媒

This story was submitted to the Peoples' War website by Lancashire Remembers on behalf of Frances Cleugh and has been added to the site with his/her permission.

Towards the end of August 1939, it was seen that war with Germany was almost certain, and plans were made to evacuate children from the major cities in case of air raids. I was fifteen, and in September my final year for my School Certificate was due to begin. 'Bellerive', the convent school that I attended in Liverpool, was classed as a vulnerable area, and so all pupils were to be evacuated.

On Friday 1st September the school was evacuated to Eccleston, outside Chester, and we went from Lime Street Station to Chester. When we got there we were all allocated to various houses in the area. War was officially declared on Sunday 3rd September. We shared the Ursuline Convent in Chester with their pupils. To us it was upsetting to be away from our parents, brothers and sisters, but we were all welcomed into our new 'families'.

We were very fortunate, because our own school, Bellerive, was in two parts, one on either side of a road, with an underground passage connecting the two parts. This was strengthened into a safe shelter in the event of an air raid, and so we were able to return home by Christmas 1939, and school was resumed in the first term of 1940. I had intended to take my Higher School Certificate and then go on to university. However, as there was great demand for girls to go into industry, as all the young men were being conscripted to the armed forces, I left school in 1941 and went to work in the Midland Bank, now the HSBC.

Liverpool was blitzed in May 1941, and the whole of the city was in ruins. There was no transport and we had to walk to work, in my case to the centre of Liverpool, about three miles, picking our way through rubble. There were no lights at night, as everywhere was blacked out, but you were never in danger of being harmed. One's only fear was falling in the rubble. Because of my job I was exempt from National Service in the ATS, Land Army, WRAF or WRENS, but was expected to do extra necessary work. Three or four times a week I went to the main telephone exchange in Liverpool and worked as a telephone operator. This meant that sometimes I would be coming home, walking through rubble at about 10.30 to 11.00pm, but, as I said previously, had no fear of being harmed. If you met anyone, you helped each other as you walked through the rubble - in the pitch black.

During the 'blitz' in 1941 we never went to sleep in our own beds. After our evening meal, we went into the air raid shelter, which in our case was in our back yard, and settled down until the air raids were over, usually about 4.00am. There we could go to bed for a couple of hours, before getting up for work. One night, I was so worn out that I decided to take a chance and go to bed in my own room. There was, as usual, an air raid, and I was saved by my father who ran up the stairs and lifted me out of bed just as an incendiary bomb came through the ceiling onto my bed. After that, I always went into the shelter. My father, like all the older men, did fire watching each night.

Food was rationed, but we were never hungry. My mother was wonderful in the way she eked out our rations to ensure that we always had filling and nourishing meals. Certain foods were non-rationed, but when these were available at the local grocery store, queues formed from early morning. My grandfather was great. He was always near the front of the queue, and made certain that we got our share of whatever there was to be had

When the air raids finished, and British forces invaded Europe, we settled down to being able to go to bed every night! That was wonderful.

War ended in May 1945 in Europe, but a young man with whom I was friendly, and who was in the Royal navy, was sent with his ship to Burma. So, until the end of hostilities in August 1945, to me the war was not over. This young sailor has been my husband for nearly 58 years.

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