大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People's War site by a volunteer from CSV Actiondesk on behalf of Mrs Hutchinson and has been added to the site with her permission. Mrs Hutchinson fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

I was on a bus in London with my mother and sister visiting my aunt when War was announced. I was 22 years old. I don鈥檛 really remember how I felt about it, I suppose we didn鈥檛 know what to expect.

We returned home to Benton Square (Newcastle upon Tyne) and my two sisters and I went back to work at the Ritz Cinema in Forest Hall where I was a cashier in the front box. Not for long however, as I was called up and given the choice of joining the forces or going to work in a factory. My parents were dead set against the forces so I was sent to learn electric welding at Turnbulls in Heaton. I wasn鈥檛 given any choice in the kind of factory work I wanted, the employment exchange chose for me. The training took six weeks and there were six other local girls with me though I didn鈥檛 know any of them. I found it a bit of a shock as I was not used to mixing with girls whose language and chatter were rough. I always received high marks in my training as I had a steady hand and was therefore good at the job.

After the training I was sent to work with three other women (one was a local girl I knew from Forest Hall called Elsie Robinson), at Johnson鈥檚 Garage in Forest Hall where we welded links for Bailey Bridges. It was hot, mucky work and we had to wear face guards against the sparks but I enjoyed it and was good at the work even though it was hard. However, I was only there for 6 months as I became pregnant with my first child and had to leave. It had been quite different from working at the Ritz Cinema but I have to say I preferred the Cinema.

My husband was a musician and he played the trumpet with the Oscar Rabin Band in the concert and dance halls around Newcastle. We were stationed in Bishop Auckland where he was in charge of the mechanics but he still liked to play the trumpet in his spare time.

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