大象传媒

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I was 20 when war broke out - on September 3, 1939- and at the time I was working at John Lewis's in London and cycling to the store every day from Notting Hill Gate.

We used to work six days a week with a half day on a Saturday.

We didn't really talk too much about the start of the war as we were told not to talk about such things.

General Alexander, who went to Bletchley Park took one of my friends with him, the young ladies they were called, we didn't know anything about Bletchley Park.

I don't think she was particularly good at crosswords and I鈥檓 not sure I really know why she was asked to go!

I stayed with my mother and in some ways I regret that I didn't go off and join one of the services and I also regretted that I didn't train as a nurse which I could have also done during the war.

Later in the war I went to live with an aunt in Northampton which was pretty quiet; I went to work in a Singer sewing machine shop to start with where I was involved in selling sewing machines.

I had to do something for the war and so I joined the Red Cross as I had done some first aid training at John Lewis - because we were encouraged to do something like that.

I ended up in the Civil Nursing Reserve and went out to Creaton in Northamptonshire, which was a TB hospital in those days - just a couple of miles out of town - not very far.

I wasn't there a very long time because I know the family were a bit upset or didn't want me to be there - it was possibly a year and then we left my aunt and bought a house in Northampton to keep away from the bombs but I think my mother got bored living there.

We were an army family and we've always moved and moving gets in the blood you know.

Eventually we went back to London in about 1941/42 - we certainly went back before the flying bombs, when it was reasonably quiet obviously.

My mother wanted to go back and so I followed her - I suppose I was a little dominated by her - I was a poor little thing in those days!

She was a good mother - I am not saying that she wasn't - she was a very good mother but I did what she wanted, well I think people did that much more then, unless you were a person who was stronger minded.

I think I would be different altogether now.

We went to Earls Court and stayed in Penywern Road, which is still there today.

We had chickens at the bottom of the garden and so we had a fresh supply of eggs - I suppose we had a dozen chickens or something like that, only a few at the end of the garden and we both looked after them even though it was only my mother's idea. They were shut in a cage in a henhouse.

We didn't bother digging up the garden as I wasn't interested in gardening particularly and my mother certainly wasn't.

I went to work at the Chelsea Hospital for Women, which isn't there any more.

My mother was a member of the Hamilton Club in Park Lane where she played bridge - I didn't play bridge in those days but of course we had meals there, which were very nice very good and I think on VE Day in the evening she stayed and played bridge, while a crowd of us went off to see what was happening down to the river, to the Thames.

I think we stayed out until the early hours but soon afterwards it was straight back to work. We went back to normal living fairly quickly.

After the war attitudes did change, there were plenty of jobs as well. I eventually went back to John Lewis in London. There was only John Lewis or Peter Jones to go back to.

We stayed at Earls Court in our maisonette with its basement until we went to Bletchley when there was once again the threat of war, the Cold War, and my mother wanted to get out of London.

Because my aunt was still alive we ended up migrating towards Northampton and we landed up in Bletchley of all - the house that we went to there is now factory!

I don't think I had a bad war in the way of being bombed or anything like that - I think I had quite a normal lifestyle in fact.

You met people, we went out but I don't think we went to the theatre because of course most of them were shut.

Another reason for not being able to go to the theatre was that you wouldn't have been able to afford it.

Everywhere there were notices up such as 鈥淐areless Talk Costs Lives鈥� and of course you'd didn't get any news like you do today.

For example during the Iraqi war I felt there was far too much news -back then you only had your radio and just the 大象传媒 to listen to.

We listened to Churchill of course!

My mother never did any war work really, she carried on playing bridge and looking after her dogs and the chickens!

We didn't feel we were very deprived in fact.

I managed to get my food from the hospital and therefore I didn't have to give up my ration because I wasn't living there - if I been living in the hospital I would have had too given up my ration to them - so we didn't find the rationing to bad even though I only got 2 ounces of butter a week - I gave up sugar as a result of nursing because you drank too many cups of tea!

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