大象传媒

This story has been written to the 大象传媒 People's War site by CSV Storygatherer Coralie, on behalf of her aunt, Margaret Plain. The story has been added to the site with her permission, and Margaret fully understands the terms and conditions of the site.

Late summer 1939, when war had just been declared, it was the most beautiful weather. I joined the Ambulance Service in Bristol, where I was born, and was stationed at Muller's Orphanage, a very well-known local orphanage, which had been evacuated. However, some time later I got measles after a Turkish bath, and was so poorly that I had to go home to my parents, even though I had recently married, and as I had bad conjunctivitis when the measles had gone, my mother took me to Bournemouth to convalesce in the sea air.

In December 1939, I had married an Army office, and as a married woman, I was not called up into the Forces so was able to accompany him to his postings. He was posted to Whitby in Yorkshire, but I had to wait for him to find quarters for me, before I could join him. We were there about a year and had no air-raids in that time, although Bristol was being bombed badly.

My husband's next posting was to Dorset. He was stationed at Bovington Camp, but I lived at Wareham and so I joined the WVS (Women's' Voluntary Service). However, I only remained in the WVS for a few months, as a friend, the wife of a brother officer of my husband's, decided that we should go into a factory together. She had never worked before in her life, as I had, and we found difficulty in being accepted as workers, as we were not thought suitable! This was at the Wallace Tin Stamping Company, which had been evacuated from London to Hamworthy in Dorset, and was making small aircraft parts. They thought about it and as they had other women being 'coached in' from another area, Ferndown, we were told that we could join them to work.

We did 3 months training with no pay, and eventually when the training ended we started paid work. I was put to work on a factory floor, as a man's workmate. He was very kind and always looked after me, and his wife sent a piece of homemade cake with him each morning for my lunch break! I stayed there 3 陆 years but had to leave in the end, as I got a type of metal poisoning.

The next posting was to Italy, and of course I could not go, so I returned to Bristol and decided to join the 大象传媒 as a driver. I was driving announcers, and anyone else who needed transport anywhere. I often took people to the 'Rocks Railway' to look at the musical recordings which were stored there, as the railway was closed by then. Also, fortnightly, on a Thursday, I drove people to a large country house outside Bristol, which the 大象传媒 had the use of during the war. People visited it to work with the music records which were kept there. The staff there were always very pleased to see us, as no-one else ever visited.

I decided that I would like to go abroad, as my husband was still posted overseas, so I wrote to all sorts of organisations who sent people abroad. I received a reply from the YMCA in London accepting my application. That was how a petite person like me came to be driving a heavy lorry, equipped with a huge gun turret, out of London in a convoy. I was told to take an Army officer in my spare seat, as he needed a lift to Belgium, where we were headed. Not long after leaving London he had to answer the call of nature, and because he took his time I lost sight of the convoy. It was January, pitch dark and snowing! I ended up having to make my own way to Belgium, and thinking about it now, many years later, I can't imagine how I did it.

We first went to Brussels where we were allocated jobs driving huge mobile canteens, weighing about 3 tons, for the troops. I was based at Louvin, about 20 miles outside Brussels, where there was a huge canteen. I met a very nice Belgian girl of about 18 called Elyane, who lived next door to the canteen, and whose father was the Chief Advocate of Belgium. She would come in and help by interviewing applicants to work in the canteen, most of whom spoke Flemish as, being an educated girl, she spoke both Flemish and French. We have always stayed friends and she recently rang me from Belgium with birthday greetings. When I wasn't driving the canteen to where the troops were stationed, to dispense tea and 'wads' (buns), I was organising entertainment for them.

After 6 months in Louvin, I was sent to Lille in France and after a while on to Holland. Then at the end of the war, when the Peace Treaty had just been signed, I was sent to Germany, and then to Luneburger Heath, where the Peace Treaty itself had been signed, and I stayed there for some months. Whilst there, I became very friendly with a German girl who spoke English and translated in the canteen for the German girls working there. She had escaped at the beginning of the war, from the Polish Corridor, to relatives in Luneburg. She felt much luckier than some of the girls she had travelled with, as they had been raped by German soldiers on the train. She subsequently met and married an English airman who brought her to live in England, and when she had her first child she asked me to be his godmother.

I had become friendly with various airmen while I had been away and so, when I had to transfer from one place to another, I would usually be able to get a seat in a plane and fly there. I certainly flew home when my duties were at an end. I had a very interesting war, at home and abroad, and made many friends that I have kept for the rest of my life.

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