大象传媒

I was eighteen when war broke out and on September 3rd I was on holiday with my family in Anglesey. We guessed something was going to happen because a warden had been round beforehand telling us to block up the windows at night. Anglesey is on the coast and they didn't want any enemy ships or planes to use the lights as guides.
I worked in a wool shop in Monkseaton before the war. I lived there with my parents. There was very little bombing in the area, although one did land fairly nearby. We thought our house was fine but when it snowed the next winter, we realised the roof had been lifted as all the snow came in upstairs.
I was keen to join the armed forces, but my father had fought in World War
One and he wouldn't let me. In those days you did what your parents told you.Instead I went into munitions work. I was sent to Heighnton near Darlington and when I arrived an older lady saw me and befriended me because she thought I looked sad. She took me home with her and I met her large family. They made me very welcome and I felt happy. The lady's name is Anne and she and I are still in contact over sixty years later. We ring each other at least once a fortnight. Anne is 97 now.
I got the tram each day from Darlington to the munitions factory where I was an examiner of small arms. The hours were long, nightshifts were twelve hours.
I lived in lodgings until I got married at 21. My husband was a chemist so he was exempt from the services, but he was on Tyneside so we only saw each other once a fortnight. I asked for a transfer to Armstrong's and was sent to the naval yard. I became an electrical welder working on submarines, aircraft carriers and warships. Of course women didn't do this kind of work before the war.
I still have a souvenir from my days in the shipyard. We used to wear boiler suits to work in and one day a spark jumped down the front of mine and burnt me. I still bear the scar.

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