大象传媒

I was a corporal in the ATS when I first went out with Michael. As we left the barracks the Sergeant Major said to him, 鈥淵ou are taking out one of my young ladies, and I expect you to bring her back in the same condition as you found her!鈥�

I have to say that sums up my main experience of the war, which was how well we were looked after, and how courteously we were treated. I remember walking back late at night to Dovercourt Bay, which was a holiday camp converted to a barracks. I鈥檇 been away for a few days and had a heavy kitbag. Out of the darkness a man said, 鈥淐an I carry your kitbag for you?鈥� and that really was all he was offering. This happened to me quite often. I tell my grand daughter this, and she simply doesn鈥檛 believe me.

On another occasion I had been visiting relatives in Liverpool, and they had just left me at Lime Street Station when the air raid siren went. In the dark an officer helped me to find the right platform, then escorted me onto the train, and told me to lie under the seats, where we stayed until a guard came round with a lamp, which he shone on us and said, 鈥淲hat do you think you are doing down there?鈥� We laughed, because, of course, we weren鈥檛 doing anything. We crawled out and he offered us a cup of tea from his billy can. I remember that it tasted foul, but in the face of such kindness, I drank it!

I was based in Greenford, and Michael was posted overseas, and could not get my address, so he rang the local police station and said that if he made a contribution to their police fund, would they do something for him? It was not long before a policeman came to the barracks with flowers for Subaltern Edwards!

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