大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People's War site by Aileen May, volunteer of kirriemuir Library, on behalf of Jessie Learmonth, and has been aded to the site with her permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

About me: I am Dr Jessie learmonth, I am a retired medical practioner. I live in Kirriemuir. During the war years I lived at Kirriemuir Junction. This was the former railway junction between Forfar and Glamis. My father was the railway signalman at Kirriemuir Junction from 1935 to 1961. Learmonth is my married name, my family name was MacRae.

My story: in 1939, when the war started I was six and a half years old. I had started school in 1938, and attended Reform Street School, Kirriemuir. I travelled to school by train. My early school life was very much affected by the war. during the school year 1940/41 Polish soldiers arrived in Kirriemuir. These soldiers ware accomadated in various places in Kirriemuir, including Reform Street School, which meant that myself and other children were moved to other buildings wherever space could be found. For instance, for half of the morning I might attend class in the Barony Church hall, where the class was taken on the stage, at other times I would have to go to the Seceders Hall or to a room in the Livingston Church. For the second half of the morning, I had no school. Children who lived in kirriemuir could go home, but myself and other children from the country areas were just left to amuse and look after ourselves. We played around the town, up and down the "closies" (closes), and in the church yard among the gravestones until it was time for school in the afternoon. Then my class was held in the South Parish Church hall. This hall was divided into two classrooms.

There were no school lunches, and I ate a "piece" (bread sandwich) from home. I got the train home at nearly 4.00p.m., the porter at the station looked after me until the train came.

It was not until the school year 1942/43 that I attended school fulltime again. That year my class was held in Livingston Church hall every day. The year after 1943/44 my class was fitted into Webster's Seminary - we were still the Reform Street School children. I remained at Webster's Seminary then as I reached the age for secondary school. My lasting impression is of going from place to place in my early school years, I am amazed I learned anything as school life was so disrupted.

My other memories connected to school and wartime, were of children who were evacuated to Kirriemuir. I remember children from Dundee, a boy from Glasgow and a girl from Edinburgh. We had a teacher who was also from Dundee. The children were mixed in with Kirriemuir children. I remember we used to sit in pairs at desks, and the teacher would rearrange us so that a local child was sitting with an evacuee child.

I remember being told about shrapnel, we all had gas masks, we had to carry them with us everywhere all the time. If there was an alert we had to get down under the desks.

Because of the war, the train timetable was reduced, then I had to cycle to school. Often it was dark, and because of the blackout, the light on my bicycle had to be dimmed, half of it covered over, and pointing down on to the ground, so I hardly got any light from it.

Black paint was used on windows, the signalbox window was partly painted black, and mesh was put on the glass to help protect it.

My parents kept hens for supplying eggs, also goats. My family always drank goats milk, as my father believed this would protect us from T.B. which could be got from untreated cows milk. My mother made butter and cheese with goats milk. My father grew strawberries, gooseberries, blackberries, raspberries and plenty of vegatables. He also kept bees for honey. Occasionally we ate rabbit or pheasant which had been killed by a passing train.

There were coupons for clothing, but clothes were scarce. We had a Singer tredle sewing machine. My father made clothes for the family out of old clothes. My mother knitted constantly, jumpers, cardigans, socks, she also knitted for the armed forces, the wool for this was supplied to her by the W.R.V.S.

I was involved with my family in raising funds for Prisoners of War, and raising welcome home funds for returning troops. We held concerts at Padanarum Hall.

Early in the war I recall the Polish soldiers at the potato gathering, they wore uniforms and neat gloves, we used to help them because they did not like getting their gloves dirty. I can remember also, seeing Italian and German prisoners of war when I went potato gathering with my school chums. The Italian prisoners wore brown clothing with a light brown patch attached, the German prisoners wore blue clothing with a red patch.

I remember bombs were dropped on Balmashanner Hill (Forfar) and at Tannadice, just north-east of kirriemuir.

We did not have a radio at home, but much was said about the war, and about its progress as written in the newspapers.

My mother was very good at cooking and baking, and improvising with ingredients. There were wartime recipes, to help with preparing meals with limited ingredients.

Even after the war was over, things were in short supply, and we found ways to overcome this, for example, I made clothes from silk parachute cloth, in particular I made a dress from orange and ivory. I recall too having pink parachute material.

I remember one of the railway linesmen finding the remains of a magnesium flare and his giving it to my father. I believe these flares were dropped by German pilots to help guide them on their homeward journey after a bombing raid.

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