- Contributed by听
- hartley_j_r
- People in story:听
- Marjorie Kent
- Location of story:听
- South East London / Bermondsey
- Background to story:听
- Civilian
- Article ID:听
- A2914841
- Contributed on:听
- 12 August 2004
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The bombs start to drop in London - 1939:
I lived in the Guinness Trust Buildings in Page鈥檚 Walk, London, which were six stories high. The air-raid sirens went off and all the neighbours in the flats came out and were crying. I was seventeen and didn鈥檛 know what to expect, but older people were saying that they didn鈥檛 expect the war to last long. But I can remember my mother saying that they were wrong. But as the air raid warnings kept on coming, we soon had to adapt to a new way of living.
When the air raids first started, I was working in a food factory in Bermondsey, and we used to go to the arches when the German planes were overhead. A green light used to come up down on the factory floor 鈥 a warning to get your coats and bags near you. As soon as the red light came on we left the factory to go down the arches until the all clear was sounded.
You never knew what you to expect or what you would see when you came out from the arches after an air-raid. Buildings and houses bombed-out and people, some friends and relations, dead or injured; people with all their possessions in prams or wrapped up in blankets. I clearly remember the voices air raid wardens checking for any chinks of light at night during the black-outs and the slogans that were painted everywhere like 鈥淲alls Have Ears鈥.
Working at a 鈥榤unitions factory:
I went on to work at an ammunitions factory 鈥 John Feavers. There we made tube cases, shell cases, oil drums, petrol drums and tins for food for the Forces.
Before the war Feavers was a metal sheet box company. Three of my sisters also worked at the same factory, and we met some very nice people and all worked very hard 鈥 8am until 6pm Monday to Friday and 8am-1pm on Saturdays.
There were a few hundred of us who worked at Feavers and we all got on really well. All the workers used to help each other out during what were some very sad times. You hear people say they are tired and stressed today, but what they are experiencing is probably nothing compared to back then. We would be awake nearly all night with bombs dropping, then still turn up for work at 8am!
We also had some nice times. My friend got married while her chap was on leave. So we all got together and did the arches up with any coloured paper or odd balloon we could lay our hands on. A lady let us push her piano to the arches, so we could all have a dance and a sing-song, so that if a warning came during the reception, we could take shelter and still carry on our party!
The director of Feavers asked us all to write a slogan about our war work and my sister Irene won it with the following slogan:
F is for Freedom, for you and for me
E is for Everyone鈥檚 right to be free
A is for Armies, loyal and staunch
V is for Victory, which we will launch
E is for Eager hands to help win
R is for Remember 鈥 the most essential things is tin
She received three Guineas for that!
Rationing, make-do and mend:
We were all on rations. We didn鈥檛 need a 鈥淔at Club鈥 back then! I looked after my mother, and when I went for her 2oz of cheese, she told me to ask the assistant not to give her the piece of cheese with the rind on it. We only used to get a few eggs, so I used to take a jam jar with me and ask him if he had any cracked ones out the back I could have. If you heard the vegetable stall had some oranges, we all used to go and queue up for ages.
With our old stockings, we used to cut the tops off and put it around our heads, and then roll our hair around it. The rest of the stocking we used to cut in widths of 1陆 inches, which we would then pull straight and use to knit with, to make mats out of. When you used a lot of different colour stockings, the mats that we produced would actually look quite nice. I used to have one by my bedside. Nothing was wasted.
The bombs hit home:
When the docks were bombed we went to the top floor of our six-story block of flats. You could see the docks alight, it was dreadful.
Another sad story was when the warning had gone one evening 鈥 I鈥檓 not sure what date but it must have been early 1941. We all went lower down in the flats, some people went into other people鈥檚 flats, others sat on the landing. This night we were on the landing when a bomb dropped on the block of flats opposite. There were so many killed in that one block 鈥 one couple and three children, one young man about 18 years old was never found and some people were buried under the wrong name.
One of my main worries was that my mother was in her seventies, and when the warning came I used to say 鈥淢um 鈥 we must go down to the shelter鈥. But as we were on the fourth story and as my mum used to love doing puzzles, and so would say 鈥淲e鈥檙e OK, and anyway, I鈥檓 doing my puzzle鈥.
When I did go out I always made sure I took my gas mask with me.
I also remember going for a short break at Matfield Court in Kent because we couldn鈥檛 normally ever leave London as we were working making ammunition. I had a photo taken playing draughts and fruit-picking with people at the factory by the national papers (see photos).
Some weekends I would go hop-picking with my sisters, and my mother would come too to see them. Then back to work, but at least it was a small break from London.
Military service, friends and family:
When I was 17 I had a boyfriend. He got called up for the army and went to Aldershot Barracks. I used to go to see him on Sundays and Thursdays. At first the sergeant said that as he wasn鈥檛 in hospital and it wasn鈥檛 visiting days, I couldn鈥檛 see him, but in the end he had a good heart as he gave my boyfriend two hours off to take me for a cuppa.
My mother was particularly proud of one of her grandsons who was a soldier in the war. He was even decorated at Buckingham Palace. He was mostly stationed in Holland and was known there 鈥 his name was James Allen. He also had a son and grandsons in the army and a grand-daughter in the Wrens.
I was called up for the Wrens, but I kept coming home to see if my mother was OK so I got discharged. I鈥檝e often wondered if I was in the middle of the nine children, as opposed to the youngest, if I would have settled down in the WRNS. I went back to work at Feaver鈥檚 ammunition factory and lived near my mother. I looked after her as I dreaded her going into a home. My mother was 96 years old when she died, and my husband and I were at her side.
Evacuation:
When our flats were hit by a bomb, the windows of all the other flats were blown out and there was no gas. We still had open fires so we had to make our hot water on the stove and cook our dinners over open fires. Alternatively we could take our food to the school which was next to the damaged block of flats and cook there, or we could buy a meal there, which we did sometimes. Some of the mothers of the young lads there had been evacuated, so my mum used to give the lads a Sunday dinner.
The only time I evacuated London was February 1945 to go to Northampton for two weeks to have my lovely son. We had to have coupons for everything 鈥 clothes, sweets, furniture, sheets, floor coverings 鈥 everything; and we had to carry ID cards. I don鈥檛 ever want that again, please God!
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