大象传媒

I moved to Bexleyheath early in 1939, I went to Dartford County School. Then the war started in September. The orders were that no more than a few people were to gather together so we were told that classes of six would be held in teachers' houses once a week. To get to the school I had to pass a control point. The school was situated between Vicker's Armstrong at Crayfoot and gun implacements on Dartford Heath. When I eventually left school it was suggested that, as both my father and my uncle were sub-postmasters at Bexleyheath and Dartford, they suggested I applied to become a telephonist.

Whilst waiting for the formalities to be completed I got a job as a clerk at the Army Pay Corps at Foots..

I then went to Clerkenwell Exchange for training, when it was completed I was sent to Bexleyheath Exchange. Soon after I had completed the switchboard training there I noticed one of the other operators had put a notice on the board for someone to take her place at Woolwich Arsenal as the journey would have been too difficult for her. I said I would so off to Woolwich Arsenal. I was there until the end of the war. It was a manual switchboard so meant connecting a lot of important calls for supplies and testing for armaments all over the country. The switchboard was manned 24 hours by G.P.O. telephonists. As I became more experienced I was trained to cover the P.A.D. Board (that was Passive Air Defence)whenever the enemy bombers came close. Sometimes bombs interrupted connections to vital supply points but the other operators around the country were always very helpful to us.

This story has been entered on the People's War website by Terry Greenwood on behalf of Margaret Chittenden who has given her written permission so to do.

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