大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People's War site by Bev Dann of the County Heritage Team on behalf of Maurice Moore and has been added to the site with his permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

I left school in 1939 the year war broke out, and joined the P.O. laboratory in King Edward building, which is near St Pauls. We took over a whole floor in a postal building. I joined as a trainee and spent six weeks at a time learning different jobs and after eighteen months I became an unestablished skilled workman(this is an official title)among other jobs. I worked on a dummy Chain Home Station, there were several of these situated around the coastline, and they could detect an aircraft taking off in France. There was one of these stations situated at Trimley, in fact the buildings are still just visible.I spent most of my war years in Hounslow - I went through all the medical tests etc. to join the forces but heard nothing. My lab work was deemed as very important. I used the tube every day - a 10d return - using the Piccadilly Line with a change at Holborn to reach st Pauls. I can remember that the train often stopped and the train behind would "trip" and gradually creep up to meet the train that I was in. Sometimes the only way out was to leave the train and with guidance walk along the track. I worked as an engineer all through the war and earned extra weeks leave working on farms - earning full pay from the P.O. + whatever the farmer paid,about 1/3d an hour. Petrol was about 11d a gallon and cigarettes were 11d for twenty,(this is less than 5p).

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