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This story was submitted to the People’s War site by Janine John of the Cumbria volunteers on behalf of Mrs M Llewellyn and has been added to the site with her permission. The author fully understands the site’s terms and conditions.

Being a telephonist

I was in the fire service as a telephonist and my husband was working on the flying boats at what they called the Empire Flying Boats. He was a part-time fireman. We lived between Rochester and Chatham when the war started and lived quite a hectic life at the beginning. We had one of those shelters in the ground and every time the siren went, the dog used to be there before I was. As telephonists we used to answer the telephone - there were about six of us - and the chief officer sat opposite. We would give him the messages on where the fires were and that sort of thing. We wore uniform, a peak cap and a rucksack on our backs.

The Move to Windermere

My husband and I came to Windermere in 1941 or ‘42. We came up to White Cross Bay where the Sunderlands were built and were just temporary staff at first. My husband had been building Empire Sunderlands Flying boats and he came up to work in the drawing office. I worked on the first Flying boat which was in Windermere. I did twelve months on that flying boat. There were a lot of airmen and you worked with them. I was expecting my first child at the time. We were building the boats right from the bottom, right from the beginning. You had to go on the outside and put the screws in the brackets that the airmen put in. There were lots of other women who went away to train and they were at benches doing the brackets and that. They built about three here and then I think it moved to Ireland. They were called Shorts Flying boats.

Another vivid memory of the war…

We bought a house in the south and hadn’t been out anywhere because the raids were terrible. We went to the pictures the one Saturday night and when we came home and put the key in the door there was no door there; it was all blown to pieces. We were alright, but it was just a good job we were out.

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