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This story was submitted to the People’s War site by Lois Cooper and has been added to the website on behalf of Vera Woodhead with her permission and she fully understands the site’s terms and conditions.

I was nineteen when war broke out, and at the time I was working at Woolf & Geer, a fancy goods and china shop, which was also a lending library and newsagents.

As the war progressed, I and many others in jobs similar to mine in my age group were ordered to take a job of national importance, and, luckily for me, Orchard's, the family grocer and bakers had a vacancy for a driver to deliver groceries and bread in the West Wight area. I took the job. I had a little golden coloured van and an overall. A junior girl helped me with the deliveries.

This was 1940. At the time soldiers from many different battalions were arriving in great numbers for training and they commandeered most of the hotels and large houses. Tents were erected on the cliff side of Afton Downs, where a gun site was established. When we were delivering our bread, etc. to Brook and Brighstone we had many an encounter with troops on their route marches — lots of wolf whistles etc. Sometimes at Brook or Brighstone they would buy a loaf as the cottage loaves were so good. The bread was baked on the premises of Orchard Bros., and as they came out of the oven we packed them on the shelves of the van, no covering of any sort but the smell was delicious.

Soldiers were arriving most days, including many American and Canadians, all here for training. I well remember the Winnipeg Rifles and Regina Regiments. They were the ones who were sent on that fateful assault on Dieppe. We local girls met quite a lot of them at the dances and many of those young soldiers lost their lives. It was a sad time for the people of the West Wight and of course for their families in Canada.

Many of our local girls married Canadians and Americans and went out to their new homes in a new country. Some, I am afraid, returned after a few months, as their new found homes and husbands, were not as they expected. Some army marriages broke up, though some did settle and were happy. Many babies were left behind after the war and have grown up not knowing their fathers. Some have since traced their fathers and have had happy reunions.

During the early part of the war, before I joined the Civil Defence, my friend Di and I would help out at a the Delicia Cafe at Freshwater Bay, which was owned by two elderly spinster sisters who were of Victorian breed. My friend and I would go most evenings to serve tea, coffee and biscuits, no alcohol! We also played Victor Sylvester dance records and we would move tables and chairs and take to the floor, taking turns with the soldiers for a dance or two. I am sure they enjoyed at the break, because there wasn't a lot of entertainment around at that time.

Later on that year a group of us got together, including local men who were singers or comedians, and we had a show at the Gaiety Theatre (where Runyards shop is now). We called ourselves "The Fag Ends" as we were collecting money for cigarettes which were distributed to the solders in the war zone. There were also lots of dances for the troops at Brambles Holiday Camp Ballroom, and very popular they were.

Apart from the troops on the Island, other wartime visitors included many Italian and German POWs, who were given work on Island Farms repairing and putting up fences, and also evacuees from London and Portsmouth.

As we locals know, some of the new estates and roads were named after the regiments or have other wartime associations, for example Regina Road and Arnhem Road in Freshwater.

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