大象传媒

This story has been written onto the 大象传媒 People鈥檚 War site by CSV Storygatherer Robin.D.Bailey on behalf of the author Mercia Marcham (nee Drew). They fully understand the terms and conditions of the site.

I was born at Malpas on 16/10/1922. I went to work for Lady Rendlesham at Penair, I was a parlourmaid when war broke out in 1939 and being the youngest of the servants, I was taken into war work.

I was placed at H.T.P Motors, Quay Street, Truro, where my first job was cleaning chassis on Army trucks; We scraped the mud off then used red paint and black to finish the job.

I became friendly with Majorie Hoskin and we are still friends today. As time went by, we were taught how to clean the valves of the engine also the cylinder head, as all the carbon had to be removed. One day I was putting a large spring into the vice ready to clean it, but I had not put it down far enough, so when I undid the bolts, the small lever which was not in the vice, ricocheted up to the Galvanized Roof. Everyone dropped their tools and went to the air-raid shelter, they thought a bomb had come down.

I used to go to the stores to get muslin for cleaning the cars, but I used to take enough home to make vests, as our coupons did not go very far and it was a very warm material. I never told anyone what I did as I would have had a b*king.

Another time, I was using a blow-lamp to clean the paint off a lorry, I was talking to my friend for about half an hour. I went to use the scraper on the panel of the lorry, it went right through as the panel was red hot. What could I do? I panicked, then went to the welder, Clive James and told him. He very kindly covered the slit in the panel in his lunch break, and never told anyone.

I got away with it another time, the lorries were parked at the bottom of the stairs to the ladies toilet. They used to take them out on test, so one day Marjorie and I, hid under the tarpaulin on one. We went miles, and when we got back, the Foreman shouted up the stairs 鈥淢ercia,
Marjorie come down here, where have you been for the last hour?鈥� I piped up and said 鈥淚 stayed with Marjorie as she was not feeling well.鈥� We got away with it.

The ENSA people used to entertain us in the Canteen and they wanted someone to go on stage and sing. I love singing and used to enter all the competitions. When someone said 鈥淢erc, you can sing鈥�; I was pushed up on stage where I sang 鈥淪ally鈥� (Gracie Fields song) and had a lovely ovation. I still love singing, but a bit off key now at 83.

Going to work every day, I had to ride my bicycle from Malpas to Truro. We worked from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. I had to pass about 300 Yanks (American soldiers) who were stationed at Malpas Park. They used to shout 鈥淗ere comes Rosie鈥� as they queued up for breakfast and banged their breakfast cans, it was very embarrassing!

Once a week we had to do Fire-Watching duty at the Garage. Once when we were on duty, Marj decided that we should go back to her place to spend the night. We thought we could get up in time to come down and unlock the garage doors for the men to start work, but when we arrived there was a long queue of them waiting for us - we had overslept.

I met a soldier who was in the Worcestershire Regiment, we were married 3 months, I never saw him again for 4 years, and when I did, he had been blown up and suffered terrible injuries, he was different from the person I married when he returned. The war changed so many people, he died last May - 42 years married.

After working in the Garage, I transferred to an Aircraft Factory combined with H.T.P Motors. I was given 6 pieces of steel to press into Gusset Plates for aircraft, they had to be riveted to a part of the inside of the plane; I hated the job, so they put me on paint spraying the Allisons. I had a machine and had to fill a pot with green paint, when I was using it the machine followed me and the paint always got clogged up in the tube, so I had to unblock it before I could use it again. I got pretty frustrated!

Another time I remember, I was on some steps with paint remover, the cord broke and the pot of paint remover came all over my face. I screamed, they told me to keep my eyes shut, and I had to keep them tight shut while they took me to Truro Hospital. I had all that purple gentian violet put all over my face - I did look a sight.

After the war, I came to Evesham to live, as my husband did not like Cornwall, so Mercia had to follow him, and I have been in Evesham 58 years now. But, I have not lost my Cornish Accent.

Some years ago now, my brother sent me a copy of the 鈥淲est Briton鈥� which included an article about a proposed reunion of H.T.P鈥檚 war workers, 25 years on. This was being organised by Mr John Mumford of the Mumford Motor Group of which H.T.P is now a part. Some 44 of us, including my 鈥渂est friend鈥� Marjorie Hoskin, who I hadn鈥檛 seen for over 25 years, attended and we all went to St. Mawgan Aerodrome for our reunion and had a lovely tea. They wanted someone to go in the Simulator with a young officer. They all said 鈥淢ercia, you go.鈥� So I went in and it was really interesting. When I came out of the Simulator, they asked 鈥淲hat was it like?鈥� I said 鈥淟ovely鈥� looking up at the officer who blushed very red. The T.V. people then appeared and I was on T.V. with the boss Mr John Mumford, Mr John to all his employees, he was a gentleman and very kind.

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