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CHILDHOOD IN THE WAR YEARS

We came home early from holiday (2.9.1939) because of the war. The police told us to put out the car lights. Later the car had to go as there would be not petrol.

We had help at home. My mother was a trained children’s’ nurse but as soon as better paid jobs became available the help left to go elsewhere.

I remember playing with a friend, whose father was a chemist. We used to play in the stockroom. That sounds quite shocking now.

One day a well-known person came to measure our heavy cast-iron railings in case they would be needed to melt down. They were — but they took the gates from St Bartholomew’s Girls’ High School.

We had to have sticky tape over the windows. No lights at night so we read under the bedclothes with a torch.

My father had been in World War I. I remember he said to my mother, ‘I’ve a good mind to join up’ but my mother said, ‘Don’t you dare!’, So he joined the Home Guard.

We decided to use under the stairs as an air raid shelter but it became a munitions store for the Home Guard — guns, uniform, ammunition, and raffle prizes for the Christmas Raffle.

My oldest brother was 18 in 1941 and was called up and sent to various locations.

RATIONING

My mother had a rota for who could have bacon and egg. My father did gardening and had two allotments — but the stuff was taken from there. He dug up the front lawn and grew vegetables. He gave the tea ration to older people as we children didn’t drink it.

My mother made jam. Dad used to barter with people for the sugar. My mother made a lot of jam as they grew soft fruit. To get extra cooking fat, my mother got marrow bones from the butcher and boiled and clarified the fat. Father said that the best cakes were made from this. There would be a queue at the baker’s on a Saturday morning, if any cakes were available, but they were rarely available.

BOMBS - 'NEWBURY'S BLACKEST HOUR'

There was an air raid siren just outside the present library. I had just started at High School. On 10.2.1943 German bombers flew low and dropped bombs. One fell about 400 yards from the school, one fell near our house, and one fell on St John’s church. Only the alter was left standing and the church was not rebuilt for a long time. The papers said, ‘Newbury’s Blackest Hour’. The art mistress, who was Swedish, was injured and taken to hospital.

There was another bomb in Thatcham. They tried to hit the Ordnance Depot. The bomb fell in a busy road. We were in school. The children lined up at the wall away from the window. Afterwards, the boys ran out to collect shrapnel.

CLOTHING

Extra coupons were given to people who were tall, like me. I needed a white dress for my Confirmation at St Mary’s, Thatcham. This was made from soaked mapping linen and later it was dyed. Mother had a nightdress made of parachute silk.
Clothes were always passed on, sold or given to other families

SCHOOL

We had to be fitted for gas masks at school — then called Infant School in Thatcham Broadway. On occasions we took them round but this eased off.

No one was available to work, so children were asked to stay at school and clean windows and help in the kitchens. We had special themed weeks at school, such as ‘Salute the Soldier’. Books were loaned for a charge of 2d for a fortnight. We baked cakes. The school sent the money to National Savings — it was like a loan to the Government. We could get it back after the war. We had an allotment at school and grew vegetables for school meals. Some evacuees went to my school. This is how I first learnt four-letter words! They also wrote graffiti on the pavements

Some Americans were stationed at Newbury in 1943. This had an impact on the older girls.

END OF THE WAR

‘The war is over,’ my mother said. I was at the riding school. My mother leaned out the window. I remember she wore multi-coloured dress of paisley pattern with a bit of red. She had few clothes but what she had was always nice. She was slim and dark. When the war was over, being younger, I was not allowed to go out to the celebrations.

My father appears in a book called Around Thatcham. On page 104 he is shown in the cricket team of 1930; on page 127 he is in the Home Guard. He worked in the paper mill, Coltrop Board and Paper Mill — on the other side of Thatcham. On page 80 he is shown on the Mill Outing. I went to a small private prep school run by Miss Brown, photograph on page 112 of the above-name book. The cost of schooling was one guinea per term.

The book referred to is Around Thatcham in Old Photos, collected by Peter Allen, published by Berkshire Books, Stroud, Glos (1992)

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