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15 October 2014
WW2 - People's War

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Lillie Goodall's War

by Lancshomeguard

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Contributed by听
Lancshomeguard
People in story:听
Lillie Goodall
Location of story:听
Burnley
Background to story:听
Civilian
Article ID:听
A4185146
Contributed on:听
13 June 2005

LILLIE GOODALL NEE BALDERSTONE

This story has been submitted to the People鈥檚 War website by Liz Andrew of the Lancshomeguard on behalf of Lillie Goodall and added to the site with her permission.

War broke out in September 1939. I was seventeen in the December of that year and I wanted to be a nurse 鈥 but I didn鈥檛 manage it. I had filled in the form and I was supposed to go to the clinic on Elizabeth Street for lectures with Dr Lamont but my mother locked me in and wouldn鈥檛 let me go. I already had two brothers in the Forces 鈥攐ne was in the Seaforth Highlanders; the other in the Cameron Highlanders and she said there were enough of our family in the War already.

I was working in a weaving mill called Brow Head Mill and we were playing for warps and wefts so I signed on the Dole for seven weeks and then received a card telling me to report to WH Dean and Sons on Accrington Road. They made munitions. We made shell case containers 鈥 I was a soft metal solderer 鈥 there wasn鈥檛 a lot to it. While I was there I applied to join the WAFS but I received a letter saying that my work in civilian life was more important than me joining the Forces.

I learnt French at Deans 鈥 from a man called Michael O鈥 Sullivan who had been in France in the First World War. He taught me things like 鈥淚l fait froid ce matin,鈥 which means 鈥淚t鈥檚 a cold morning鈥 and 鈥淒onnez moi un besse,鈥 which means 鈥淕ive us a Kiss.鈥 He wrote the French on a piece of metal with the pronunciation and the translation in English.

I had a friend called Alice Whittam who also worked at Deans. Her boyfriend Eric went up with one of our pilots and they flew over Burnley. When the pilot asked Eric where he lived, Eric looked out and Burnley looked just like a lake. The air was full of smoke from the chimneys of the weaving mills and you couldn鈥檛 see the town at all 鈥 I think that was what saved us from being bombed.

One bomb did drop in Burnley, in Thompson Park. I was in bed. It shook the house and my brother woke me up and shouted, 鈥淕et Up - They鈥檙e bombing us.鈥 That was the worst moment of the war for me 鈥 it was really frightening. We had a concrete and brick shelter in the backyard and my brother told us to get into it and then he ran off to find a policeman.

My sister Annie was a chippie, a bus conductor, for the Ribble Bus company. She was in Ramsbottom one day on the way down to Manchester when they heard enemy planes coming over. There must have been a railway arch way nearby because they managed to park the bus in there until the planes had all gone over and it was safe to come out.

I remember VE Day 鈥 it was my brother Bill鈥檚 twenty third birthday - but he wasn鈥檛 alive for it. He had been guarding tanks in Wick in the very north of Scotland where he contracted pneumonia. It developed into TB and he never recovered. My other brother also died of TB 鈥 he had been at Dunkerque. I lost both my brothers within ten months of each other.

After the war I became a chippie for the Burnley.Colne and Nelson Joint Transport 鈥 the Corporation buses

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