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I remember listening to the radio before Sunday School and hearing the announcement about the war starting, but it didn鈥檛 mean much to me then: war seemed a long way off. What brought it home to me was when we were out doing the milk round and we would meet families whose sons had been killed. I remember people knitting clothing like scarves and gloves for soldiers. That was organised by the Women鈥檚 Voluntary Service, which also helped with settling in the evacuees who came to our area. We had four Irish men staying for a month; we got extra rations for them and they helped with haymaking. Because we lived on a farm, we had a regular supply of eggs and we used them, together with pork and lamb, to barter with on the black market. There was always a black market if you had goods to exchange. My uncle used to take eggs to boarding houses in Blackpool; he got a good price for them there. Once he was coming back from Todmorden when he was stopped and searched by the police. He was sitting on a crate of raisins, but luckily they didn鈥檛 find them.

This story was submitted to the People's War site by Clare George of the 大象传媒 Radio Cambridgeshire Story Gatherer Team on behalf of Elsie Mitton and has been added to the site with her permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

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