大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People's War site by the Dunstable At War Team on behalf of the author and has been added to the site with her permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

I was sitting in the dining room with my parents and younger sister as we listened to Neville Chamberlain on the radio announcing the start of the war. In September 1939, I went to the Luton High School for Girls. On the first day of school we all assembled in the hall and had to paste brown sticky paper over the very long windows. School uniform had to be worn at all times. In winter it consisted of a navy blue serge tunic with a while blouse and tie, a badge, a winter coat and rain coat in navy blue, a hat, blazer, beige stockings, black shoes with laces, indoor shoes with soft soles, black plimsolls for gym and hockey boots. For summer; a dress, a panama hat and white tennis shoes for sports.

We caught the bus to school but often there were no buses home, so we鈥檇 have to walk, carrying our satchels, gas masks and all the other things we had to take with us. In the end my father purchased a bike for me from Charlie Coles but he couldn鈥檛 get one for my sister because the shop had run out, so he made her one. Nothing was wasted. We even had to save tacking cotton that we used in the needlework room at school. We knitted balaclavas for Russian sailors. The wool was navy blue, oiled and very thick.

While I was at school each form had to go in turn to work on the farm. When we had changed into suitable clothes, an open lorry used to come to collect us, and off we went. When we got to the farm in Tillsworth, we had to stand in lines in the field and the gym mistress would blow her whistle for us to start. We then began by scraping the earth off and sorting potatoes that had been dug up and putting them into buckets.

Gas masks were fitted for everyone in the town hall. They were placed in individual strong brown boxes with a cord attached to go over your shoulder. We replaced these with special leather cases, which we purchased from Wilds shop opposite the Dunstable Grammar School. Ration books were issued and in fact everything was done with tremendous speed. Every house had a bucket of sand and a bucket of water, which we placed by the front door in case an incendiary bomb was dropped. When the sirens went we donned our dressing gowns and spent the rest of the night in a neighbour鈥檚 cellar. Blackout material was issued for windows. If even a small amount of light was visible, you鈥檇 receive a knock at the door and be told to, 鈥淏lack out that light!鈥�

A man came round with a horse and cart and collected all waste food, potato peelings, cabbage stalks, that sort of thing, which was then fed to the pigs. My father joined the ARP and used to go off to help in the evenings but I鈥檓 not sure exactly what he did.

We didn鈥檛 take in any evacuees but my father who was a haulage contractor, would bring home all sorts of odd people that he found on the road when he was driving his lorry. People would have to walk miles because there was very little transport. He brought a Gypsy girl home once, carrying a newborn baby in a shawl, very hungry and tired, trying to get to Wales! She was fed, rested and went on her way. He also brought home a young doctor, also on his way to Wales to see his parents.

As part of his job, he sometimes had to move POWs from one place to another. We didn鈥檛 tell one another very much, so I can鈥檛 tell you where they came from or where they went. On one occasion during a very severe winter, my father鈥檚 lorry broke down. He managed to get it home, put all the POWs in our house and carried out a repair.

Unbeknown to me, I came from school and saw guns in the back porch and I could hear German voices. I was terrified, until I recognised that one of the voices belonged to my father. He had been in the Royal Flying Corps during the First World War and was sent to Germany after the war had ended. He was looked after by an old German lady and learned how to speak German. The German POWs and British guards were all standing around the fire in our living room drinking coffee that my mother had made!

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