大象传媒

This contribution to People鈥檚 War was received by the Action Desk at 大象传媒 Radio Cleveland and submitted to the website by Jane Tombling, with the permission and on behalf of Mrs Mildred Meadows.

I was aged 12 sat the outbreak of war in 1939 living in Middlesbrough with my parents and my older sister who worked as a secretary at ICI Billingham. My Father worked in the Cargo Fleet Steel Works as a blast engineman. As evacuations began so I went to live in Scalby Village on the outskirts of Scarborough, North Yorkshire. I began living with a retired Colonel and his wife, they had no family so it must have been strange having this young girl thrust upon them. Much to my consternation there was a plethora of hunting shooting and fishing memorabilia everywhere. School was located in the local village hall my fellow evacuees and the village children were grouped into a few classes. We were a 100 or so children with about 6 teachers. However, my time as an evacuee was a short & sweet stay, as things were considered to be safe back home in Middlesbrough when Christmastime came I went back home to my parents.

Middlesbrough suffered no air raids during the first year of the war but mid-1940 they began in earnest. I remember having to go to the air raid shelter which was in next door鈥檚 garden, I hated having to go into it especially during the night, it was cold, damp and miserable. The rules regarding attending school after an air raid was if the all clear siren had gone off before 12 midnight we had to be at school at 9am 鈥� the normal time 鈥� if it went off after midnight then we were allowed to go in at 10.30am. Black marks were given if any children forgot their gas masks. I was forever getting these rules mixed up and often arrived late for class, much to my embarrassment!

My friends and I went to youth clubs, dancing to gramophone music, cycling walking, table tennis, walking especially of a weekend, Captain Cooks monument and cycling to Whitby for a day trip were particular favourites. Refreshments were always available 鈥� soft drinks of course!

Aged 11 I got a scholarship to Hugh Bell Girls School in Middlesbrough, I was in company with a few of my school friends from Marton Road School. I especially recall the middle two years of my time there being particularly difficult from a learning viewpoint, because of the constant interruptions that the war had on our daily life.

Upon leaving school I began working at a newsagents near the railway station, based in the office. I was in work sitting at my desk aged 15 or 16 when the railway station was bombed. The bomb had hit a train and smashed through a huge wall, I sustained superficial injuries but most of all quite shocked. I ran home, blood streaming from my face and an ear 鈥� my poor Mother didn鈥檛 know what to make of things. She patched me up and I returned to work albeit hesitantly the next day. The daily routine continued in true Yorkshire fashion!!

I attended night school three nights a week at Constantine College this went on for two years. Coming home in the blackout Mother used to come and meet me at the halfway point with the dog, our journey home consisted of dodging from shelter to shelter during a bombing raid which sadly happened only too often.

Mother鈥檚 days 鈥� like most other people鈥檚 mothers 鈥� she would spend a lot of her day queuing for our rations. Fruit and meat were the rarest of produce. I remember the under 5鈥檚 were issued with special ration coupons for bananas, similarly expectant mothers were issued with special ration coupons for the supply of fresh orange juice. Clothes of course were a real problem, the phrase 鈥渕ake do and mend鈥� was very much a reality. Utility wear and indeed utility furniture were the order of the day.

Once I turned 17 I secured employment in the invoice department at Cargo Fleet where I worked until aged 26. I met my husband at a local dance little realising that we both lived in the same neighbourhood but indeed worked for the same company!

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