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This story was submitted to the People War’s site by Jane Van de Ban of CSV Media on behalf of Joyce Mackay and has been added to the site with his permission. The author fully understands the site’s terms and conditions.

Evacuation
I was 11 at the start of the war. On 1 September 1939, we were evacuated with Albion Street School. First of all, we (me and three brothers) went to Willingdon, near Eastbourne. On the Sunday, two days later, my mother came to look for us, to see where we were and make sure we were alright.

Before Christmas, my eldest brother went home to work. Myself and my two brothers were transferred to St Clair’s in South Wales, and I stayed with the local barber Evans and his wife with my little brother, and we went to school there. My other brother stayed on a farm nearby

I was there about two years. Then I got a scholarship and went to another school in Amanford, a coal-mining district in Wales, where I lived at 8 Brinklow Road. I was with three other girls. There was an English couple there, who were in their 70s. He was a signalman. We used to go dancing in the school, and after dancing we’d go to the signalbox and bake his potatoes.

Becoming a book-keeper
My parents were living in Sidcup, Kent, and I went to Sidcup in 1943. Then I started work in London in 1944, right by St Paul’s Cathedral, where I was earning £2.50 a week. I was book-keeping, and in my first job did an entire set of books, including final accounts.

I remember the doodlebugs starting. I didn’t go to work that day, because they were going on all night. We weren’t quite sure what they were.

I used to travel up to London every day on the train. One day, I got to Cannon Street, and they’d cordoned off the station, because they’d had a doodlebug there. I was walking up St Martin’s le Grand, and the doodlebug stopped just over the Mansion House. I immediately went behind the blast wall.

Afterwards, I continued walking up St Martin’s and I remember there were whole sheets of glass all over the street. When I got into the office, I was deathly white and covered in dust. They gave me something to drink to calm me down.

My American boyfriend
Near the end of the war, coming up to 17, I used to go dancing. I met a lot of Americans, Australians and Kiwis. We had a lot of fun. I had an American boyfriend, Emmett, from Fort Worth, Texas. When he went back after the war, his family — who owned a department store - sent me a parcel of clothes.

On VE day, I was up in London, dancing at the Lyceum in the Strand, and the same on VJ day. They had all the big bands. I particularly remember dancing to Joe Loss and his orchestra.

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