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This story was submitted to the People’s War Website by a volunteer from Derby CSV Action Desk on behalf of Mrs Margaret Dickson and has been added with her permission. She fully understands the site’s terms and conditions.

When war broke out I had just returned to my parents’ home in Derby after completing a three-year Domestic Science course in London. I got a job teaching at a school in Allenton, and this was OK at first, but then the children started being evacuated so we had fewer to teach, and when rationing came in the children were not able to bring ingredients for the cookery classes, so the Local Authority had to arrange for rationed food such as fat, sugar and meat to be sold to the children in small quantities for their lessons. All the time we had make do with whatever we’d got. At one point I found some looms in the school, and I started to teach the children to weave.

After a while the Local Authority decided to send Domestic Science teachers to Leicester for a week’s refresher course to teach us how to make the best use of the materials we had such as dried egg, dried milk and Spam. Strangely enough the course was taught by my former teacher in London.

Back in Derby, I then had a spell in Marks and Spencer’s; I created dishes, which I cooked at school, these were taken by van along with copies of the recipes to a big counter set up for me in the store, and people would come to try the food and collect the recipes. The WVS came to help me and the Army were among my most regular customers. It was very popular. I then went to the Market Hall, and many places round town including the Towns Women’s Guilds, and Women'Institutes. The Gas Company provided two gas stoves and a demonstration table for me, and above my head they put a big mirror so everyone could see what was happening.

To make a ‘boiled egg’ --- moisten dried egg powder with milk, put into two eggcups, steam them and when set put the two together.

For a sponge cake ----- use dried egg and if out of fat use liquid paraffin. For the filling use sugar, cornflour and dried milk,let it go cold, then vanilla essence. Top with dried milk, cocoa and sugar as an icing.

Gradually the children came back from evacuation, so I got busier at school and I ran an evening class, but if the sirens went off we had to stop the cooking and go to the shelter which was a perfect pest when one was trying to make something. I remember once having to abandon the pea soup I was making, not from peas, but from pods. In the end I had to think of things that the people could take home to cook.

Teachers couldn’t join the Armed Forces, so I joined the ARP instead and learnt First Aid and how to deal with fires and gas leaks. I went fire watching with my brother at night. Much as the Germans would have liked to bomb Rolls-Royce and the Railway, Derby did not get many bombs because of the smoke screen that was put up round the town. If there had been a raid, however, the ARP would have had to provide food for the homeless and the emergency services, so a soup kitchen was set up in the school playground and fitted with a gas copper, but luckily it was never needed.

At home we grew fruit and veg in the garden and dried, bottled and preserved anything and everything. We made new clothes from old, I knitted my pants and vests, and when I got married in 1942 my underwear for my trousseau was made from off cuts of rayon which I got from the employees' shop at British Celanese where my father worked. I bought my wedding dress for £7 but made the bridesmaids’ dresses from lace which was not on coupons. For our house we just had the basics by way of furniture; I queued for carpet, which was bought by the yard, and I stitched it together and bound the edges. My domestic science training was very useful in helping me make the best of what was available.

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