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I was 24 and a half years old when war was declared in September 1939.

Talk beforehand of what could happen, such as planes coming over in drones and bombing us, made us all very frightened. No sooner had Mr Chamberlain declared over the radio that we were at war with Germany than the sirens sounded. The warning lasted a long time and most things came to a standstill, so nothing was being produced. We were then told over the radio that we must all try to carry on as normal and go to work, which we did.

Working in Sainsbury's

At that time I was not going out to work, as married women were banned from doing that. Then things changed; as more and more men were called up for military service, women had to do the work of men. I was a fairly good scholar at school and so applied for an office job, but was told that more women would be needed for food shops. I applied at the local shop of Sainsbury's and was accepted.

Sainsbury's Stores in those days were small shops with counters all the way down each aisle of the shop and an aisle in the centre; these counters were in sections. Each section sold meat, butter, cheese, ham etc. Butter arrived in large amounts and we had to break it up into smaller quantities. We carved ham off the bone and sliced the cheese with wire cutters. These skills we learned from the men.

I must say this was so different to office work, which I had done after leaving school, that I quite enjoyed it. Most of the young men who worked in Sainsbury's at that time came from Dr Barnardos homes or quite a distance away, so they lived over the shop. A lady was employed to cook their meals. Their wages were not very high but they were well looked after.

As I have already said, I had not long been married and my dear husband was fed up with coming home to an empty house. He had a good job and wanted to live as normal a life as possible. This we did until he was called up in September 1940. I then applied for a position in the Post Office and was accepted as an assistant to the Chief Accountant.

My daughter is born

We were lucky as in the beginning my husband was kept in this country and as the barracks were not far away he managed to get home most weekends. I had always wanted to have a family. As many women with whom I worked had decided to have a baby I wanted to do so as well. My husband was not very happy about this but I had my way, and I had a dear little girl in May 1944.

Just before my baby was born my husband was moved to an unknown destination. He was unable to see her until he went absent without leave (AWOL) whilst waiting in the London Docks to go overseas. I will never forget when I opened the front door and saw him standing there. The first thing he did was to have a bath and then he cuddled our baby. The next time he saw her she was two and a half years old.

Evacuated to Wiltshire

During this time I was bombed, and ceilings came down and windows caved in. By a miracle the part of the ceiling over my baby’s cot stayed put. Although her bed was covered in debris she was unharmed. The local authorities visited all those who had been bombed and when they saw the condition of my home, they said I could not stay there with a young baby, and I would have to be evacuated.

My husband had an aunt who was cook to the then Countess Cowley who lived in a mansion in Wiltshire. This aunt mentioned to Countess Cowley that I had been bombed out and the Countess told my aunt to send me to Seagry (very few people had phones in those days). I was pleased to accept this offer as I was so tired through the worry and not getting much sleep. We had an air raid nearly every night. For safety I laid my baby on the floor and covered her with my body for protection.

The journey from my home to the station was about two miles. When I got to Victoria I had to cross London to get to Paddington Station. I will never forget the kindness of a taxi driver, who seeing me struggling called out, ‘You can all stand back, I am taking that young mother with that baby.’ He said to me, ‘Come on darling.’ I eventually boarded the train and managed to get a corner seat. The train was full of soldiers who were trying to get some sleep. You can imagine how I felt with a baby who kept crying. I managed to get to a toilet and sat in there for a long time.

When I arrived at Seagry House (the home of the Countess) I was repeatedly told I could stay there if I could keep my baby quiet, because the Countess did not like to hear crying babies. I was told in the Nursing Home that the cry of my baby was keeping all the others awake. By this time I was almost crawling up the wall, and I asked myself many times how I could have been so stupid as to get pregnant. I had to sleep at the top of the mansion, and in order to get to the kitchen I had to climb and descend many stairs and walk along cold corridors — there was no heating.

The outcome of this was that my baby developed a cold, which turned into acute bronchitis. After much effort I managed to see a doctor who told me to wrap her in cotton wool. She was not even allowed to have a bath for a fortnight. I decided I was going home - bombs or no bombs. My mother-in-law said I could stay with her for a while, which I did. As I was feeding my baby I had to go backwards and forwards every four hours to my flat, which I was cleaning up so we could go back to live in it.

After the bombing ceased, life was a lot better, but I was always worried that my husband would be killed. He was in the thick of the fighting, having gone over six days after the Normandy landings. Thank goodness he was unharmed and was released early due to the fact that I had developed jaundice. He never talked about the war until at least ten years after it was over, when I learned he had some very narrow escapes. Our baby helped him to re-adjust to a normal life.

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