大象传媒

鈥淲e lived near Willowsley Castle and the mothers used to go there to have their babies. It was a home for expectant mothers near Matlock. If the children saw a group of expectant mothers, they knew they were the London mothers. Three or four years ago I was speaking to a lady and she was evacuated to Cromford and her mother was expecting and she remembered going to Willowsley Castle to see her mother after having a baby. Next door to us in Matlock the family came from Liverpool as evacuees, during the war their brothers and sisters came to stay and they never went back!

I started work in 1940 and officially I was a Mothers鈥� Help but I generally helped with the housework and the three children. I was fourteen years old and I was there for about a year and nine months. The house was about a mile from mum鈥檚 but I 鈥榣ived in鈥�. He was the manager of the Midland Bank and they had three children. They were a wonderful family to be with and I was very sorry to leave. But the reason I left was we had a RAF Convelescent Home in one of the Hydros over at Matlock Bath and Mrs S used to have these RAF men over for tea a couple of days a week and I always remember these two particular ones. They were very nice but after they鈥檇 left I received a letter and inside was 鈥榳ould you please give this to Mrs S鈥� and this happened two or three times. Although I wasn鈥檛 very old I wasn鈥檛 stupid and they had been so good to me. It was the beginning of the war and anything that their children had I was included too. But I felt that no, it wasn鈥檛 fair, if this chap wanted to write to Mrs S he had to either do it openly or not through me.

So I left and worked as a cashier in the Co-op. I was there for about 18 months. I told her that I was leaving because I felt that I was doing more for the war working in the shop than looking after children. We had a cash desk, one side was green groceries and on the side was fish. In the middle it was a cubby hole really, in there was the switchboard for the rest of the Departments. It was a High Street of Co-op Shops. There was a Grocery, Drapery, Butchery and our shop, all along the one street. Then we had a new manager, and as there was a staff shortage, I went into the shop and it was through that that I actually got into the NAAFI. While I was at the shop, Thursday afternoon and Sunday we had off and I used to help at the WVS Canteen.

One of the Co-op customers was Mavis Gibbs, the Manageress of the local NAAFI which was four miles away. She heard one of the other customers talking to me about the WVS canteen one day and she said to me, 鈥極h, are you interested in that?鈥� I said 鈥榊es鈥�, and she said, 鈥榃hy don鈥檛 you come and join us?鈥� So, that was how I actually joined the NAAFI when it was time for me to register for National Service, I went into uniform, I just got the job that I wanted.

Life in the NAAFI
I was at Darley Dale for a while, which was five miles from my home and then they wanted volunteers for the second front. So we were sent to a sealed-in camp in Brentford in Essex. But we didn鈥檛 know that until we came away. I mean all that we knew was that we were at Camp S5, that was what we were called. We went in the April and we were there until the August (1943). Some of the lads that were there, were the first troops over to France. We knew where they were going because they were issued with the currency and it wasn鈥檛 until all of them had landed in France that our camp was disbanded. The Royal Horse Artillery were the unit that were there before and they were the ones that were there to finish with. We went back to Darley Dale, which was the camp that we came from. Then they asked for volunteers for the Southern Command so we went to Marchwood near Southampton and we were there until the war ended.

Of course it was in Southampton that I met my husband, he was stationed there. It was our afternoon off and we went to catch a bus. We heard whistling and I turned round and I said, 鈥榊ou whistle after dogs not NAAFI girls!鈥� We got to the bus stop and the two soldiers were also going on the bus. We ended up going to the cinema together because we found that鈥檚 where they were going to as well.

I enjoyed my life in the NAAFI. Everyone was so friendly, I don鈥檛 know, it was a different atmosphere really. The Manageress was in charge of the actual canteen. When we were at Brentwood we just had marquees and the slit trenches outside and all the rest of it. If planes went over and they could see signs of anything they gave it out over the loud speakers and you weren鈥檛 allowed to show anything. We had a few narrow escapes from bombs and V-2s. When we were there, there were guards around the camp so that none of the lads could get out. It really was living in a camp. The only entertainment was what they did themselves. Our camp was staffed by girls who were mainly from Derbyshire and we were called the First Derwent Group. The only thing was I always think of Marchwood because of VE Day. All the ships in Southampton Docks and on Southampton Waters went mad. We saw all the ships lit up. Our manageress, bless her heart, she was a dear lady, she wouldn鈥檛 let any of us go out once we鈥檇 closed the canteen! But we sat in the Nissen hut singing, 鈥楧on鈥檛 Fence Me In鈥�, it was a popular song at that time.鈥�

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