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Kallender Marjorie

I lived in London during the war. I was an air raid warden in South London. I worked in Victoria and walked to the warden post in the black out wearing a tin hat and carrying a gas mask it four miles. I never actually used my gas mask, and we had the tests in a Nissan hut, firstly with the gas mask, then without which was horrible, although very quick, as we ran through. We had to do it quietly, because if they heard you running they made you go back and do it again slowly!

I met my husband at the Peckham health center and social club about 1938. We married in the ruins of the church, St Judes in Peckham, on a foggy cold morning he had to report to his regiment. We married at 10am and his train left at 2pm. Sad. It was a long parting. He was posted to Egypt for four years.

I worked as a hairdresser with Arnott & Rosse in Victoria until I retired at sixty to look after my husband who had cancer. He had his last wish and died at home in our living room it was very sad. He was at the Cromwell first as an outpatient, the specialist sent me out to get a sandwich and when I got back he told me he had two years to live. In fact, he lived about two and a half years after that.

I lived in Central London I was bombed out of three homes. My mother managed to get house in Peckham 4 Whittington Road where my husband and I lived until we bought a house in Pimlico.

Fred and I had to leave our very nice house, after he modernized it and redecorated it, as the local council compulsorily purchased all the land and gave us two hundred pounds. They built a block of flats on the land which are still there today.

We put the money towards 90 Warwick Way, which had been owned by an elderly lady who died — it was in a poor state of repair, and we had to borrow money and do a lot of repairs. We made it into two self-contained flats, which we let out firstly to an accountant. Then he was recalled to Birmingham and we found another tenant, a woman from Australia.

We had my mother in the flat with us — it wasn’t so easy, I was still working as a hairdresser at 49 Warwick Way, Arnott and Rosse, run by two ladies, who I helped to look after when they became ill, as well as their mother. One hemorrhaged and I took her to hospital, which is now a big hotel at Hyde Park Corner. The other lady was trying to clear a drain with caustic soda, got it all over her hands; I got the doctor for her. I told Mrs Rosse’s daughter, Esther Macdonald, who was married to a doctor and lived in Surrey, and all she did was turn up, take the ration books for her mother and her aunt, drew the rations and downstairs they had some very old furniture, Jacobean, and she took it out and sold it. When those two ladies died, they left a will, which I was to be included in, for a certain amount of money. Esther disputed it so my husband and I got a solicitor and we got a small sum of money. She wanted me to run the shop which I did, she used to come take money out of the till, leave an I.O.U.

During air raids, our shop windows were blown out, the shop across the road got a firebomb and the two corner shops, one a hat shop the other a butchers, were completely destroyed, leaving just a hole. We used to ask the customers if they wanted to leave during an air raid, but mostly they would say to continue so we worked throughout air raids. The shop closed at seven and I had to walk to Peckham to become an air raid warden, four miles, which took me three hours. You reported to the post, and if they said you weren’t needed you could go home and they would come and get us if necessary. This didn’t often happen! The wardens were responsible for the number of people in the houses and we had to find out if they were in the houses or in the garden shelters at the back and often they were in the pubs!

My husband Fred was in Caterick first in 1939 and then he was sent to Egypt in 1940, where he was in some caves in the desert. The caves were originally used to extract stones for the pyramids. He came home in 1945, and he was sent to Hampshire. And he was there until he was discharged a year later and worked for North Thames Gas as a communications officer. He never spoke about his time in the army. He only remembered the worst bits and he wouldn’t tell me about those.

I only got two letters from him during this time — they didn’t get through. Maybe they got put on a ship or a plane? I used to send him parcels with brushes and polish, toothpaste and socks, which is what he wanted as the army didn’t supply them. And through the bank sent him a draft as his watch got stolen. He got most of my letters, even though they took a long while.

Until my husband came home, my mother had the ration books and she’d collect the rations until we moved to Victoria and she’d go to the butchers in Warwick way — the maypole.

My mother subsequently became very ill with cancer and she was taken to the Old Westminster Hospital. I used to rush and visit her and she died there after a year.

I’m originally from great Yarmouth in Norfolk and that’s where I had my first air raid when I was eighteen. I moved to London with my family because the house was bombed and we lived first for eighteen months in Asylum Road, until we got bombed there, then we moved to Clifton crescent, again in Peckham, for less than a year until once more we were bombed out, so we went to Whittington road which my mother found.

As I’d been left half the hairdressers, we bought the other half from Esther, modernized it and ran it until I was sixty. My husband made me retire then, and dragged me off to the social services as I hadn’t realized I could get a pension. So now I go to the Post Office every week and draw my pension.

On VE Day a lot of the streets had street parties.

These are some of the things I experienced in my apprenticeship we had a metal container over gas ring which was filled with green soap
which was our shampoo the water to the basins came from a large metal tank which was heated with two large open gas rings. One lunch time I was invited to a friend’s house, when I retuned water was pouring out of the door. The water tank had burst. My husband helped Miss Arnott to obtain and install small electric water heaters by each baisin which were a great improvement.

On the ground floor were wooden cubicles painted green and orange. The shop windows had glass sliding panels which I had to clean. The cubicle curtains which had to drawn so no one person could the other ito shampoo thnen be watch and hand things to the first asstiant

Kallender Marjorie

I lived in London during the war. I was an air warden in South London. I worked in Victoria and walked to the warden post in the black out wearing a tin hat and carrying a gas mask it four miles. I never actually used my gas mask, and we had the tests in a Nissan hut, firstly with the gas mask, then without which was horrible, although very quick, as we ran through. We had to do it quietly, because if they heard you running they made you go back and do it again slowly!

I met my husband at the Peckham health center and social club about 1938. We married in the ruins of the church, St Judes in Peckham, on a foggy cold morning he had to report to his regiment. We married at 10am and his train left at 2pm. Sad. It was a long parting. He was posted to Egypt for four years.

I worked as a hairdresser with Arnott & Rosse in Victoria until I retired at sixty to look after my husband who had cancer. He had his last wish and died at home in our living room it was very sad. He was at the Cromwell first as an outpatient, the specialist sent me out to get a sandwich and when I got back he told me he had two years to live. In fact, he lived about two and a half years after that.

I lived in Central London I was bombed out of three homes. My mother managed to get house in Peckham 4 Whittington Road where my husband and I lived until we bought a house in Pimlico.

Fred and I had to leave our very nice house, after he modernized it and redecorated it, as the local council compulsorily purchased all the land and gave us two hundred pounds. They built a block of flats on the land which are still there today.

We put the money towards 90 Warwick Way, which had been owned by an elderly lady who died — it was in a poor state of repair, and we had to borrow money and do a lot of repairs. We made it into two self-contained flats, which we let out firstly to an accountant. Then he was recalled to Birmingham and we found another tenant, a woman from Australia.

We had my mother in the flat with us — it wasn’t so easy, I was still working as a hairdresser at 49 Warwick Way, Arnott and Rosse, run by two ladies, who I helped to look after when they became ill, as well as their mother. One hemorrhaged and I took her to hospital, which is now a big hotel at Hyde Park Corner. The other lady was trying to clear a drain with caustic soda, got it all over her hands; I got the doctor for her. I told Mrs Rosse’s daughter, Esther Macdonald, who was married to a doctor and lived in Surrey, and all she did was turn up, take the ration books for her mother and her aunt, drew the rations and downstairs they had some very old furniture, Jacobean, and she took it out and sold it. When those two ladies died, they left a will, which I was to be included in, for a certain amount of money. Esther disputed it so my husband and I got a solicitor and we got a small sum of money. She wanted me to run the shop which I did, she used to come take money out of the till, leave an I.O.U.

During air raids, our shop windows were blown out, the shop across the road got a firebomb and the two corner shops, one a hat shop the other a butchers, were completely destroyed, leaving just a hole. We used to ask the customers if they wanted to leave during an air raid, but mostly they would say to continue so we worked throughout air raids. The shop closed at seven and I had to walk to Peckham to become an air raid warden, four miles, which took me three hours. You reported to the post, and if they said you weren’t needed you could go home and they would come and get us if necessary. This didn’t often happen! The wardens were responsible for the number of people in the houses and we had to find out if they were in the houses or in the garden shelters at the back and often they were in the pubs!

My husband Fred was in Caterick first in 1939 and then he was sent to Egypt in 1940, where he was in some caves in the desert. The caves were originally used to extract stones for the pyramids. He came home in 1945, and he was sent to Hampshire. And he was there until he was discharged a year later and worked for North Thames Gas as a communications officer. He never spoke about his time in the army. He only remembered the worst bits and he wouldn’t tell me about those.

I only got two letters from him during this time — they didn’t get through. Maybe they got put on a ship or a plane? I used to send him parcels with brushes and polish, toothpaste and socks, which is what he wanted as the army didn’t supply them. And through the bank sent him a draft as his watch got stolen. He got most of my letters, even though they took a long while.

Until my husband came home, my mother had the ration books and she’d collect the rations until we moved to Victoria and she’d go to the butchers in Warwick way — the maypole.

My mother subsequently became very ill with cancer and she was taken to the Old Westminster Hospital. I used to rush and visit her and she died there after a year.

I’m originally from great Yarmouth in Norfolk and that’s where I had my first air raid when I was eighteen. I moved to London with my family because the house was bombed and we lived first for eighteen months in Asylum Road, until we got bombed there, then we moved to Clifton crescent, again in Peckham, for less than a year until once more we were bombed out, so we went to Whittington road which my mother found.

As I’d been left half the hairdressers, we bought the other half from Esther, modernized it and ran it until I was sixty. My husband made me retire then, and dragged me off to the social services as I hadn’t realized I could get a pension. So now I go to the Post Office every week and draw my pension.

On VE Day a lot of the streets had street parties.

These are some of the things I experienced in my apprenticeship we had a metal container over gas ring which was filled with green soap
which was our shampoo the water to the basins came from a large metal tank which was heated with two large open gas rings. One lunch time I was invited to a friend’s house, when I retuned water was pouring out of the door. The water tank had burst. My husband helped Miss Arnott to obtain and install small electric water heaters by each baisin which were a great improvement.

On the ground floor were wooden cubicles painted green and orange. The shop windows had glass sliding panels which I had to clean. The cubicle curtains which had to drawn so no one person could the other ito shampoo thnen be watch and hand things to the first asstiant

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