大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War site by Claire White of 大象传媒 Scotland on behalf of Elsie MacKenzie and has been added to the site with her permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

Continued from Scarborough in wartime: Part 1

We did have some laughs
One very dark night, I was suddenly aware of a cat rubbing around my feet, although I couldn't see it (must have been a lucky black cat?). I stopped in case I stepped on it. When I tried to walk on the same thing happened, so I picked up the poor frightened creature, spoke quietly to it, stroked and cuddled it. I discovered a wall nearby, so I gently placed the cat on the wall and moved quickly away. Success.

Having attended a dance in a village five miles from home and of course there being no night buses, my friend lent me her bicycle to cycle home. At about 2am I set off on a very lonely ride and was just negotiating a roundabout near home whn a torch shone in my face and a voice shouted "get off that bike". I got such a fright that I almost fell off anyway! It turned out to be a very officious air raid warden (Hodges from Dad's Army) who informed me that too much light was showing from the cycle lamp. When I explained that I had just borrowed it, he said "tell your friend to get it blacked out correctly". I offered to switch off the lamp and walk home, but he melted a little and said just to carry on.

Talking about Dad's Army, we had our own "Captain Mainwaring". For a while I worked in our local Post Office, being owned by a Mr and Mrs Hamilton. A friend of the family was a captain in the Home Guard and he was a pompous little man, although quite pleasant, and with a sense of humour. One day I was alone in the office and at the time had hurt my right hand so I was wearing a sling. In breezed the captain and with a straight face said "Morning Miss Nelson, is Lady Hamilton in?" (not my name of course).

One of my brothers-in-law was on leave. One lovely summer evening, my sister, her husband, her friend and I went for a walk through the gardens and along the sea front. My brother-in-law was in civilian clothes and this caused a lot of jibes from servicemen, who shouted that it was unfair that a "civvie" could get three girls and he should be in the forces. All this was taken in good part, but little did they know that not only was he in the forces, but in the "Military Police - the Redcaps".

One of the many mottoes printed on hoardings was "Careless talk costs lives", which everyone knew meant don't give away secrets. Friends of my family owned a pub nearby and I sometimes helped by washing glasses. One day, a friend of my sailor brother's asked how he was and which ship he was on. I replied the "Manchester", but as I was suffering from laryngitis at the time, my voice came out as a hoarse whisper. The man laughed and said "It's alright, I won't tell anyone".

For obvious reasons, troop movements were kept secret. It was, therefore, difficult for famliies to know when their men folk were coming home on leave. One couple I know dealt with the problem in their own private way. The man's brother was a gardener, so they arranged for a letter home to read something like "please ask Bill to plant 14 onion sets, and 3 rows of carrots". This translated to the date of leave being on the 14th March. Letters home were censored before being posted and any doubtful remarks were crossed out by blue marking pencil. This wsa known as being "blue pencilled" and became the subject of many radio comedians' jokes.

We were extremely fortunate, as a family, to survive the war without a scratch. My two brothers and 3 brothers-in-law were civilians in peace time. It was ironic that my soldier brother, who was in the Bomb Disposal Squad and was awarded the Military Medal should end up in hospital the first bonfire night after the war, having injured his hand while lighting a firework for his children.

At long last the war did come to an end. First came VE Day on 8th May 1945 which meant that all fighting in Europe was over and people celebrated with street parties, dances and so on. Streetlights once more shone and all blackout restrictions were lifted. Although rationing was to go on for some more years, gradually the country came back to life. Later in the year, the war with Japan ended on August 15th.

Of course, so many tragic events occurred during the long dark war years, these being extensively recorded in many history books. These are just a few of my personal recollections of life as a young girl during this time.

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