大象传媒

Memories of 1939 and before.

I was born in the East End of London, a district that could be thought of as being the equivalent of Brooklyn in New York. The East End had many immigrants, poor ones, at that. However, my family were and I know it sounds rather snobbish, not of the same calibre. My Father was a Civil Servant and worked for the Admiralty and was very well respected by our neighbours. I think we thought ourselves as being a cut above the neighbours.

As was usual for working class families, girls and boys left school at the age of fourteen. I had won a scholarship that would have allowed me to attend the local High School where I would have received a better education but it was not considered necessary, me being a female! My older brother went to the High School until he was nineteen. I never resented this situation because that was the norm in my family. Nevertheless, the education I did receive was good and I was even taught elocution.

On the 7th March 1938 I celebrated my fifteenth birthday. I had been working for a year at a local hospital in Stepney having left school the previous year. I was the assistant to the Lady Almoner. A Lady Almoner did a similar job to today's Hospital Social Worker. Getting this job was a stroke of luck for me as my life would have been very different had I timidly agreed to work at the hat factory.

A friend of my Mother's took me along to the hat factory for an interview and my heart lurched when I saw the girls at their sewing machines going round and round the brims of hats. How bored would I be? I did get the job and was to be paid seventeen shillings and sixpence for working a 48 hour week.

Luckily for me my Mother had agreed to me having two weeks at home on holiday before I went out into the 'big wide world'. One day, during these two weeks, I was lazing at home reading a book when there was a knock at the door. To my surprise mixed with a little horror, standing on the doorstep was a short prim-looking lady dressed in a brown coat, shoes and matching accessories. I remembered her from school. Today, she too would be called a Social Worker. Then, she was a 'busybody' who scared us all. I could not think what I had done so that she would feel the need to seek out my parents. My Mother, who was blind, asked me who was at the door. I explained fearfully and Mum said to let her in to the front room. Well, this was really 'something'. You had to be really important to get into our front room as it was usually kept locked. The only time the door was opened was for parties, special visitors
or on a Monday when everything in there was cleaned and polished.

Our visitor was asked to sit down and, as usual in our family, given a cup of tea with home made cake whether she wanted it or not. My Mother, although blind, was the best cook in the world. Meantime, Mum had told me to call Aunt Eva, who was one of her four single sisters who lived upstairs and ask her to come down to the front room. I reckoned this was very serious that Mum should need a witness but could not understand what timid 'me' could have done to warrant the attention of the dreaded 'school-lady'.

We soon found out! The previous year us kids in the top class had been taken to the house of a very rich lady who lived in Hampstead. She had a huge garden where we played games and all of us girls (I attended a Girl's Only school) were given an orange and sixpence by 'lady bountiful' before we left. We had all enjoyed ourselves as none of us had a garden, just back yards where the privy was. The other girls suggested to me that I thank the lady of the house for the lovely day. I was loath to do this as I was very shy but they all insisted, as I was the Head Girl. So, I did as I was bid and thanked her. This proved to be the best thing I could have done as a friend of hers who was helping her remembered me a year later when her own daughter, who was the Lady Almoner at the local hospital required an assistant. Hence the visit from the 'school lady'.

The first thing my Mother asked was 'How much will she earn?' When told 'Fifteen shillings a week' my Mother shook her head and said 'She will be getting seventeen shillings and sixpence at the hat factory and that is a lot of difference'.
The 'school lady' was not silly! She knew my Mother's weakness and said 'Well, at the hospital she may meet and marry a doctor'. That did it! My Mother even agreed to pay for two white coats as worn by doctors and after my two weeks holiday were up I started work for 48 hours a week at fifteen shillings a week.

Just after I left school there were riots in the East End of London. Sir Oswald Mosley was the leader of the British Union of Fascists. We called his followers 'Black shirts' as that was their uniform and they went around giving the Nazi salute at their meetings and marches. They were admirers of Adolph Hitler. I remember one riot in particular when there were many Jewish people involved. It was very frightening and I was not allowed to go outside the street door. The police were out in force and in fact used our front room as their Headquarters for the day.

In the summer of 1938 we had been issued with our gas masks. The gas mask was in a small brown cardboard box which had a piece of string attached to it so that it could be worn over the shoulder but we put them away out of sight. After all, there was not a war on.

As a preparation for war, the Lady Almoner had collected the names of people who volunteered to give their blood to help the injured. In the summer of 1939 I was told to visit everyone on the list and ask them to visit the hospital and give their blood, as promised.

I was a very shy and timid girl and it was a nightmare to me to have to knock on the doors of strangers to remind them of their promise. I went to quite a few houses and was received politely but got a shock when I visited a house in a district called Bethnal Green. I knocked on the door and a big bruiser of a man answered it. I asked him if he would come along to the hospital to donate his blood, as promised and he startled me by saying that he would not as 'some bloody Jew might get it'. I was very shocked and told Lady Almoner when I got back to the hospital. She laughed and said that it would be his bad luck to be injured and get some Jewish blood put in him.

On Sunday 3rd September 1939, I was working at the hospital. We knew war was imminent and so we had been called in to help with preparations. We all listened to Mr Chamberlain, the Prime Minister's speech at 11 a.m. and all the staff rushed around getting equipment ready in case there was an air raid. Within half an hour the air raid warning went off which shocked us all as it was so soon after the declaration of war. However, it was a false alarm and the 'all clear' sounded, much to our relief.

In the November, the 'powers that be' decided to alter the hospital to accommodate casualties should there be any bombing. This meant that some of the staff were evacuated. I stayed in London with my family. My Mother, who was the matriarch of the family had told us that if we were going to be killed, we would all be killed together.

My Father suggested that I take the Civil Service examination which I did and after I received the news that I had passed, I went to work at the same place as my Father which was the Royal Victoria Docks by the river Thames. This was quite a long journey for Dad and me as by then we had moved to another area in London, called Hackney. At last we had a house with a nice garden! I loved my job in the Victualling Department arranging for stores of food and clothing to be sent to ships, aircraft carriers and depots all over the world.

Things were pretty quiet for the rest of 1939 and for the first eight months of 1940. We knew that the Battle of Britain had started because we heard about it over the radio but it had not affected us apart from the odd skirmish in the skies. This period was referred to as the 'Phoney War'.

We had an Anderson Air Raid Shelter at the bottom of the garden. The shelter was named after Sir John Anderson, who was then the Minister for Civil Defence. Two and a half million of these were supplied free to people on incomes of less than 拢150 per year. The shelter was very basic, with a long wooden bench at each side. As things were so quiet no preparations had been made for an overnight stay for the eight of us living in the house.
One Saturday afternoon I was strolling in the back garden with a book in my hand and looking for a nice place to sit down under the lilac tree, when I heard the now familiar sound of an enemy plane. The pilot was flying so low that I could see him in the cockpit and I am sure that he could see me. He started up his machine gun and the bullets were strafing over the gardens. I knew he was trying to get me as the other gardens were empty and he missed me by a hair's breadth as I dived head first into our Air Raid Shelter.

Evacuation from Dunkirk.

Early in June 1940, I was at my desk in the office, when I suddenly looked up from my ledger and gazed out of the window. I was intrigued to see many little boats coming up river from the direction of the Thames Estuary. Suddenly there was a loud explosion when one of them struck a mine. Horrifying to see. We found out the next day that the 'little ships' were owned by private people who were helping, at great danger to themselves, with the evacuation of the troops from Dunkirk. One of these troops was my own eldest brother who was a Lieutenant in the Royal Corps of Signals and who had been in the sea there for two days awaiting rescue.

Memories of the Blitz

Dad and I worked alternate Saturday afternoons at our jobs in the docks. It was my Saturday turn on the 7th September 1940. The building I worked in was built at the time of Queen Elizabeth I. My desk was a Victorian one and I had to use a high stool if I wished to sit at it. The desk faced the River Thames and from it I could see the steps which Elizabeth I used when she came up river on her barge. It was a very historical building with walls seven feet thick. Sometime during the afternoon the Air Raid Warning went off and us girls and boys who were on the Saturday afternoon shift were told by the Wardens to go down to the basement. This was the first time we had been there and we were so pleased to find we could play table tennis. We were there a few hours having lots of fun, when the Air Raid Warden came and told us that the All Clear had gone and we could come upstairs. Up we trouped to the top of the building and looked out of the window. We could not believe our eyes. Whilst we had been playing table tennis the docks around us had been bombed and were burning. Luckily, our building had escaped. Of course we had to get home.

Some of the men who worked with us, who had the voluntary jobs of Wardens, offered to escort us to the nearest transport. The man who went with me walked the three miles from the burning docks to London Bridge Station and saw me on to a number 47 bus, which believe it or not, was waiting at the station to pick up passengers. The conductor was very jolly and said to me 'Come on dearie, I will look after you' and he joked with me all the way to my bus stop, a journey of nearly an hour. The bus only had a few people in it but we all conversed together. Quite novel for us reserved British people. When I eventually arrived home my Mum cried as she already 'had me dead and buried'.

That night the warning went again and we all trouped down to the Anderson Shelter at the bottom of the garden. Mum was slow and Dad told her off but she said she wasn't going to be killed without her teeth in. She had left them in a mug at her bedside.

The guns which were called 'ack ack guns' and were terribly noisy went off all night and the bombs rained down continuously. Of course we could not sleep. In the shelter were my Mum, Dad, and my mother's four single sisters. My brother immediately older than me had joined the army. We spent hours talking, singing and telling stories, when we were able to hear each other. Things had happened so quickly that we had not even taken a sandwich or a drink into the shelter.

When the All Clear sounded in the morning after a most dreadful night, we all trooped out into the garden - what a shock! The house next door to ours had received a direct hit and was flattened. Mum said "Thank God I put my teeth in before I went down to the shelter". On that night 7th September 1940 348 German bombers, escorted by 617 fighters attacked London. 448 people were killed. Our house was too badly damaged for us to live in and we had to spend the next few nights in a school where we rested our heads on the desks and tried to sleep during the continuing air raids thanking God that we were still alive.

The authorities allowed us to collect some clothes and the rest of our belongings were taken away and stored in a church along with those of other families in a similar situation. However, a lot of our valuables were stolen. There was a death penalty for looting but I can never remember anyone being caught. So, we had no-where to live and no relatives in London who could put us up. They had been evacuated to other areas. We ended up sleeping at night on a platform at Oxford Circus Tube Station over a period of six months. At its peak, 177,000 people sheltered in the tube in one night. 10th May 1941 was the worst night of the Blitz (and the last) when 3000 people were killed in London that night.

As well as Dad and me, three of the aunts went to work each morning but the fourth aunt looked after my Mum. After a few days had passed they had been to the church where our things were stored and were allowed to collect some blankets. These they wrapped and put in the Left Luggage office at Euston Station. They, Mum and my aunt, collected them each evening before the raids started and took them to the platform where many other homeless people had to sleep. We had to be off the platform at 7a.m. and the air raids were usually still on. The transport authorities had set up lavatories for our use and later on supplied bunk beds. We were often entertained by a Salvation Army Band. I can remember plucking up courage to ask them to play 'Oh, God our help in ages past' and when they did, all the people on the platform joined in singing the hymn along with others who had newly stepped off a train.

Personal cleanliness was a priority. There were no facilities at the tube station. Dad and I had been given permission by the Superintendent where we worked to leave our clothes at the office and we used to get there early and go to our respective cloakrooms and use the facilities there. At the weekend we all used the Public Baths where you could bathe for 6d (six pence). This included provision of a towel and a small bar of soap and lots of hot water. My Mum and aunts washed each morning at Euston Station where you could purchase a 'wash and brush up' for a few pence.

Mum and my aunt also used the public wash house to clean our clothes and I was given clean underwear every day to take with me to the office.

The dock where we worked - we called it a Yard - dealt with food, clothing, furniture and rum for supply to the Navy. There was a man in charge whose position was Technical Examining Officer and he had to test each batch of food before it was sent out. Every morning he made me a small loaf of bread. He had already given me a seven pound tin of strawberry jam which he had tested as it would have been thrown away. So, I had my breakfast each morning. I am sad to say that this kind man was killed in a later bombing of the 'Yard'. Each morning, the Superintendent in Charge would come and see me and say "Well, and how is Anna Mae Wong this morning?" She was a famous Chinese film star before the war. I was seventeen years old and alone in a huge building with the bombs tearing down around me. Strangely, I never felt scared. I suppose being so young I thought I was immortal. After work some days I would go with a girl friend and play tennis in Deptford Park, nearby. Usually during an air raid and when I got to the tube station later got a lashing from my Mother's tongue, along with strong words from my Dad and my four aunts.

If Dad and I had been in a different type of work we could have 'evacuated' ourselves, Mum and the aunts to another town where it was safer but our jobs were considered too important and we had to stay in London and put up with all the inconveniences. However, I was a bit luckier than the rest of them as by this time I had a boy friend who lived in Kent with his married sister and on Friday nights I would get on the back of his motorbike and go and stay with the family until we went to work on Monday morning. I also stayed there over Christmas 1940. 'Fritz' was kind enough not to bomb us on Christmas Day.

One Sunday night whilst I was staying in Kent, the raids were simply awful. We were on high ground and looked down on London which was 10 miles away and it appeared that the whole of London was alight. It was the night that the City of London was flattened. Naturally we had to go to work on the Monday morning. My then boyfriend worked in the same 'Yard'. So, off we went on his motorbike. When we reached London we had to walk with the bike through streets that were burning. The firemen were still busy with their hoses and shouted at us to get out but we carried on as we had to get to work. We had important jobs. When I arrived at work I was thankful to see my Dad all in one piece and he told me that the rest of the family were O.K.

Mum and the aunts were doing the best they could to get food and I was usually given a packed lunch - sandwiches and maybe an apple or orange if available. Us girls would eat our lunch in a room at the top of the building which overlooked the Thames and we would watch the boats going up and down the river. One lunchtime, I ate my sandwiches and orange and was mortified when a friend said to me "Thanks for eating my orange". She had waited until I had eaten it before telling me it was hers. That day my Mum had been unable to get any fruit for me. My friend and I had a good laugh but I have never forgotten about it as oranges were in such short supply.

The 'powers that be' at the Admiralty decided to transfer Dad and me to a Depot just outside Coventry. So, Mum, Dad, the aunt who cared for Mum and I bade a tearful farewell to the other three aunts who were being left behind. We had to go as our jobs were important to help keep the Navy and Fleet Air Arm going. We four arrived in Coventry and the only lodgings we could get were in one room at the top of a house. Mum and Dad had a double bed and my aunt and I each had a single one - mine near the window as my aunt was scared to be too close to glass. We had arrived after a very tiresome journey as the train was so slow and first went to the Depot to report then off we went to our lodgings for the night. And what a night! Unfortunately for us this was the night Coventry was badly bombed and we were not in any kind of shelter. The next morning, happy to be whole, we trooped off to the Depot only to find it flattened. So, off we went back to London. The three aunts who had remained in London were delighted to see us so soon and we got our old places back on the platform at Oxford Circus Station.

After the Blitz.

Towards the end of June, 1941 Dad and I were transferred to a Fleet Air Arm Depot in Perth, Scotland. We, along with Mum and my aunt lived in a cottage in a small village called Luncarty which was five miles from Perth.

We sent for the other three aunts and two of them were given jobs in the Stores at the Depot whilst the third one worked at Pullar's of Perth which was a very big dry cleaning company. She was a sewing machinist.

Luncarty was a very small village of approximately 200 people at that time. We were very touched when we had many people arrive with gifts of garden produce 'for the folk who had been bombed in London'. I have never forgotten their kindness.

I met my husband-to-be when he was home on leave in Perth from the Royal Corps of Signals at the New Year 1941/42 and we went dancing every night. He proposed to me after four evenings together.

We were engaged on his next leave in March when I was nineteen and he was twenty and we married on the 20th June 1942 in St. John's Kirk, Perth.

We now have five grown children, ten grandchildren and five great-grandchildren. Last year we celebrated our Diamond Wedding (60 years). We received a signed photograph and message from Her Majesty The Queen. Not 'bad' after knowing each other only four days.

漏 Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.