- Contributed byÌý
- eva_brecknock
- People in story:Ìý
- M.Empson
- Location of story:Ìý
- London
- Background to story:Ìý
- Army
- Article ID:Ìý
- A2301355
- Contributed on:Ìý
- 16 February 2004
I was born in 1927 in Somers Town, North London. In 1938,I was fortunate to win a state scholarship which allowed me to go to Parliament Hill school for girls aged 11 to 19, which in those days was mostly for fee paying pupils.My parents received £9.00 per annum grant, to help pay for my uniform, tennis racquet, hockey stick etc. They had also to sign that they would keep me at school until I was 19, the school leaving age at that time being 14yrs. We were quite poor, my Dad worked on the railway and my Mum was a cleaner.I had one year's excellent education, French, Latin etc.but instead of starting the second year in September '39 in London, we were bundled off, complete with gas masks, to St. Albans as evacuees, hardly any distance away !! I think we went on the 1st.Sept. a friday. As soon as we had been allocated our billets, we had to write a safe arrival note home. I told my Dad to come and fetch me immediately or I would find my own way home. He came within a few days, I can remember nothing about that house or indeed any of the people who lived there. All I can remember is, that there were two of us billeted there and I hated it.
We had moved the month before (August '39) to a brand new council flat, and when I came home from St.Albans, I had a marvellous time. There were lots of us children who hadn't been evacuated, and we helped the men fill sandbags, to put completely outside the front of two adjoining flats, which were kept empty, to be used if necessary as air raid shelters. We roamed the streets and had a great time. Nobody was bothered about the schools being closed, at one time a teacher came to the flat of a friend, two mornings a week, to teach about six of us, but that didn't last long. A bit later, an emergency school opened at a nearby infant school, but as soon as the blitz started, it closed.
September 1940, saw my eldest sister Connie get married. They went to the Lake district for a week, and the night before they were due back, a bomb hit the railings beneath the window of the bedroom, in which my Mum had laid out all their wedding presents. They were all smashed, but we were all safe as we had been sheltering in a small back bedroom, the only room to escape intact. We were so lucky, compared to others. There were six people killed in the two flats, immediately below ours. I can still recall the noise, confusion, the feel of broken glass crunching underfoot and a bellicose voice shouting "turn that bloody light off" to somebody, which considering that the whole nightmare scene was lit up as bright as day, by the flares still falling, was superfluous to say the least, and resulted in a number of choice cockney obscenities, telling the idiot where to go!
March 1941..I was now 14yrs.and allowed by law to start work. I never even thought about school any more and as for having to stay until I was 19yrs, well school was for normal times, before life took on a pattern of air-raid alerts at dusk, the nightly throb of the bombers engines and the screams of the bombs themselves, then the all-clear at dawn and my Mum and Dad coming home from Camden Town tube station,(with their bundles of bedding) having spent the night sleeping on the platform. My eldest sister Connie ( who was married) and my other sister Ivy, who was seven years older than myself, we all refused to sleep down there and stayed at home. Eventually a bomb dropped down the escalator one night and my parents had to travel through to the next stop (Kentish Town)to get out. They were extremely lucky to escape injury or worse and decided they had had enough of sleeping down the tube.As I said previously, school was for normal times, Latin, French and the like had no place in my life any more, which I have profoundly regretted ever since, especially as I had been so fortunate to have had the chance of such an excellent education. But as I had already missed two years, I decided that I was grown-up and determined to start work, as my friends were doing. Both my sisters worked at Carreras, the cigarette factory, known as 'The Black Cat' it was the biggest local employer. Connie worked in the office as a shorthand typist and Ivy worked in the factory.Connie enquired about a job for me, but as they didn't take office staff under 16, they suggested that I work in the factory for two years and then I could transfer over. That was a laugh, two years, I lasted about two weeks and if I hadn't given notice I would have been sacked, I'm sure.....
On walking into that huge factory the first morning, the thing that struck me most was the smell of tobacco, it was overwhelming, but not unpleasant. I was put onto examining packets, ready for distribution. There were lots of long benches and the women sat either side. I was given big boxes, which contained packets of 20. I had to take out a row at a time, put a hand at each end, then turn them over, all the while, looking for damage. The kindly woman opposite showed me how. It looked so easy when she did it, she just flipped her wrist, forward, then back, replaced them and removed the next row, all it seemed to me, at the speed of light. I was useless at it. Every time I picked up the packets to turn them over, all the middle ones shot out, over to the other side of the bench. Packets of 10, being smaller, were even harder to manipulate. At first she smiled sympathetically and handed them back, but by the end of that first day, her smile had become strained and the errant packets were being 'shoved', rather than handed back to me. After a few days, I was taken off that job( much I imagine to the relief of the suffering woman opposite) and given a trolley.
I must describe these trolleys....They were huge and very heavy to push, even when empty, and I was at 14 quite small. These trolleys were double deckers on which were stacked, in rows, wooden cases, which held thousands of 'Craven A' brand cigarettes. Looked at from the front with all the corked tips facing, they looked like giant honeycombs. My job was to push the loaded trolley to the hopper, a large conveyer belt which ran vertically, through every floor, from top to bottom of the factory. I then had to unload the cases onto the floor and stack them in two rows, one atop the other. My week finished worse than it had started, I had unloaded the trolley, and was already on the return journey, when there was an almighty crash, behind me, I looked around, shocked, and there on the floor were cigarettes, cigarettes by the thousands, a veritable sea of the things, and looking like half submerged shipwrecks the empty cases from the improperly balanced stack, which had toppled over. I carried on pushing my trolley, trying to appear nonchalant, telling myself that it had nothing to do with me, but feeling sick inside. I was soon hauled back to the scene of the crime, by one of the dreaded foreladies, and given a terrible dressing down. It seemed that every person on that floor was witnessing my humiliation, including my sister Ivy, who received a severe lecture from my Mum for not sticking up for me. My Mum was very naive, she also said that I was to give in my notice the next day, which I did, thankfully....
1942..Ivy was called up into the A.T.S. and after her initial training was sent to an Ack-Ack site, to train as a spotter. I was very envious and couldn't wait to enlist myself. The morning she had to report, my Mum told her that if she didn't like it, to come home again, as I said before my Mum was very naive. After leaving the 'Black Cat', I went to work for a firm of bookmakers. I liked that and remained there until I was 171/2 years and old enough to join the army, which I did in Sept.'44, but had to go into the Pay Corps, where I served until '47 and demob.
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Message 1 - My Teen-age years in Wartime London -feedback
Hallo, Eva -- I'm Carey, one of the Writing Buddies here on the site.
Thank you for your contribution -- it would be lovely if you wrote more!
For example, what was so awful about your billet that you demanded to come home straight away; could you give us examples of what some of the problems were?
It is interesting to, about how you helped out filling the sandbags -- and 'roaming the streets' -- tell us about your activities!
Since you write only up to your sister's wedding in 1940, I would imagine you have other stories and memories -- it would be interesting to hear of your activities, feelings, and things you witnessed, especially as you were a teenager at the time; many of our contributors were much younger children. So whereas a younger child may have viewed the duration as a great adventure, how did you feel? What frightened you, what do you remember of sights and sounds. What were some of your activities as the war went on; were you able to get back to school, did you find any sort of work. How did you help out?
I don't mean to ask so many questions! I do hope that you will find time to write more for us.
It would be lovely, also, if you could write a little bit about yourself for your personal page; many visitors to the site will check the author's About Me on the personal page, and who knows, perhaps your story may inspire someone else to write, or perhaps someone who knew you or lived near you may be moved to contribute!
Thank you very much, and do take care,
cheers,
Carey
Ìý
Message 2 - My Teen-age years in Wartime London -feedback
Posted on: 18 February 2004 by eva_brecknock
Thank you for the message. You say that I only went up to 1940 ( my sister's wedding) But my story goes up to 1944 and to my enlistment in the A.T.S.?
Ìý
Message 3 - My Teen-age years in Wartime London -feedback
Hallo, Eva -- thank you for your reply.
Quite honestly, there must have been gremlins in my computer when I read your original essay, as the last line was about the man 'telling them where they could go'!
I had wondered myself, hmmm, strange stopping point! No idea what happened.
BUT -- I did go back and look up your story again (to make sure it's me who was seeing things!), and now I see the whole story is showing up -- so I do apologise for the confusion!
And yes, thank you for such vivid writing about your work! We frequently hear about how the boys found jobs, etc., so it is always interesting to hear about the jobs and tasks held by young women. I think I understand exactly how you felt trying to work in the cigarette factory -- when I was at uni, I took a job in the uni library, and I cannot tell you how many things went wrong the moment my hands touched them...I was put to work as an 'assistant' to the head of the library (I had thought I would spend a happy summer restacking books) -- here I was just this bookworm kid and she expected a full blown secretary! In my duties I managed to shred her personal ID card, lost files, and transferred phonecalls God knows where... and one of my main duties was to type the married, female boss's love letters to a boyfriend she'd met at poetry camp...I did last out the summer...
Could you tell us about your training and tasks in ATS? You mention your sister was trained as a spotter, and that you couldn't wait to join up -- where did you train? What was it like? What sort of tasks were you given?
Do take care, and look forward to hearing more from you!
cheers,
Carey
Ìý
Message 4 - My Teen-age years in Wartime London -feedback
Posted on: 19 February 2004 by eva_brecknock
Actually, it wasn't your fault that the story you read, finished in 1940, as that is where I finished typing, half-way through. I didn't submit it and was surprised to see it in the editorial list, so removed it in order to finish typing it.You obviously just saw the first bit! If I decide to write more fully about the events of that time,plus my years in the A.T.S., I suppose I just title it the same, part two?
Ìý
Message 5 - My Teen-age years in Wartime London -feedback
Hallo! Lovely to hear from you.
If you would like to expand on your story up to the ATS, you can always replace the original story with the updated one, and then Part 2 could be your experience in the ATS -- that would be a good way to have 'chapters' without any one story being too long.
Oh, yes, I have done similar things, thinking I haven't submitted something, and it has gone through, and lo and behold, the same thing shows up on a message board 2 or 3 times...what fun, computers can be! (Speaks someone who just had a repairman out to sweep rust and birds' nests out of her satellite dish! No wonder my reception was so poor...)
Anyway, I do hope you do decide to write in more detail!
cheers,
Carey
Ìý
Message 6 - My Teen-age years in Wartime London -feedback
Posted on: 23 February 2004 by eva_brecknock
I am contacting you in desperation, I hope this is o.k. as this is about a story that my sister wrote and it was put on computer at the library in Lichfield, Staffs. She was told that to access the site, her login name is Carolhagger and the password is diamond. She has a number A2269055, which brings her story on screen. When her son looked at it ( she doesn't have a computer) the spelling is so bad that she is totally ashamed of it( not her fault but the fault of the young girl who typed it).I have been trying to access the site, so that I can remove it for her, as Carolhagger is her daughter's name, and she is so worried that she will see it.Every time I try to login to her personal page, in order to do this, it comes up that the password is wrong and the answer to the secret question is wrong, yet that is what the girl wrote down on a card for her. She has phoned the library for help, but they say that she must contact the ´óÏó´«Ã½ helpline. I have tried to do this for her but with no success. Please Carey can you help her, either by finding out why her password is wrong or by removing her story ( it hasn't been on the editorial list) and then I can rewrite it for her. I dont know anyone else who I can contact. Thanking you in anticipation Eva Brecknock
Ìý
Message 7 - Hidden
Posted on: 25 February 2004 by eva_brecknock
I don't know who I am addressing this message to.... but I find this all very disconcerting, It seems like MI5, am I likely to get a reply to my message? After all it is just a simple thing and if it is going to be all this bother, just forget it, although I would have thought that it wouldn't be terribly hard for you to just correct the spelling yourself, then everyone will be happy, especially my 83yr.old sister
Ìý
Message 8 - Hidden
Hallo, Eva -- I am sorry that I have been away from the computer for a few days.
Unfortunately, I do not know what the message is, or who wrote to you, in the post that has been hidden, as I have only just seen the thread here myself since I last wrote.
I am far more interested to read your story and help you get your thoughts sorted out 'on paper' as it were -- I myself am not concerned about techincal details at present!
I do apologise if you have had something unpleasant said to you, and I must ask you -- and your sister -- please not to be discouraged.
Do care take,
best,
Carey
Ìý
Message 9 - Hidden
Posted on: 25 February 2004 by eva_brecknock
I am sorry Carey, I didn't realise that I was replying to you. What happened was, I sent a message asking you if it was possible for you to do something about a story that my sister was asked to do at her local library. She is terribly upset by the inaccurate spelling,( especially as it is in her daughter's name, who would go mad if she saw it)and she asked me if I could edit it. Unfortunately, when I try to login to her personal page, in order to do so ( she hasn't a computer), it keeps coming up that the password is wrong and yet it is the password that the girl who typed the story, wrote on a card for her. She asked the library if they could remove the story etc. but they say that she must go to the ´óÏó´«Ã½ helpline. I tried for her, without success and in desperation, sent a message to you. The 'hidden' message was the reply, and I am still waiting for a proper reply. Sorry, I know this has nothing to do with you, but you know how frustrating it can get, trying to get anything done, via a computer.
Ìý
Message 10 - Hidden
Dear eva_brecknock
I have looked in to what happened to your message and can only apologise that you did not receive the reply.
The moderation team made a mistake in hiding your message — they were trying to use the system to draw my attention to your message, which didn't quite work.
Once I received a copy of your message, I replied by email. I cannot put the message on the site as it includes your sister's private account details. I sent the message to your sister's email address - I will now forward a copy to you at your address.
If you wish to contact the Team you are more likely to reach us via <./>Feedback</.>. The site is so large that we rely heavily on the marvellous WW2 volunteer teams who act as helpers and history experts and writing advisors whenever they have the time.
We are very impressed with the number of people going out of their way to add their story - I agree with you, computers can be infuriating.
Best wishes,
Penelope
ps Carey — thank you for bringing this mix up to our attention
Ìý
Message 11 - Hidden
Posted on: 26 February 2004 by eva_brecknock
Thank you Penelope, and especially Carey, for your help. My sister can now sleep easily and she is very pleased that the atrocious spelling has been corrected, although she cannot understand about the e.mail address that the message has gone to, as she doesn't have one. Perhaps it is the library's address? She does want to know, as she would like to write more about her time in the Ack-Ack, but has to know her password in order to access her personal page. The answer you give as the correct answer to her secret question is the name of her grand-daughter, but she doesn't remember giving it, and still says that the password I gave you is the one written on her card! But thanks again, as it was the spelling that really bothered her, and it won't matter if she doesn't do any more.
Ìý
Message 12 - Hidden
We would love her to add in more stories. If she puts in her user name and then clicks 'I have forgotten my password' she will be asked her secret question. Once she has answered that she can select a new password.
I will email you the email address we have for her.
Regards,
Penelope
Ìý
Message 13 - Hidden
Hallo, Eva and Penelope!
I am glad things have been sorted out for you and your sister, Eva; I think I understand exactly the frustration and confusion. Just a miscommunication, it would appear!
And thank you very much for your help, Penelope; I am glad all's well, ended well! I am still learning what to do and who to ask for help, and everyone's patience is always very much appreciated.
Yes, do please continue to write for us, Eva, and absolutely that goes for your sister as well.
cheers,
Carey
Ìý
Message 14 - Hidden
Posted on: 27 February 2004 by eva_brecknock
Thanks again Carey, my sister has now got a new password, can get in to her personal page, the spelling has been corrected and she is now going to write some more. I am so glad that I took a chance and asked you to help. Cheers! Eva
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