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This story was submitted to the People's War site by Judith Harridge of Leamington Library and has been added to the site with her permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions.
I lived in Harrow. I was in London half of the time and then Birmingham. There were doodle bombs in London. My mum was injured being nosey and looking up to see the doodle bug! Shrapnel hit her on the head! She was a coward – she wouldn’t go and be stitched – she was the only one in the road and there were a lot of people injured. She was the only one who didn’t go and wasn’t marked! This was in Harrow on the Hill - I saw my mum quite a bit. I came to Streetley in Birmingham to work. I was on inspection, inspecting the making of the clocks for the bombs and we made the mechanism for the bouncing bombs (the Dambusters). We worked from half past seven in the morning to half past six at night. And half past four on Saturday. I went to stay with my husband’s parents (he wasn’t my husband then) and I got this job in Streetley. My fiancée was abroad for six years. He was in the artillery to start with. He was a draftsman so they transferred him to the engineers. He was in Norway and went all round Egypt, then to Burma. I didn’t see him for six years. I got married after the war – he came back in October 1944 and we got married in December. My mother in law organised the cake. I had a wedding dress – it was a bought one, my mother in law again! I wanted to be married in a black suit and she kicked up a fuss so she got her way! She was an organiser! She was lovely.

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