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A few of my clearest memories of the war were being in the canteen at Victoria Station in Manchester (which was in the basement), when the trains arrived with the forces men on, and doing all-night duty serving refreshments to them.

I remember doing evening Fire Watch Duty (which was voluntary) while I worked at the CWS, also in Manchester. We had to take gas masks to work in case there was a gas attack.

I remember one night when I was out, the whole of the street opposite our house was bombed, and my mother was in on her own and was blown back down the lobby by the blast. Everything was blacked-out by black-out curtains, so that no lights were showing through.

We had rationing for food at the corner shop and coupons for clothes. My Auntie gave me her coupons so I could get my wedding dress. We had to queue for sweets at the sweet shop. If you saw a queue you joined it because you knew they had something special to sell. Bananas were very scarce. The basic foods that you had were: butter, margarine, lard, tea, sugar, eggs, bacon and meat. There were black-market dealings (the men were called ‘spivs’), where things were sold illegally.

When the sirens sounded you heard the drone of the German planes coming over, and you went to get into your Anderson shelter in the back-yard.

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