大象传媒

This story was submitted to the Peoples War Site by volunteer John C Haywood 大象传媒 Radio Lincolnshire Action Desk on behalf of Mrs Olive Crawford (nee Giles)and has been added to the site with her permission. Mrs Crawford fully understands the site terms and conditions.

I was in service in Grimsby the day war broke out and Chamberlain made the announcement. I was employed by a firm called Marshall Knott and Barker, wood merchants and I worked for the Barker family. The boss as we called him together with his wife called a meeting in the drawing room, we were only sevants so we were not invited, so I crept through to the front and sat on the bottom of the staircase to listen then I went back to the kitchen to tell the cook what was happening. It was my day off, and we were allowed half a day off a week and one full day once a fortnight, so on that particular day I went home to Binbrook. As I returned at night and was just entering Grimsby the siren went off, well! I was absolutely terrified so I pedalled away and I had just got to the door when it stopped, my thought was is there going to be a bomb dropped any minute. We had to be back by ten o'clock and the boss stood there waiting to open the door, and if you were not there, there would be trouble. The chauffer had been called up so the boss asked me if I would stoke the boiler up for the central heating, it was a big thing in an outside building and you had to rake the clinkers out and fill it with coke in the morning. I said I would do it but required a rise in my wagers, so the following week they raised my wage by sixpence a week. I then received five shillings and sixpence a week, it was quite a lot in those days. We had to clean a great big black leaded stove every Saturday morning and white wash the ovens out where the fire was, it was terrible. I finally left the job and enlisted in the forces at Grimsby on the seventh of the fifth forty two and was sent to Halifax. I was petrified not having been on a train let alone out of Lincolnshire, so I was a bit upset that morning, anyway I got there. They met us at the railway station with an army truck, the girls came from all over the place. I had my hair especially permed, and the next day we had to go for 'FFI' free from infection and we all had to be examined. We all stood in a long que waiting to go in but every now and again one would come out with her hair turned white. I said to the girl at the back of me, why on earth are they coming out like that, and she said because they are 'lousy'
The next day we had to be kitted out with our uniforms and on the third day we had to go on a route march around Ilkley Moor. What with our new heavy shoes and thick stockings most of us finished up with loads of blisters, and my was there some blisters. I was sent from Halifax to Newcastle on a three months cooks course. We had to cook on this great big range a bit like an Arga and on Monday we had to cook with our gas masks on as part of the training, was it hot! At the end of the trainig I was sent to Fulford Barracks at York, and on my day off I would sit by the river and write my letter home to my mom and dad, and at the same time wishing that I could see them, I felt so far away from home. I was then posted from York to Leeds and promoted, we were stationed at a very large hotel right in the centre I can see it now, it was more like a town hall with lots of steps to the front door and coconut matting on every floor. From Leeds I was sent to the officers mess at Harrogate to cook for the Royal Artilliary, no sooner had I settled in I was posted to London.
I arrived at Kings Cross railway station weigh down with gas mask and kit bag and made my way to the escalator, I had never seen an escalator in my life. I was standing at the bottom looking up when a soldier said 'arn't you going to get on then' I said 'no I'am not'he then said 'come on you'll be ok'he got hold of my kit bag and went off, when he got to the top he turned around but I was still at the bottom, he then came back down and took me up. I eventually finished up on the top floor of a building on Gower Street, and the next day we all had a load of injections which made us so ill that only two of us could get out of bed. Finally some one arrived and were surprized to find that we were still there, we thought they had forgotten about us. We then went on to Aldershot, my sister was stationed at Farnborough so I let her know so that we could meet when I arrived at the station and have a coffee and a chat together. She was waiting when I arrived, and so was a burley sergeant major who marched us off to the army trucks outside, so it was a quick hello and goodbye and that was it. I loved the garrison church at Aldershot men marching and then singing in the church, oh! it was lovely I enjoyed that. I then went to Flower Pot Lane at Mill Hill, then on to Walton-on-Thames in the officers mess. I finished at Tadworth and was demobed. When I got back home to Binbrook the people had held a collection in the village for people who had been in the forces, and they called it the 'Welcome Home Fund' all who came back, some did not got twelve shillings and sixpence each.

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