´óÏó´«Ã½

My name is Joyce, and I’m aged 78. I was born in Bournemouth. My Mom was a housewife, my Dad a bus driver and my sister, Pamela (now aged 74), and we all lived in a semi in a road near the shops and the school. I remember spending family meals together and Dad relating his early years of life in Canada, logging in forests and in canning factories. He then told us stories of how, following that, he and his brother joined up in WW1 in the Royal Canadian Highlanders serving in the war zones in France. In September 1939 war was declared, and I remember there was issues of gas masks, ration books and I.D.cards. We heard and saw German bombers in 1940 heading for Birmingham, Coventry and Liverpool.

After the fall of Dunkirk, our school took the survivors. Dad heard that volunteers were needed in Wolverhampton to replace the drivers who had been called up, so Dad took up the offer (and with much ado from the relatives) he found lodgings in a house in Bilston. It was hectic packing to move, saying goodbyes to neighbours, family and friends, also saying goodbye to our ginger cat who sat looking on - he went to neighbours next door.

Bilston was an industrial town, so full of smoke and smog, but to Pamela and I, it was home with Mom and Dad (Mom with her dear Charlie). Pamela did well at her new school, but as I had left school in Bournemouth, I decided to find a job. There were vacancies in factories, shops and offices, so I started at ‘Quasi-Arc’; it was all very hush-hush war work.

In 1942 Dad was transferred to the Wolverhampton depot, so that involved another move. Our new house was on the outskirts of the town. Pamela had now left school as well and was working at the telephone switchboard. I went to a printers and bookbinders, lock and key factory, cashier at a cinema, cycle shop, then in November 1944 joined the NAAFI in Donnington (Shropshire) and Cosford RAF. At age 19 I was then posted to work in the British Families shops in Europe, when service personnel were bringing their families over to married quarters. I went to Bad Oyenhausen, Lippspringe, Buckeburg and Hook of Holland; then in 1951 I finally came back to England, to get married to an RAF boy. We have been living happily in Shropshire for these last 51 years.

This story was submitted to the People's War site by Rosemary Hamilton of the ´óÏó´«Ã½ Radio Shropshire CSV Action Desk on behalf of Joyce Hill and has been added to the site with her permission. Mrs Hill fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

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