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Violet Smith - Wartime memories of Silvertown, London and evacuation to Rushden, Northants.

鈥淲e always knew when there was going to be an air raid on because we would have the radio on, we hadn鈥檛 got a television in those days, and my mum always used to say, 鈥楪et your things together, we鈥檇 better go.鈥� My sister younger than me, Doris, she was awful at the time, she always was the first one down there (in the shelter) she鈥檇 push you out of the way to be down there first. She used to take her shoes for the next day and she would say, 鈥楳ind my shoes, I鈥檝e cleaned them for tomorrow morning鈥�, mum would say, 鈥榊ou don鈥檛 know whether we鈥檒l be here tomorrow morning!鈥� She was awful! It did frighten me, the air raids. But her shoes, you wouldn鈥檛 dare go near them but she was always first down there, she鈥檇 push everyone out of the way! We had a man down the street, it was Croydon Road, and he was a Fifth Columnist. He ran a pub just along the road and he used to put flash lights up when the bombing raids started. He was put in prison.

The worst raids that I can remember was when they set all the factories alight in Silvertown, that was a daylight raid. Everywhere was on fire and they came back again that night. Everything was still burning so they knew where they were going. That was terrifying. We鈥檇 lost our dad, we didn鈥檛 know where he was as he鈥檇 gone to work. He finally came home. He鈥檇 got no eyebrows, all singed off. All his hair was singed at the front and he鈥檇 got all sugar and syrup on his boots when he鈥檇 gone past Tate and Lyle. He was in a hell of a state when he got home. I don鈥檛 think we鈥檇 have moved from London if it hadn鈥檛 had been for him, although the house was hit by a shell and we couldn鈥檛 stay in it. We鈥檇 have stayed on but he said that he couldn鈥檛 stay any longer.

The family evacuated themselves to Rushden, Northamptonshire in 1941
We got bombed out in 1941 and we had to leave London because a shell came through the house. We were all in the air raid shelter and it almost demolished the house. We evacuated ourselves to Rushden, we didn鈥檛 wait for anybody. My sister鈥檚 husband was stationed at Irchester and my sister had been living in Rushden for quite a while. So we came to Rushden, there were eight of us. We got the bus at Kings Cross and came right into Rushden. No belongings, just the clothes that we stood up in. My sister knew the billeting officer and she took us all round to her. It was on a Sunday, there wasn鈥檛 a soul in the High Street or anywhere else, they were all religious people then. The billeting officer took us to this house. I had to sleep in one house, eat my food in another house. This billeting out was quite an ordeal. Several of my sisters were in different villages, my youngest sister was billeted out with a policeman, they wanted to adopt her as they couldn鈥檛 have any children. Another sister went somewhere else and they wanted to adopt her too but my mother wouldn鈥檛 let them go, no way!

My eldest sister went back to Plaistow two or three days after we left to see if she could salvage anything but the looters had already been in. They took all her lovely wedding presents that she鈥檇 stashed away. My sister鈥檚 husband was stationed at Irchester, that鈥檚 how we got to know about Rushden, otherwise we wouldn鈥檛 have heard of Rushden. He was in the Kings Royal Rifles. He left Rushden to go out to Greece and he was taken Prisoner of War there at the end of 1941. He was missing for 12 months and then suddenly his name was on the list of prisoners in a Prisoners of War Camp. He was there until the end of the war. He had been taken on the island of Crete. All they had were rifles which was nothing against what they had to put up with.

War work
I went to Standard Telephone Cables at Woolwich, they were making condensers for aircraft, this was before the war, so they must have known what was coming up there, this was a year before the war. I liked it there but it was a very responsible job for a young person like me. We had to use pliers to bend all the wire around to put into the condensers which went into the aircraft engines, so it was quite a responsible job.

After the move to Rushden I was in munitions and we used to have to walk a long way to get to work. There were no buses that were coming up Avenue Road. We used to have to walk from there right into Rushden, up the Wellingborough Road up to Glassbrook Road. My sister and I used to walk all that every day and walk home again every night. They made condensers for aircraft and we were always late getting to work because it was such a long way. My sister was married and her husband was a prisoner of war, so they couldn鈥檛 touch her, couldn鈥檛 move her out and the timekeeping man said to me, 鈥榃ell you鈥檝e got to go to Scotland to work鈥�, 鈥業鈥檓 not, I鈥檓 not going to Scotland.鈥�

So I saw this job advertised on the buses and I went for it. My mum took me up to Kentish Town, 鈥業 want to see what they are like before you take that job鈥�, she said. The Head Office was in Kentish Town and I had to have a maths examination then. If you were a penny short at the end of the day they took it out of your wages. I started work on the buses when I was 18 years old and it was a lot of responsibility. I had to work quite long hours some days if they were short of a conductress I would probably be up early morning. My mum used to get up before me, about 3.30am to get my breakfast ready so that I went off. I had an old bike then - I had no lights on it! We used to leave Rushden at 5.30am for the early morning workers and would get back from that shift for 1.30pm. Get into the bus station in Rushden, near Rushden Railway Station, just past the Victoria Hotel, that was the Birch鈥檚 Depot in Rushden. He would say, 鈥楽omeone鈥檚 gone off sick can you start again at 4 o鈥檆lock?鈥� I鈥檇 say, 鈥榃ell, I鈥檒l have to go home first.鈥� I used to go home and someone would pick me if I was on the late shift and I used to take the 4 o鈥檆lock bus out from Rushden and then I didn鈥檛 get home again until midnight. So I鈥檇 done all those hours! Then I used to have to go into Rushden to take the money in and then I鈥檇 got to get home, that late at night. Sometimes there might be somebody on late shift as well who was going back to Newton Bromswold, somewhere like that and they used to dropped me off at Avenue Road. I worked for the Birch Bus Company for four years, I loved it, it was a good life.

I鈥檒l never forget my youngest sister - we couldn鈥檛 get bananas during the war. The first banana that she had ever had, she just stood there and she started to cry. My mum said, 鈥榃hat鈥檚 up with you?鈥� and she said, 鈥楧o I have to eat the skin as well? She鈥檇 never seen one before!鈥�

Wartime memories of Mrs. Smith鈥檚 husbands family
The Navy didn鈥檛 have shirts - the able seamen had a white cotton tunic. My husband was in the Navy and he had a white cotton tunic with a navy stripe (around the neck). But their tops were very, very rough and the cotton tunic did protect them.

In my husband鈥檚 family there were four boys in the Navy, took the whole four there was one boy left and they took him for the mines in Nottingham. There was so much bother about taking him after already taking the four he was only there for about two months and they had to let him come home again. But when they got him out he had a very bad eye and it never got better, even now. I think it was the dust down there, things weren鈥檛 as good as they are now. They had no choice you had to go. It was so traumatic for their mother as she was an elderly lady.

I remember Lord Haw-Haw. Well one night he gave out over the radio that the aircraft carrier Eagle, which my husband was on, had been sunk. It was true, it was sunk, but she didn鈥檛 quite catch what had been said and we had to keep that from her. We had to wait until we knew he was saved. It had been sunk just off the coast of Majorca. They had been to Malta, because they were starving, they only had two days food left and the aircraft carrier went into Valetta and dropped off all the food, fuel. They were on their way back and off the coast of Majorca an Italian submarine torpedoed it. There were about 400 men actually perished on it. But lots of them were picked up and were saved. But I think it was quite traumatic, they were in the sea, but of course it was quite warm so they were alright. He said that he had jumped off of the ship, I asked him, 鈥業s it true that everything comes back?鈥� 鈥榊es鈥� he said, 鈥楢s I flew up someone else jumped and knocked me down back down again.鈥� In those days you got about seven days survival leave and then you were off again. He was on HMS Wren which was a minesweeper they used to clear the mines going up to Russia.

What used to bother me most during the war was every day we had a report over the radio so many of our merchant ships had been sunk, and they were bringing food in for us. In fact they gave it out the other day on a programme that in one month we lost 55 merchant ships. I don鈥檛 know where they were coming from but they were bringing food into this country, for us.鈥�

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