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I was 15 years old when war broke out working as a cook in a local restaurant in Royston. All the other girls were called up so I took over as head waitress and was in charge. We were close to Bassingbourne air field and when the planes flew back in the mornings the RAF officers always came into the restaurant for breakfast. They had bacon, egg, sausage, beans, and toast for 1s 8d. The owner of the Restaurant had pickled 68,000 fresh eggs in 1938 and there were still 3000 left at the end of the war, as fresh as the day they were laid!
In the day time I worked in the Restaurant and in the evening I worked at the Bull Hotel — that was full of Americans. All the stars came there, and the girls who came in always had a different American officer on their arm.

(This story was collected at the Severn Valley Railway 1940s weekend and submitted to the People's War site by a volunteer from Wyre Forest Volunteer Bureau on behalf of Molly Chambers and has been added to this site with her permission. Mrs Chambers fully understands the site's terms and conditions.)

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