大象传媒

SCHOOLDAYS ARE NOW OVER

Now I had to earn my keep. I decided to go to evening classes to learn shorthand typing and took my first job with high-class jewellers in Maidenhead. I was taught to thread pearl necklaces but once I got the knack of this I found it terribly boring. Thankfully, I was transferred to the cash desk where I handled the most exquisite jewellery, porcelain and leather goods. This was much better and gave me a taste for the fine things.
Once again, dad and I returned to London to empty the rooms we rented, we could not afford two rents. We carried as much as we could and arranged a removal firm to take the rest. We received nothing for the furniture; in fact we had to pay them to take it away!
Holyport was not our favourite place. One night when dad was walking home from the local pub, they had a shovehapenny match there; he came across three lads waiting for him with the intention of pushing him into the pond. Unfortunately for them they picked on the wrong man, dad was a boxer in the army and all three landed in the pond. They did not try that again.
During this time Germany had sent their Field Marshal Rommel to lead their Africa Corps into Egypt. They took thousands of British prisoners, pushing the 8th Army back to Tobruk.
The Royal Navy took reinforcements and supplies to Tobruk and stopped the German convoys taking vital supplies to Rommel.
Japan bombed Pearl Harbour, sinking many warships, and immediately America entered the war.
Early in 1942 my mother heard of a vacant flat in Surbiton. We were delighted to leave Holyport and with an ecstatic Tiny we travelled, with our goods, in a small van to St.James Road. Life should be a lot better now.
We have yanks everywhere. One night when I walked home from the station I was followed by about ten of them, they were singing at the tops of their voices 鈥渨hy was she born so beautiful, why was she born al all鈥�. They were noisy, lively and thankfully harmless. It was all very flattering but they must have woken everyone.

Tiny used to sit at the bottom of our steps to wait for my father as he walked home from the station; as soon as she spotted him she would race to greet him. One evening dad came in and said, 鈥渨here鈥檚 Tiny鈥�? She was nowhere to be seen, we searched, called, asked everyone if they had seen her, without success. Finally, we went to the Police Station and were told that five other dogs had been stolen that day. We never saw Tiny again and it was the saddest day of my life.
In May 1942, 80,000 American troops surrendered to the Japanese in the Philippines, and in June America bombed Tokyo.
Japan sent their aircraft carriers to bomb Midway, Hawaii, but these were all sunk and America took control of the Pacific.
General Montgomery took over the 8th army, now called the 鈥淒esert Rats, and with 25,000 British troops and 1100 tanks attacked Rommel. Tobruk was retaken and later Tripoli, there were heavy casualties on both sides.
In October my sister鈥檚 flat in Lewisham was bombed, thankfully she was not there, but she could no longer live there. Luckily, the basement flat beneath us was vacant and she moved in. My mother was very relieved to have us all under one roof again.

Whilst this was going on I joined the Milk Marketing Board at Thames Ditton.
I worked for the Filing Department, which was a huge room with rows of girls filing documents into folders. My job was to run around the building taking folders to different offices and then bringing them back. As you can imagine, this was dead boring and after six months I left.
Germany now attacked Russia, Stalingrad was bombed almost to extinction but their people would not surrender, their supplies were cut off and they were starving. Russian reinforcements arrived and cut off the German 6th army and by January 1943 Germany surrendered, but only a third of their army lived to return home.
My next job was with the National Fire Protection Co. at Richmond. They made fire extinguishers for tanks, planes and ships. This was much better; I was in charge of the contracts from various Ministries from their receipt to subsequent delivery, the invoicing and finally the accounts. I had five girls working for me. After two years, a soldier invalided from the army, was to take over with me as his right hand man and the five girls sacked. I worked with him for a couple of months but did not like him and decided to leave.
I was no longer free to choose my own job and was directed to join the Ministry of Labour. This was a tiny office with just three working there. My job description was Shorthand Typist/Telephonist but I spent most of my time knitting or writing letters. I applied for my release giving my reason that I had no typewriter, the telephone never rang and I had no more c coupons for wool. Needless to say, I was given my release without a murmur
In the summer of 1944 we had a new horror called V.1. Rockets, or as we called them 鈥淒oodlebugs鈥�, goodness knows why. They were unmanned planes with very noisy engines. We used to run outside to watch them, for all the time they kept going we were safe but as soon as the engine cut off it would land with a huge explosion. Most of these were directed to London and the south of England.
In September 1944 V2 rockets followed the Doodlebugs. These were much worse because we could neither hear nor see them and without warning a whole street would be demolished.
My next job was with the Amalgamated Dental Co., at Walton on Thames. I was trained in 鈥淭ime & Motion Study鈥� which was very interesting. Every job in the factory had to be timed so that the operators could earn a bonus. With a stop watch I had to time the operation add rest time and deduct wasted time. Another girl was training with me, she was French, and one of the perks of the job was to take students from Guys Dental Hospital around the factory and then to lunch at the Ashley Park Hotel. Two young girls and about twenty students was quite a lot of fun.
The war ended in 1945 and, of course, we all went mad with excitement, everyone celebrated with everyone and it was just wonderful to think it was all over.
Some months later a young Spitfire Pilot joined our firm and he later became my husband, that was 57 years ago, but that鈥檚 another story.

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