大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War web site by Karen Elmes at the Building Exploratory on behalf of Florence Ford and has been added to the site with her permission. She fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

Flo was 21 when the war broke out. She lived with her family at 19 Balcorne Street, in Hackney. However she did not spend weekdays at home, as when the war started she was called upon to work in a munitions factory in Hayes, Middlesex. As she was based too far away to come home after a day鈥檚 work she spent the weekdays in Hayes and returned to her home at weekends:

鈥淥n weekends I used to come back from Hayes with friends on the trains, which were blacked out. Sometimes you had to sit on somebody鈥檚 lap because it was so busy. I would work on Saturday morning, then come home. On Sunday evening I would meet my friend and return from Liverpool Street.鈥�

As Flo was often out of London she missed much of the Blitz, but the air raids took place during the weekends too:

鈥淏ecause I was away during the weeks I missed a lot of the actual bombings. The only times I used to wear trousers was when I had to use the shelter. Being in the shelter was horrible, you鈥檇 hear an air raid warning and not know who was going to get bombed. Very scary, and the noise was awful. After it was over we鈥檇 clamber out like frightened rabbits, and we often couldn鈥檛 sleep from fear.鈥�

It was whilst Flo was out of London that her home suffered from bomb damage:

鈥淢y home did get some bomb damage. One time I came home and the front was covered with tarpaulin to fill the gaps that had been left. In the bedroom I shared with my sister the rain and wind would come in, we had a bucket by the door to catch the water, it was terrible. It was also insecure. One weekend I came home to find a lot of things missing, as did my sister. Somebody must have got in whilst we were away. I was married by the time the house came down.鈥�

Although being in London during the Blitz was dangerous Flo remembers that she didn鈥檛 like leaving it during the week, she was the youngest in the family, and the only one who was called on to work.

This story was recorded by the Building Exploratory as part of a World War Two reminiscence project called 鈥淢emory Blitz鈥�. To find out more please go to ^{About links}

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