大象传媒

By Kathleen Coles nee Beck, nee Doke.
Recorded by Pamela Brown

I was 27 when the war broke out living in Heaton Chapel with my parents.
I remember the day war broke out a friend and I took the train to Whaley Bridge. It was a beautiful autumn morning and as we walked along the Goyt Valley appreciating the lovely countryside with the rowan berries already fully red I felt how incongruous it was. Somehow it seemed wrong that we were in this tranquil scene when horror was breaking out all over our world. I felt I ought to be somewhere else doing something.
Of course at that stage there was nothing I could do. In fact I would have loved to go into the forces but because my job was essential for the war effort I could not do so.

My mother had never let me buy a bicycle, and it was one of the first things that I did. It cost 拢7.00, had three speeds and a light and I mostly cycled to work all through the war.

I worked in the office of J H Bounds situated in Sackville Street Manchester (opposite UMIST).
The firm had its factory in Farnworth and made textiles for hospitals - everything in fact from a safety pin to a shroud!

I can particularly remember the beautiful nurse鈥檚 uniforms that we made for Mrs Churchill鈥檚 aid to Russia. They were of the finest white rep cotton woven in Lancashire鈥 wouldn鈥檛 be surprised if they are still going strong to this day!

Jimmy Bounds, the owner was a major in the army so we hardly every saw him. Betty Burton ,the managing director and I ran the place with a very small staff.

Supplies were very limited, but because of our work we were registered as a canteen and I had a good, although basic,lunch every day. I remember the wonderful lady, Mary Howarth who made us meals out of nothing. I am sure she sometimes used her own rations to feed us. My being fed at lunch time was a great help to my mother in eking out the family rations.

Betty and I used to go to London now and then for meetings with others in The Textile and Clothing Contractor's Association. We stayed at the Strand Palace or Regent鈥檚 Palace. I have an unpleasant memory of not sleeping one night and putting the light on to see black creepy crawlies on my pillow. They disappeared into the pillow! Next day they changed our room, but when I got home I had blotches all over me. Mother insisted I went to the doctor. He took one look and more or less laughed and said 鈥淭hey won鈥檛 hurt you, I was covered in those when I was in Africa!鈥�
That did not make it any better, but one had to accept these things - There was a war on! A phrase one heard and used all the time.

A happier memory is of one time when we were in London we went to see Arsenic and Old Lace and the word went round that General Montgomery was in the audience.

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