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This story gathered by Gloria Davies has been added to the People’s War website by Anne Wareing of the Lancashire Home Guard on behalf of Elizabeth Thompson, the story is in her own words…

I had just turned 19 when War was declared in September 1939, That weekend was like no other as we were busy erecting black-out curtains, shading lights, and receiving a child of five years as an evacuee from Manchester.
I remember most vividly the announcement of the Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, on the radio at 11 a.m. on the 3rd September. My Mother and I were together -she had known the 1914-1918 War - and when we realized that War had been declared with Germany we both wept and hugged each other. My Father was on Hospital duty that morning.

After lunch I prepared to go to Sunday School which was held in the Primary School belonging to the Parish Church and was about 1 mile from home. As I walked down the road the sirens sounded, no one was about, So I ran as fast as I could to my Grandmother's home, the all-clear went after about half an hour and I proceeded to Sunday School. There were no children that day, only the Superintendent and myself,- it was a very weird feeling and we were full of apprehension.

Shortly afterwards the local W.R.V.S. took over a building which had once been a hotel and restaurant as a great number of troops were housed in two local centres around the village, and a Canteen became vital for their well being. The Canteen was opened each day from 2 p.m. to 10.30 p.m. and over the months and years we were kept very busy. At that time we, the W.R.V.S. members- were approached by the Commanding Officer asking it we could take one or two soldiers for a weekly bath. Facilities at the camps were very limited.

At the beginning of the War I was working as a Shorthand Typist at a clothing firm, but in September 1941 I was offered a post at our local hospital as Secretary to the Chief Executive. The hospital had over 2,000 beds for the mentally handicapped and was a village in itself. On the orders of the Ministry of Health the hospital had made accommodation available for 800 wounded personnel, .two Operating Theatres, X-Ray Dept. Physio~therapy Dept. together with a company of R.A.M.C. Staff and Surgical and Medical Staff. 400 mentally handicapped patients were relocated at another hospital three miles away.

In June 1940 came the evacuation of our Forces from Dunkirk, and the hospital was flooded with wounded from all the various forces. At that time there was a railway line from the local station into the hospital which had its own engine and driver, so it was easy for the coaches to be diverted without causing too much distress to the wounded.

It wasn’t all doom and gloom in the hospital even though things were difficult. The Chief Executive was also the Entertainments Officer and there were many concerts, dances, lectures, musical evenings, etc. organized for both the walking wounded and local people.

One particular convoy stays in my mind. We had received 700 wounded, etc. one night from Italy and the desert regions. Many of the men who could walk sat on the hospital lawns (it was summertime) and some of them were stroking the grass.' It had been so long since they had seen any. It was a very touching sight as was the eagerness to use a telephone to contact their loved ones.

As the War progressed we had a number of German Prisoners of War housed in one ward, heavily guarded, but receiving the same treatment as our own men. It was very strange to see them being taken for a walk round the grounds.

Just before Christmas 1943 when Manchester was being bombed, I was at Choir practice in the Parish Church, -the sirens had gone but we carried on with the practice. Suddenly there was an explosion and the Church seemed to rock and then steadied itself. Two bombs had dropped on the football field of the hospital , thankfully missing the buildings but several hundred windows were broken.

All the staff at the hospital, whether on the military side or institutional, were involved whenever convoys were sent, and this state of affairs lasted until 1946.

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