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The following has been submitted to the website with the permission of Alison Penaluna the collator of the Stithians Parish Memories of World War 2. She understands the sites terms and conditions.
GASMASKS
We were all issued with gas masks and these became an integral part of everyday life, likewise ration books and identity
cards. We carried our gas masks with us everywhere, to school, to Church and Chapel, to the shops, indeed every time on a trip away from home. If it meant going some little distance it made sense to take them and be ready to use them if necessary. Fortunately we never did require them for real. The masks were inspected regularly to see that they were gas proof. At one stage we had an extra gas filter fitted on the ‘snout’ — no doubt for a newer, different type of gas for which the original mask would have proved ineffective. We had mock air raids and gas drills at school on a regular basis. All of the wrought iron railings , (except those bounding the cemeteries), were removed. The iron was needed to help in the manufacturing of war munitions. Sadly, the railings have never been replaced. All the roadsigns were removed, shops had to cover their door signs if depicting the name of town or village. Old milestones , however, were left in place. Governmant orientated slogans appeared everywhere on hoardings, e.g. : ‘Careless Talk Costs Lives’; ‘Dig For Victory’; ‘Be Like Dad — Keep Mum’, to name but a few.
Blackout seemed not to be too great a hardship, there was no street lighting in the village anyway - that was to come many years later. But now every light had to be 'Blacked Out', even a hand-held torch had to have its own little blackout with only a glimmer of light. Woe betide you if your blackout wasn't perfect, the Air Raid Warden would be knocking on your door with orders to black out your windows completely. We used a black cloth to make blinds or black, stiff cartridge paper with wooden frames to fit the windows. The Church Bells and the school bell were silenced — only to be used to announce either the approach of the enemy or to announce the cessation of hostilities. Fortunately only the latter announcement was the one for which the bells were rung.
As the war progressed so shortages became more acute, shortages of food, petrol, cattle feeding stuffs, coal and fuel of all kinds, even clothing. Virtually every commodity was in short supply and rationed. We once became quite excited when we managed to obtain some kind of soap substitute. Some substitute! It could be likened to trying to obtain a lather from a piece of brick. There was a certain satisfaction in making 'new from old'. Barrage balloons were mostly manufactured from silk and sometimes became damaged, perhaps by lightning or enemy aircraft machine-gun fire. They then were only good for sewing and made excellent blouses or undergarments. White flour was at that time obtained from the mill in strong white cotton bags which, when empty, washed and bleached made really good aprons, tablecloths, pillow cases etc. Our Mums were not always as successful in bleaching out the coloured letters from the bags as they would like to have been and so many an apron sported the manufacturers name in letters one inch high and more, and in different colours.
The Women's Institute played a major part in parish affairs during the gloom of the war years. Many of its members joined the Women's Voluntary Service, (WVS), and prepared for the collection of evacuees. Miss Janie Hellings formed a National Savings Group and for her services she received the British Empire Medal on 9th March 1954. She had personally been responsible for collecting over £44,000.00 since 1917 covering the two wars and the intervening years. Forty members of the Women's Institute joined a Wartime Produce Guild and were granted supplies of sugar with which they produced over 5000 pounds of jam; this was sold to parishoners. 'Digging for Victory' became synonymous with 'Making Do and Mending'.
During 1940 the Agricultural Exhibition was again cancelled. Sutton's Seeds Company and Cornwall Federation of Women's Institutes distributed seeds and W.I. members agreed to do the 'digging' as it were, producing vegetables and fruit and making use of every available inch of garden space.
June 1940 saw the first batch of evacuees and transport was arranged by Mrs Gordon, wife of Colonel Gordon, Trevales. Mrs. Gordon was at that time the W.I. President and it was she who was in charge of the evacuees and their welfare — she was the Billeting Officer, helped by all W.I. members. The first evacuee arrivals were picked up from Camborne by Mrs. Gordon and Mrs. E.M. Phillips. One batch came from Walthamstow and another from Bermondsey, both areas of London. Many young mothers were among these first arrivals. The quiet life of a Cornish village, however, proved for some to be unbearable and they felt they just had to return to their native London, in spite of the bombs and stresses of the blitz. The village school was by now bursting at the seams and could in no way accommodate all of the newcomers as well as the local children, and so the Church Hall was utilised as extra classrooms. Crellow House was turned into a Hostel for some of the children, those who could not be placed with families. During 1941 yet more evacuees were absorbed into the village, these coming from Plymouth as that city was by now the target for Hitler's ‘War From the Skies'. The youngsters were in a sorry state on arrival due to lack of sleep, (Plymouth was being subjected to ferocious bombing attacks by May 1941 and, for the size of the city, received a terrible pounding). We in Cornwall could only guess at what was happening there.
The evacuees apparently integrated with the local children quite well. No doubt, as one would expect, there were a few hiccups, but the following says a lot for the hospitality which Stithians' folk gave to their guests. 'Miss Trimnell, a domestic science teacher who came with the children from London, and who was billeted with Miss Grace Kemp in Martin’s Terrace, was overheard to say that although she had enjoyed the hospitality of a castle, it was as nothing compared to the kindness that she had received with dear Miss Kemp in her ‘two up, two down. A few of the children even returned to the village after the war was over to seek out their 'temporary' homes. One such incident occurring as recently as the summer of 1987.

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