大象传媒

I was nine when war broke out. I was the youngest in the family with two older brothers. At the age of eleven I was going to school in Colchester.

I have happy memories of being in the GTC (Girls Training Corp) which was run by Miss Cuckoo. I wore a navy skirt and forage cap with a white blouse. We made the forage caps ourselves and the dye would run down our faces when it rained. We had a great time together and learnt how to march and take messages so we felt we were really contributing to the war effort. We also did knitting for the troops at school. My brother was in the sea cadets.

My parents ran the pub, The Toll House in Coggeshall which was a really lively place to live. The Americans had a big base at Marks Hall and they came into Coggeshall to get pure water for the base. They would give out oranges and held a huge party for children who had been evacuated or who had lost their parents.

At the beginning of the war there was an ack ack battalion near Feering. The soldiers would come to the pub and pay my mother 3d for a bath. We had a big copper in the kitchen which would heat the water and pipe it upstairs. One day five soldiers turned up and by the last bath the water was very dirty!

Sweets were rationed and we would buy scrubbed up carrots which tasted really sweet for a penny halfpenny. For a treat we would pay a 2d for a piece of fish and a penny for chips with bits. We kept pigs and some would be taken away and one we could kill for meat.

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