大象传媒

My name is Pamela Winsor and I was only 3 or 4 when the war started but I still have vivid memories of it. I was living in Southampton with my mother and father and can remember that my father left his job as a builder to go and work at the hospital as a porter during the war, he had an injury that stopped him going to war as a soldier and obviously me and my mother were glad to have him at home. Being in Southampton was a dangerous experience as it faced daily air raids and bombs so my father thought it was best that my mother and I went to the countryside where we would be safer. It was hard to find somewhere to stay since most families had already been evacuated and households in the countryside were already filled up with these city evacuees. A relative found a couple called Mr and Mrs Collins in Ampfield (near Winchester) who were willing to take us in and we had to travel with our belongings on the back of a coal lorry to get there. The couple we stayed with lived in a little cottage that had no water, electric or gas. For water we had to take a bucket to a pump in a country lane, we used candles for light, did cooking on what I think was a range cooker and had to boil a kettle over and over again to take a bath. The cottage had low ceilings and because my mother was not used to them nearly every time she picked me up to take me up to bed she accidentally knocked my head on the ceiling, it used to frighten the life out of the couple. From their garden we could sometimes see the flames and planes over Southampton during the air raids. It was an awful time for my mother because my father was still in Southampton and when we could see the air raids from Southampton we never knew what had been hit or if he was ok. I started at my first school in Ampfield when I was about 5 years old but shortly after we went back to Southampton because my mother and I were terribly missing my father. In Southampton I can remember the air raids and having to go down to the shelter, we would wait nearly every night for it to go off. If there had been a bad air raid there would be lots of damaged buildings afterwards, the whole of Southampton high street was destroyed. My auntie went into labour with my cousin during an air raid, she had to stay in the house and have the baby during the air raid. My most prominent memory from the war is seeing the disfigured faces of the soldiers who had been at the front line, we lived near a reconstructive surgery recovery centre so were used to seeing disfigured soldiers. During the war I contracted tuberculosis from my uncle when he was staying with us, I was about 7 at the time. Rations were available to children as well as adults and I loved being able to get sweets, although I had to spread them out otherwise I wouldn鈥檛 get any more for another month.

'This story was submitted to the People's War site by Laura Leahy of the County Heritage team on behalf of Pamela Winsor and has been added to the site with her permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions.'

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