´óÏó´«Ã½

This story has been submitted to the People’s War website by Anne Wareing of the Lancashire Home Guard on behalf of Nina Oldfield and has been added to the site with her permission…

In 1939 I lived in Blackpool with my parents who ran a boarding house in Westmorland Avenue.

At the start of the war we had to take in evacuees from Liverpool and I remember in particular, one man and lady who weren’t very nice at, all but the children were lovely. I can also remember that along with the children, I only went to school part time, mornings one week, afternoons another.

Following the children going back home, the Army was billeted with us and I recall them training on the streets outside. A house further down the street was commandeered and made into a headquarters, the family had to move out, so at least we still had our home.

The army stayed for two years, then we got some Polish Airmen, they were the worst of all. Very untidy and if you said anything to them, they would pretend they didn’t understand English. They also stayed about two years and after that we hoped to get back to normal and open as a business again.

My mother set about re-furbishing the rooms as this needed to be done, then she was told she would have to take some men from the RAF, she wasn’t happy about this, but had no real choice, it was either that or they would take the house over.

Eventually of course things did get back to normal and the house was our own again.

© Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.