大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People's War site by Gillian Estall and has been added to the website on behalf of Philippa Kenyon-Slaney with her permission and they fully understand the site's terms and conditions.

I've remembered a moderately major thing in the war for us children and that was knitting. We had all been taught to do this when we were 5 - even my brother.

Of course to buy knitting wool for civilians' clothes you had to use Clothing Coupons; however the WVS (the R for Royal was added later) organised knitting for the Armed Forces. These efficient women in dark green tweed coats, uncompromising green hats with a maroon ribbon and sensible shoes would provide wool, carefully noted down to make sure you returned the right amount, transformed into Comforts for the Troops. As our father was in the Navy, our knitting was for the Senior Service. My 2 elder sisters, 13 and 15, were excellent knitters and produced a gentle flow of dark blue socks, heels deftly turned, toes expertly grafted and sometimes great big thick grey Sea Boot stockings. I aspired to mittens, the kind which left fingers bare, my younger sister, 8, made wristlets to fill the drafty gap. Even my brother, 6, laboriously knitted a scarf, which we called Wavy Navy as it had a variable number of stitches and uncertainly shaped edges. The long-suffering Forces must have had some strange garments supplied to them, but we prided ourselves on the quality of what we made and even that scarf would have kept a neck warm on watch.

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