大象传媒

My mother was Margaret O'Neill (Later McQuaid) and was known to all as Peggy. She had worked in the Meccano factory in Binns Rd before the war as a quality inspector on the Dinky toys line. At the outbreak of war the factory was turned over to war material production and she went onto permanent nights.
On one of her rare nights off, she and others from her department decided to go to a dance which was being held in New Brighton. For those who don't know the area, New Brighton is on the other side of the river Mersey from Liverpool and at the time the cheapest way of travel was by ferry.
There was no way that her father would have agreed to her going 'so far from home' (home was in Edge Lane Drive) and so he was told that she was going to 'town'.
As they all left the dance and were making their way to the ferry, the air raid sirens sounded and they were all directed to a shelter. After the all clear, they made their way back towards the ferry and on looking across the river towards Liverpool they could see nothing but fire and smoke. It looked as though the whole city was in flames and they were convinced that their homes and families were gone. She remembers that there although there were a lot of people on the pier, waiting for the ferry, there was a complete silence. People were just staring across the river in disbelief.
Edge Lane Drive is in the Old Swan area of Liverpool and is a few miles from the city itself and it was untouched in that raid. The family were all safe but they could see the same fires burning in the city that mum could see from New Brighton. The raid had been heavy and they, believing that she had gone into 'town' thought she must have been killed or injured. Their fears increased when she was late home due to the difficulty in travelling after the raid.
When she did eventually get home and each found the other safe, their feelings can only be imagined. Later she fould that others in her group, who lived nearer to the city centre were not so lucky.
She did have to explain the truth of where she had been, but her parents relief was so great that she got away with it. For some reason though, she never went on any similar nights out until after the war !!
The feelings she experienced that night made such a lasting impression that years later she would still speak of the time that she saw the city in flames. She did of course, like all who lived through it, have other memories of the war, but that one remained by far the most vivid.

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