大象传媒

This story has been submitted to the People's War website by Jean Holmes of the Lancshomeguard on behalf of Joan Stables and added to the site with her permission.

I was 19 years old when the war began and women began to do the jobs the men had traditionally done. Some women became guards or porters. I got a job in the booking office of the Great Western Railway, Oxford. I worked shifts, 7am to 2pm, or 2pm to 8pm. It was interesting work, but sad when trains came in with wounded soldiers. We would take them chocolate and cigarettes and feel that we were doing something useful.

When bombs were dropped at Paddington the trains were very late. The night Coventry was bombed we saw all this flak in the sky. I had training with the ARP (air raid protection) and assembled in a mission hut, where I learned how to rescue people.

When I got married I was able to have a white wedding as my mother was a dressmaker. We hired a hall for the reception and went to Surrey to an aunt of mine for our honeymoon. Everyone said don鈥檛 forget to put the blackout up. A dooglebug fell near us, but we weren鈥檛 harmed.

My husband was in the army. He drove over a mine crossing the Rhine and lost his leg. He came home and after he was well again he did clerical work with the Ministry of Food. He seemed fine until about 4 years later when he had a sort of delayed shock and wouldn鈥檛 go out, but he preferred not to talk about his war experiences.

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