´óÏó´«Ã½

At the age of 13 years, I started work at Lucas’, Great King Street. The year was 1942. School leaving age was 14 years, but my birthday came after the August holidays. My job at Lucas’, because I was so small, was to crawl around the inside frames of gun turrets inserting rivets. The riveter would then follow behind and shoot them in, these gun turrets were eventually destined for the Lancaster and other aircraft, in the last few years of the war. In between the long working hours, often during the lunch breaks, dozens of wounded recuperating servicemen were entertained and dined in our canteens. I was privileged to wait on the tables on these occasions. Prior to my starting at Lucas’, my sister and I were evacuated to the lovely village of Newent in Gloucestershire. We were there for 3 years attending the local Picklenash School in the morning. We picked Hops and Fruit in the afternoons. At the top of our estate was a prisoner of war camp; as children we tried to ignore they were they enemy.

This story was submitted to the People’s War site by Anastasia Travers a volunteer with WM CSV Actiondesk on behalf of Beatrice Ensor and has been added to the site with his permission. Beatrice Ensor fully understands the sites terms and conditions.

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