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I was five in 1939 when war broke out and my father went in the 5th Loyal regiment and he was posted in Palestine.
While my father was in the war for 4 years we saw him very rarely he was invalided out after 4 years, he caught ‘sprue’ which is a fungal infection of the intestines. He was very very ill when he came home.
While he was away my mother had to work in a school kitchen full time. We had very very little money, one of the stories my mother used to tell us was that she used to put newpapers in her shoes to cover the holes up. When we were having food it was all powered, eggs and potatoes, nothing was fresh. If there was a shop that advertised sweets were arriving there would be a mad dash and a queue just for a few sweets. We used to call at the chemist and get horlick tablets or malted milk powder which we used to dip our finger in. we also had cod liver oil and malt and orange juice, we didn’t feel deprived at the time.
My grandfather built his own dug out ‘Anderson’ shelter in the garden which we had for years and years.
There was second hand clothes if we could get them.
I had an uncle Bill who was in the Chindits in Burma he was missing in the jungle for months but survived and came home. My uncle Eric who was flying over Nijmagan in Holland he was ready for coming home on leave when he was shot down, he is buried in Nijmagan and a dutch family took the war graves over and they look after them. Another uncle Alan who was an asthma sufferer was put in the home guard. Uncle Kenneth was only 17years, he went in the royal navy, of the four brothers three came home and finished the war and one was killed.

My auntie Eunice she was in the pay core of the ATS at Radcliff, she spent all her time serving the war at Radcliff. She worked as an administrator. She was called up and had to go, you didn’t volunteer.

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