大象传媒

Harry and I met in Margate when I was on Holiday there and we got on straight away. We got married in May 1939 when I was 19. He was a civilian then and we lived near Holloway prison. I was a dressmaker and earned one pound and ten shillings (拢1.50p) weekly and my husband earned two pounds and ten shillings (拢2.10p). All married women were sacked when war broke out.

My husband was called up - he was then 23 years old - and did his training in Salisbury for 6 weeks. He was then moved to Aldershot where we spent our first wedding anniversary. While we were in Aldershot, my husband stole a book of passes and shared them among the boys. He came home but when he was leaving the house there were 2 Red Caps awaiting him who asked him where he came from. He lied and said "I am from Woolwich." He was arrested and put in the glasshouse.

Then Harry was sent to Leeds where I fell pregnant with our first child. He was posted to Egypt in 1941 and was in Cairo and Alexandria. I was on my own, lonely and pregnant with our second child who was 3 years old when Harry first saw him.

I went up to Nottingham for a while because my mother was worried about me because of all the bombing in London. I came back when my mother passed away in Fulham.

We had air-raid shelters made of bricks outside the houses on ground level. I remember a bomb went off near Tufnell Park and the vibrations hit the houses by Holloway. the windows shattered and the door jammed so I couldn't get out.There was no water and the smell of gas was awful. I gave up my clothing coupons to get stuff for my children.

We would have to go to the shelters very often. In the Soho shelters there were hundreds of people. The noise of the sirens was very frightening and the smell of the gas was awful there too.

We would have to use the public baths as we did not have bathtubs in the home.

Harry did not want to become a corporal. He was looking after the German POWs in Egypt. He got caught once coming home without authorised leave. He would not tell me about what happened in Egypt so as not to upset me. He used to send almonds, Yardley's Lavender Water, rice and cubed sugar from Egypt. He would write very regularly and would number the letters.

Harry called our first baby his War Baby, our second one his Disembarkation Baby, and our third one his Demobbed Baby.

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