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This story was submitted to the People’s War site by Vijiha Bashir, at ´óÏó´«Ã½ Scotland on behalf of J. Plunkett from Elderslie, Johnstone and has been added to the site with the permission of Johnstone History Society. The author fully understands the site’s terms and conditions.

My first memory of the War Years was of people talking about the declaration of War which had just been heard on the Radio. Then I remember being at Glasgow Central Station, with my name tag tied to my jacket and with a tin mug and packet of sandwiches being sent by train to Dumfries.

A whole train load of evacuees arrived at the Village School in Parkgate, Dumfries where we were eventually allocated accommodation with people in houses and Farms etc. One group of 12 were allocated to the local Big Wig at his castle.

Mostly it was in groups of two’s, three’s and four children per household and I along with my older sister, younger brother and a girl, who was a neighbour from Glasgow, were taken to live with a farming family. My brother and I fitted very well into life in the Country but my sister and the other girl were homesick, (they cried all the time and were thoroughly miserable too) and so they were sent home after just two or three weeks of being away form our mother. The farmer and his wife had two children, a girl of about 10 and a boy around 14 years. We all went to the Local Village School and we had to walk, probably about 1 miles every day there and back over fields that stretched forever. Petrol was rationed so whatever was available was saved for farm work and emergencies.

We helped on the farm by feeding the hens, collecting their eggs, and I learned how to milk the cows, twice daily. Fun or What? The snow fell very heavily the first winter on the farm and we were ‘snowed in’. All roads leading to the farm and surrounding areas were blocked for about a week. However the farmer’s wife had a big store of flour and meal etc. Which she used to make to make the most delicious meals and so we were very well fed — plenty to eat. It was so cold that winter that the Loch froze solid, last time this happened apparently, was only two years before, and we were able to go curling and sledging along with all the local folks. — Happy Memories.

The next outstanding memory I have of those days, was helping at the threshing and cutting of crops, this was a very noisy and dusty operation and very, very hard work. There were two very large Clydesdale Horses on the farm and one day we had to take them to a nearby village so that the horses could have new shoes fitted. Me and the farmer’s son sat on their backs and walked or trotted them to the smiddy. I was most concerned for the horses when I watched the ‘new shoes’ heated up till they were glowing RED being fitted to the horses hoofs and having ‘huge nails’ hammered to keep the shoes in place. This was the first time I had ever seen anything like this being done.

After the new shoes had been fitted to the horses, we had great difficulty controlling them, they just wanted to gallop all the way back to the farm. Apparently, they love getting new shoes fitted.

My brother and I fitted very well into this way of life, eager to help and working on everything required on a farm.

The next highlight for me was passing my school exams and I was to go on to Dumfries Academy. But all these plans were to change when I landed back home.

I worked with my father for two years after I left school at 14 until I started as apprentice Electrician at the ripe old age of 16. At 18 years of age I was called up and served in the Army under the deferred Apprenticeship Scheme, which meant I served 2 years in the Army and acme out and finished my apprenticeship with the Government making up my wage to electrician rate. There was a chronic shortage of work at this time and after I finished my apprenticeship I was paid off. (Industrial materials were in short supply, which accounted for the scarcity of jobs).

The things that I remember most about the War Years is the rationing and shortage of everything that we had taken for granted before. All food tea, butter, sugar and meats were rationed and individuals were only allowed so many coupons for clothes (utility grade). Sweets and chocolates were rationed and there was a shortage of fruit. All furniture was of Utility Grade — if any was available at all. Working overtime was compulsory and national restaurants were set up so that everyone could get a meal at dinner time and there were constant power cuts with no warnings.

I remember the Clydebank Blitz which happened the same night a land mine was dropped to land on Dalmarnock Power Station. The mine missed its intended target; landing on the other side of the road instead, exploded and flattened a block of flats. I was about a mile away but I felt the strength of the blast.

Blast walls were erected at the entrance to all blocks of flats or tenements. There were steel beams or benches along the full length of the ‘Closes’ to provide shelter if buildings were hit and demolished.

I particularly remember the great number of people and the celebrations which took place in George Square at the end of the War in 1945.

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