´óÏó´«Ã½

This story was submitted to the People's War site by a volunteer from Radio Suffolk on behalf of Dorothy Matthews and has been added to the site with her permission. She understands the site's terms and conditions.

At the start of the war I was working and travelling by train to Aldgate, Houndsditch East. When war broke out I was diverted by bus through the East End where I saw all the destruction created by the bombing. It was dreadful to see but somehow everyone was very friendly and a sense of humour got us through. At home, although we were never bombed directly, windows were broken and garden sheds were knocked down as a result of the force of bomb explosions in the area. Often rabbit hatches were knocked over and yet the rabbits somehow survived. In the garden we had an Anderson shelter covered over by earth. Inside there were four bunks, a cupboard, a small stove and a supply of tea and coffee, etc. In order to keep the shelter free of condensation my mother would cover a candle with a terracotta flower pot. It kept us surprisingly warm.

At work the warehouse of the firm next door was bombed. A safe was located at the bottom of a bomb crater — this was rescued and opened. Inside it was full of invoices. An enterprising group of women laboriously dabbed them with wet paper in order to be able to read all the addresses and eventually they were able to send everyone their bills!

My firm moved to Hayes End near Uxbridge. It was a long bus ride and in the winter the mornings were very dark although I was always able to find my way to the bus stop without stumbling. There was a system for us to take it in turns to stay over night and act as fire wardens. There were three of us, myself, my sister and her boyfriend. We would take food in and cook a meal and sometimes we would slip out and go to the cinema. We rather enjoyed these evenings and it also meant extra pay.

Eventually my sister and her boyfriend were called up to join the forces. I was called up to become a sheet metal worker. I began my training to repair metal boxes in Edmonton. There were about twenty of us, mainly women, with two male tutors and it was all very friendly. When I had finished the course, I was selected to become a supervisor of about thirty women. These were mainly housewives who had been called up to do full or part time work. This was at a big roller blind factory in Richmond. Here we repaired boxes for incendiary bombs. When the boxes came in they were in very bad shape and we had to solder and bash them back into shape and then they were dipped into black paint. There was a great sense of team work and as well as supervising, my job was to number each job and to make up the rotas. This went on for about two to three years and then as the war drew to a close the work began to dry up. I transferred to other sheet metal work, bus shelter tops.

After the war the men returned and reclaimed their sheet metal work. I was pleased to return to work in an office!

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