大象传媒

I was living in Lanchester when the war started, with my parents, older brother and younger sister and brother. My older brother joined the Durham Light Infantry at the beginning of the war.

The barber in the village was called up, so his shop was for sale. My father bought it and I opened up a Ladies Hairdressers. There were soldiers billeted all over Lanchester in the Chapel Hall, the Co-op Hall and Green Croft Hall. As there was no barber to cut the soldiers hair, I was given the job, so for 18 months I was exempt from being called up.

Then I went to Wallsend training centre to train for factory work. After 6 months I was posted to Coalville in Leicestershire, to work in an aircraft factory making components for Lancaster bombers under carriages. I stayed there for 2 and a half years then I developed a bad chest and was demobbed.

It was a terrible shock to be taken from the village I鈥檇 lived in all my life to live in lodgings. The food was very bad and we were always hungry. The beds were damp and we put the rugs off the floor on the beds to keep warm. When we had to leave for 48 hours we travelled from Leicester overnight with numerous stops and changes. By the time I got home it was often only a few hours before I had to leave again. I met my future husband just before I went away, and during the next four years he wrote to me every day.

My brother was rescued from Dunkirk, but contracted T.B. and spent 2 years in a sanatorium and died aged 27 years.

Disclaimer: story submitted by Monica Murfin at Lanchester Library on behalf of Freda Nicholson

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