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This story was submitted to the ´óÏó´«Ã½ WW2 People’s War site by Mrs M A Nallen of St Benedict’s Catholic High School on behalf of Mary Fellows and has been added to the site with her permission. The author fully understands the site’s terms and conditions.

WW2 Peoples War

For this project I interviewed my Grandmother Mary Fellows, although she was only 5 years old when war was declared still had some very interesting memories and experiences.

Home Front

Q. How old were you when the war started?
A. I was 5 years old.

Q. Do you remember anything about the day war was declared?
A. No I was too young.

Q. Where did you live at this time?
A. I lived in Dudley in the West Midlands.

Q. Did you have a large family?
A. No there was just My Mom and Dad, my brother Jack and I.

Q. What was school like in the war?
A. School was very strict but was a very happy place. When I was 6 I was evacuated to Ireland with my brother Jack who was 10 at the time. We went to school in Dunabate for 2 years and this was where I also made my First Holy Communion.

Q. Was your house bombed?
A. No I knew a few people who were bombed — an old lady called Flor who lived in Coventry. She was evacuated to Burton Road Hospital in Dudley because she had lost her home and everything she possessed. A bomb fell on the Birmingham New Road which was only 2 miles away from our house.

Q. Did you work during the war?
A. No I was too young but my mother was Night Superintendent at Burton Road Hospital where evacuees from Coventry and wounded soldiers and airmen were taken.

Social Life

Q. Did you have a boyfriend?
A. No I was too young but I had some friends who were boys.

Q. When did you meet?
A. Everyday at school and at weekends.

Q. What things did you do when you went out?
A. On weekends we met up in the street and played tag and hopscotch and other children’s games.

Q. Did you go to dances/cinema?
A. Yes we went to Saturday morning matinee at the cinema and watched Flash Gordon, Hopalong Cassidy and Jean Autrey.
Q. What clothes were fashionable at the time?
A. For girls it was pinafore dresses and for boys it was pullovers (jumpers), usually home knitted and long trousers. We always had a best outfit for Sundays.

Q. When food rationing started, what did you miss most?
A. Sweets, because I was only a child. We used to buy Horlicks tablets from the chemist instead of sweets. We also had lots of tinned condensed milk for puddings.

Evacuation

Q. Were you evacuated?
A. Yes I was evacuated to Dublin in Ireland to family.

Q. What differences were there between home and where you were evacuated to?
A. In England I lived in a town and in Ireland I lived in a village called Portran.

Q. Did you write home?
A. No but my brother wrote home and my Mom or Dad came to see us every 3 months.

Q. Were you happy?
A. Yes I made lots of new friends and because I was staying with my Auntie it wasn’t as strange as other children may have felt.

Q. When did you go home?
A. In 1942 because my Father was very ill, he subsequently died which was a very sad time for us, as I was 8 and my brother was 13.

Q. Have you kept in touch with your billet parents and family?
A. We did initially but now most have passed away.

Q. Did you have an air raid shelter?
A. Yes, it was built of bricks and sunk below the ground at the top of the garden.

Q. What happened when the siren went off?
A. Everyone hurried to the shelter until the all clear sounded.

Q. How did you know what was happening in the war?
A. Because I spent a lot of time at the hospital where my mother worked — I saw and heard a lot of stories about the war. I used to sit with the soldiers and airmen and talk to them.

Q. Was anybody in your family killed in the war or did you know anyone who was killed?
A. A young lad of 18 who lived in our street was killed.

Q. Did any of your family serve in the war?
A. The man who was to become my husband and Tom’s grandfather was drafted in 1945 when he was 18. He was based in Germany after the war had ended to liberate the German people.
Tom’s Great Uncle Ray was in the air force and received the Burma Cross medal for serving in Burma.
Tom’s Great Uncle George was based in Egypt with the Army.

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