����ý

This story was submitted to the People’s War site by Three Counties Action on behalf of Elaine Furness and has been added to the site with her permission. The author fully understands the site’s terms and conditions.

Preparations for war started in Southport in 1938 when underground Air-raid shelters were dug in the middle of the town near the town hall and there was a display of sandbag filling. We received a quantity of leaflets about Air-raid precautions and advice about “blacking-out” every window. My Father made wooden frames out of laths and brown paper to fit some of the windows, including my bedroom window and I painted a five foot orange tree on it covered in fruit. I was eleven years old in 1939 the year was declared against Germany and had passed the Scholarship examination to enter Southport High School in September that year.

We were issued with gas-masks which were supplied in cardboard boxes and Women’s magazines and Daily papers produced patterns for making covers for the boxes which were obviously not designed to survive long. Gs-masks had to be carried at all times and a few emergency supplies were also include in some of the cases. I had a tube of Horlicks tablet and some raisins and a spare pair of wool socks in mine. Some people had torches and matches in the beginning but later these were in very short supply as batteries and bulbs were practically obtainable and candles also rare items. Smart leather and rexine cases were manufactured but these were not common among my friends. I had several cases during the war, one was made form waterproof bright green American cloth and when that wore out my Mother made me another one out of khaki twill, which lasted until the end of the war. We all had a small cardboard identity card and were instructed to memorise our identity number (mine was NBQN 343/4). There was no photograph just name, address and number and this also had to be carried at all times. Most people wore an identity disc around their necks or an engraved bracelet on their wrist. My identity disc was an ivory piano key with my name and address in indelible pencil, which was later, marked over in marking ink. It was threaded onto a length of crochet chain, as metal chains seemed to keep breaking. Gas masks smelt of rubber and steamed up and became wet inside very quickly when worn. We were advised to rub inside the transparent window with soft soap to prevent fogging, which it did to a certain extent, but added to the horrible smell. They fitted very tightly and mine always gave me a headache. I remember being thoroughly annoyed by all these petty regulations and absolutely furious wit the Germans who seemed to be the cause of all this disruption. How dare anyone be plotting to spray me with gas and send bombs in Europe. My experience of foreigners was very limited and knowing that they had tried to kill my Father during the 1914-1918 war for no reason known to me did not make me want to love my enemies. Why couldn’t they love me? Our Girl Guide Camp was also cancelled in 1939 “because of the possibility of War being declared.”

Southport was a reception area for evacuees and a leave town for American serviceman later. My school was required initially to accommodate a school evacuated from Bootle. The children were not integrated and I believe we were told we were not to talk to them. Classrooms were used separately an as there was obviously not enough space, makeshift classrooms were made available in church buildings and sometimes we went for a walk while our classroom was in use. We went in crocodile through streets round the school led by our teacher. There was no swimming, speech day, or school magazine during my time at school “because of the war.” The arrangement with the school from Bootle didn’t last very long, I think most of the children returned home or were evacuated somewhere else as our school was required to take in a number of pupils from London who arrived with their parents working in Government Offices which were moved to Northwest. They were allowed to wear their own school uniforms and some seemed very exotic. Henrietta Barnet children had little hats with gold tassels and one girl wore a purple and grey outfit with a beautiful purple velour hat.
At one time we were told that all our maps must be destroyed and Geography lessons concentrated on climate and crops and deposits of minerals and throughout the world.

We had Morning Assembly of the whole school every day and we sang the National Anthems of some of the Allied as well as our own and said prayers for the families of Fathers and Brothers who had been killed. We suffered when “The Hood” was sunk and a friend’s brother was killed when his plane crashed and there were many other family tragedies

When there was no heating in the school (which was most of the time) we were allowed to wear our gabardine mackintoshes indoors but if it was raining on the way to school it meant that we were wet as well as cold. I went home every day at lunchtime and so thankfully missed the school dinners, which I was told were horrible. There were also sandwiched provided at mid-morning called Oslo sandwiches which I think were made from grated cheese and were unrationed but they were too expensive for me. We did receive a free third of a pint of milk every day though.

We were issued with Jotters made from re cycled very poor quality paper and this exercise book had to last for a whole term. We wrote in pencil and then rubbed everything out and had to start again. We had to writ eon both sides of paper and sometimes to get extra space turned the books sideways as well. Textbooks were in very short supply and most had to be shared. Everything was either in short supply or totally unobtainable. Geometry instrument, coloured pencils and erasers were very precious objects. It is not at all difficult to imagine conditions in Third World countries for my generation, as it was much the same for us.

All clothes and textiles were rationed by as system of coupons and the allowance was merely twenty a year. There were no extra allowances for school uniforms of course. I unpicked an old pair of my Fathers navy pin stripe trousers and turned the material on the wrong side to make myself a regulation plain navy skirt when my gym slip was outgrown. The blazer I started with when I was 11 had to last until I was 16 by which time it was rather tight. There were a few second hand blazers for sale (off coupons) but they were usually only in the smaller sizes. New school summer dresses, underclothes and shoes took an entire year’s supply of clothing coupons and there was nothing left for winter clothes or even household textiles. I don’t think my mother had any new clothes during the whole of the war as her coupons supplemented mine and also provided towels and pillow cases when our wore out.

At school we were given free knitting wool and patterns to knit “comforts” for the Forces. Each term we would try to complete at least one item. I knitted three scarves, once for each service (Navy, Army and Air-Force) and several balaclava helmets and pairs of mittens and as a change we could knit baby clothes, which were distributed through the Soroptomists to families in need.

There was a Government scheme to provide sugar to organisations to make jam with surplus. I obtained leaflets asking volunteers to collect wild plants and seeds for pharmaceutical purposes for which payment was offered. I was very enthusiastic about this idea until I discovered that pounds of foxglove seeds were required at the rate of 3d per pound and I decided this would be an impossible task in our area.

At the beginning of the war the Girl Guides were asked to do voluntary work at the Town Hall when the evacuees first came to Southport and this involved sorting out piles of soiled and stained mattresses into those it was possible to dry out and those to be fumigated or destroyed. I understand that the mattresses were collected daily and replaced at the request of the reception homes. It was a very nasty job and not at all suited to 11 and 12 year old girls. The greasy little man in charge of this operation was also rather familiar and fondled some of the girls more than was acceptable. Our guide Captain finally withdrew our labour, when she discovered one of the older Guides lying in a pile of the clean mattresses with one of the Boy Scouts who was also supposed to be helping.

When I was 14 or 15 I applied for and was granted an allotment in Victoria Park. Ten rods, poled and perches for 10s (50p) a year rent. There were lots of regulations. No shed or other structures were allowed and no permanent fruit bushes or canes were permitted and no flowers were to be grown. There was no water available and although it was advertised that leaf mould could be purchased for 1s. for a bucket full, the Council employees ran some kind of racket and only delivered it to their favourites at £1 or £2. The man who was employed to look after the adjacent bowling green also helped himself to any produce he fancied and would sell vegetables from the allotments to anyone willing to pay him. An entire row of my carefully grown cauliflowers was stolen and I still remember the cruel disappointment I suffered when I found them wit their heart out out. Rats and rabbits were also a problem and the very light sandy soil was fairly unsuitable for many crops. Seeds were hard to obtain and I was too young to belong to the Allotment Society with access to bulk buying. In the very hot weather I cycled from home with two buckets of water swinging about on my handlebars in addition to any garden tools which could not be left in allotments. I did have a good crops of potatoes, beetroots marrows and spinach beet. I don’t think the green keeper knew what spinach beet was and none of it was stolen. I was too disheartened to renew my tenancy at the end of the year and anyway I had to concentrate on my School Certificate exams.

After the music shop (where I lived) was closed and my Father was working away from home and my Brother was in the Army, my Mother and I were left by ourselves. I spent a lot of time reading and had an almost daily walk to the Atkinson Memorial Library. I also collected books to the Sea War Library Service in London. They provided free sacks and Carter Peterson provided free transport. As sack held about 150 hardback books. My friend and I knocked on doors in likely areas and asked for donations of books for the Merchant Navy and when we had as many as we could carry, took them back to our shop where I displayed them in the window with letters from the Sea War Library Service. I repaired damaged books and added waterproof bindings to some made from red glazed cloth, which my Father had used for lining musical instrument cases. It was rather a messy job, as the red colour was not fixed.

The woman in the empty shop next door must have thought that the second hand books were a good idea and started to buy second hand books and some people decided to sell to her rather than give to the Merchant navy. She also offered to buy “good” books from me, which I thought totally dishonest.

When I hear now of the wonderful spirit of comradeship during the war and how everyone pulled together I always have a reservations. I think the spivs who sold anything they could lay their hands on in the black market. I think the butcher who supplied my mother and I with a tiny amount of scrag and mutton — mostly bone, for our Christmas dinner one year. It was not even our full ration of about 4ozs of meat but he had sold everything including all the off coupon rabbits to those customers offering bribes of one sort or another.

There was great rejoicing when the war in Europe ended when I was 16 although my brother was still serving in Singapore, and it coincided with my leaving school.

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