大象传媒

The wartime memories of Kathleen Dobson (formerly Eldridge)

This story will be submitted to the People鈥檚 War Site by Jan Barrett (volunteer) on behalf of Kathleen Dobson and will be added to the site with her permission. Kathleen fully understands the site鈥檚 terms and conditions.

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I was about eleven years old when War broke out in 1939 and living in Grimston, Leicestershire. We had a big garden and I was out there with Dad podding peas when we heard the announcement come over the radio. I remember Dad saying 鈥淚 wonder what鈥檚 going to happen鈥�.

Near to where we lived was a big old house called Saxalby Park House and that鈥檚 where quite a few soldiers were stationed. One day as Dad was driving home in the snow he saw three soldiers at the side of the road and offered them a lift. They came home for tea and the three of them, Albert, Bill and Jack (who played the piano) often came to visit from that day on and they kept in touch with my Dad until the day they died. Jack taught me to play the Black Hawk waltz and I still play it sometimes and remember those times.

Because we had quite a large house we used to take in evacuees 鈥� it was large enough to take families and we often had a Mum and her children staying there.

Outside the village there was an Ordnance Depot and all along the side of it, Nissan Hut roofs which were covering up the ammunition. Me and my sister used to go and play there oblivious of any danger. Dad was in the Home Guard, and men used to come to our house for training on the Bren Guns. Mum had a lovely old dining table (I鈥檝e still got it) and she was not very happy when one of the guns left a nasty scratch on it.

I remember there was some bombing at Ashfordby where there was a steel works. One morning just as the men were changing shifts a bomb dropped and 4 men were killed.

I went to the village school and I remember having to take our little boxes with the gas masks inside everywhere we went. I also remember that the school windows had a sort of sticky netting on the windows to protect use from flying glass if bombs should drop nearby.

One day I went for a walk with a friend and we saw two airman leaning on a fence. They asked us if we would like to see a German plane that had been shot down. We said yes, but I felt a bit sorry when we saw the hand of one of the pilots peeping out from under a covering.

My late husband, Bill Edridge, (who died in 1982) was a fireman during the war and he was called out when the terrible bombing took place at East Cowes.

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