大象传媒

Wartime memories of Mitcham, London 鈥� The 鈥楤attle of Britain鈥� and family evacuation to Lancashire

Part one of an oral history interview with Mrs. Audrey Middlemas conducted by Jenny Ford on behalf of Bedford Museum.

鈥淚t all started from Lancashire, Shaw and Oldham. Because there was no work for them when they came back from the First World War they were working for three days and playing for three days, well now my father had a wife and now had a daughter and there was no work for them. They transferred or were transferring all the cotton making into India and this was the very slow cancer that slowly the mills all became 鈥� because my mum used to work in the mills and then there was no work for them. And then of course by now we are going into the 1920s and the Jarrow March and all and that all came from the North. The politicians have a lot to answer for.

Anyway my dad had a cousin in British Columbia in the Rocky Mountains and I don鈥檛 know how they got there or if the money came from my grandmother or what, but they went steerage apparently, cheap rates to British Columbia. And they took my sister Mary with them right into the Rocky Mountains. We were sort of on the borders of America and Calgary, right in the corner there. Then my dad, did he find work there? He must have been about 32 by this time and because he wore an ex-Serviceman鈥檚 badge they said he too old for this work and that work and the other work. Again, you see he went and started off doing what my grandmother tried to prevent him doing and that was working down a mine, in Canada. We were poor, but I tell what, we never went without a Christmas turkey, never!

We were close to a river and I had a happy childhood, poor as church mice we were and got all the diseases. My brother used to say, 鈥榃hat have you got her for she brings them all in the house?鈥� My dad ended up getting a job on building the railways across Canada. In 1937 we came back because again at the time things weren鈥檛 very good even in Canada. I was 10, my brother Harold was 12 going on 13 and my younger brother was eight when we came back. But my dad worked on the railways, building the railways across Canada. He got a watch, a pocket watch for that. We came back and it was all very exciting but the only thing that was very sad because we left our dog and things like that. I can remember leaving the little station, the train across Canada. We got to Montreal and then we had to 鈥� I remember sleeping 鈥� they had to put beds down for us because the boat wasn鈥檛 ready to be boarded. We sailed back from Canada and I was so seasick I thought I would never sail again. My poor mum was seasick.

When came back here in 1937 we stayed in Mitcham because my mother had two sisters there. We stayed in Mitcham, they called us the wild Indians from Canada because we were used to running, nothing stopped us, snow six feet deep and everything like that and skating on the river. We had the freedom there but we didn鈥檛 in Mitcham. Finally, my mother, I don鈥檛 know how, she got this little house in Love Lane right opposite Church Yard and that鈥檚 where we were.

Well we weren鈥檛 there when war was declared because we鈥檇 gone up North. I鈥檒l never forget the day war was declared. My mother鈥檚 mother whom I鈥檇 never really met, I knew my father鈥檚 mother because she came to Canada as well. My mother was one of 13, 11 surviving children and my grandmother apparently came from a very posh family according to stories. She was dying anyway just before the war and I can remember that鈥檚 when I first met her, just before the war because my mother must have gone up and taken us kids with her because my father was working. I can remember her, lovely, lovely lady in a bed. That鈥檚 all I can remember of her, I never really knew her. So that鈥檚 where we where because we were at mother鈥檚 sisters house, my beloved Aunt Mary. I can remember that, standing there and they had the radio on in 1939 when war was declared. And then of course we came back home to Mitcham.

My dad worked at Finchley, my mother worked at Croydon at Philips Works which was horribly bombed. Well, they were doing war work. Philips is a Dutch firm and because like I say I ended up further down the line as a 19 year old as the first 鈥楻adio Queen鈥� of Blackburn. But we lived in Love Lane next to a little old lady who used to do the most georgeous crumpets. She was on her own, a widow.

We had an Anderson shelter in the garden and an outhouse, my father used to go out there and wash, it didn鈥檛 matter he鈥檇 break the ice on the bowl every morning before he went to work.

It was exciting in a way. Because when the war really got going, my dad, he worked at Finchley and he couldn鈥檛 get back through the tube. They鈥檇 closed the tubes down so it meant - I don鈥檛 know where he stayed or how he managed - that left my mum at home with three kids. And she was in the ARP on Patrol Duty at night, she was working at Philips in Croydon and I suppose sometimes she wasn鈥檛 there. She wasn鈥檛 there fortunately when the German鈥檚 dropped a bomb on it when all the people were coming out to go down to the Air Raid shelters. The factory, that got badly bombed and what about 15,000, I don鈥檛 know how many hundred people killed when they dropped the bomb on there.

But my brother and I, my brother Harold not Norman, he was the baby boy that I used to stand up for and fight for and whatever, he was only about 18 months younger than me, a lovely lad. He used to stand on the outhouse shed, Harold - because my dad was thinking of sending us back to Canada us kids for safety. And fortunately he decided not to and that we鈥檇 stay together as a family and that a good job because the ship was torpedoed. I don鈥檛 know how many - that鈥檚 all we heard. I can just remember my dad talking, they never talked to us, the grown up didn鈥檛 then, you got to know nothing about sex or anything like that. I didn鈥檛 do me any harm!

We watched the German planes come over and the Spitfires would go up, outnumbered to no end they were, but they鈥檇 go out up there, fighting and my brother would say 鈥榊ou are not going to send me back and missing all this!鈥� You weren鈥檛 sort of thinking about the pilots in the planes and that people would die, it was just an exciting game of whatever, to him I suppose. We saw the 鈥楤attle of Britain鈥�, what they called the 鈥楤attle of Britain鈥� when these outnumbered Spitfire pilots saw off these Germans and first of all you would see a spotter plane come, the drone of the spotter plane and then the sirens would go. Behind them would come the bombers but this was just the Spitfires and the German Messerschmitts. The bombing wasn鈥檛 there it was just this air fight going on up there and I鈥檒l never forget that, never!

After that it was a succession of things - then the bombing started and once the serious bombing started - being as we lived in Mitcham, within an eight mile radius of London. My mum was in the ARP - and on a ring road around Mitcham they had these mobile guns that used to go to the best positions. It was pitch black and this rumbling behind and she started to run down this road and she ended up trying to climb over a six foot brick wall and this gun went off and frightened her to death. The Ack Ack guns, there used to be mobile ones going around there. Then there was the 鈥楩ire of London鈥�, the bombing of the docks. Again, that was something I shall never forget even as a young kid of 11 or 12 years old you could go out at night and read the paper in the street. That was horrific. But the danger wasn鈥檛 the thing that affected me as a child, it was my parents, things just went then from bad to worse.

I came home from school one day, this was just the Spitfires and the Messerschmitts going over, not the bombs, and they鈥檇 just come down and machine gun the streets it didn鈥檛 matter who was walking on them. I can see the bullet holes today going in. But again, exciting but you didn鈥檛 realise, you didn鈥檛 think you would get killed. If there was a warning on we weren鈥檛 allowed to (go home) until it 鈥榗leared鈥�. But if everything 鈥� (if) there was no warning and school had finished and I had quite a good way to go home, as Love Lane was quite a long lane and I had to walk home on my own. I can just remember having to crouch down beneath the hedge and I could see the bullets! I forget lots of things but not things like that! My mum was horrified but there was nothing she could do about it, nothing!

Then the doodle bugs started and we鈥檇 be downstairs under the table, all three of us. Now that, if you were awake, sometimes we weren鈥檛 awake, but I have heard them, the roar of them coming over and you know as soon they cut out and then dead silence and that wasn鈥檛 very nice. Because it once it cut out you knew it was going to fall but you didn鈥檛 know where it was going to fall. And the torpedo bombs, they were horrific. That鈥檚 the one that finally finished my mum off and she said, 鈥楨nough is enough鈥�. Philips at Croydon had built a factory in Blackburn and my mum could get a job, be transferred there. I think they must have found all this out, they wouldn鈥檛 discuss it with us kids, but we then - I don鈥檛 know how or what 鈥� my father became the Commissionaire there and my mum worked in the factory, in Little Harwood. We went then, there鈥檇 be no home, this would be the fourth or fifth time in her life my mum had to leave home and leave all her possessions. Not a nice thing! I know I left my favorite doll, well you couldn鈥檛 pack it you see. I know somebody, my Uncle Harry I think, they took us by car so you couldn鈥檛 get much in a car. We didn鈥檛 go on the train or anything like that. I know I can remember being in this car for a long, long time and I remember going over a humped back bridge and nearly banging my head on top of the car. I don鈥檛 know how they got my brother Harold to go but he had to go. But again my mother landed in Blackburn, no home, nothing. I don鈥檛 know where she and dad lived until they got us somewhere to live but I was sent to Failsworth in Manchester to stay with my beloved Aunt Mary, my mother鈥檚 younger sister and my Uncle Jack and they had two sons. My Aunt Mary, I loved her to bits and my Uncle Jack, I didn鈥檛 see much of him because he worked nights. But Brian and Larry, I don鈥檛 know how long I was there.鈥�

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