大象传媒

I was a school teacher during the war and you could be sent anywhere to teach - you had no choice.
I was sent to Castle Donington and there was a school bus from Kegworth to Castle Donington but the head teacher made me cycle ever day so that I could arrive at school before the bus.

I did my teacher training in Cambridge between 1938 and 1940 and before my finals Cambridge was being bombed and we all hoped that we wouldn't have to do our finals but we spent the night before my finals in shelters and I did do my finals the next day.

Mum had two boy evacuees from Sheffield and all they had was the clothes they stood up in and a brown paper carrier bag with a tin of corned beef in it.
When the boys from Sheffield went back evacuees from London came.

My husband Fred was in the Navy and was based in Greenock so I got a job there.
Then he was posted to the Far East but had ear trouble and came back.
We were married in 1941 on Empire Day.

Fred was then posted to a cruiser which was sent to the Atlantic to try and sink the Bismark but the ship hit a mine so came back and therefore he missed the battle in which the Hood was sunk.

After the Atlantic he was posted to an Air Craft Carrier which went to the Far East where some Japanese surrended on his carrier.

I wrote to my husband every day and on one occasion I finished half way down the page so filled the rest of the page with kisses which were cut out by the censors.

Fred was finally demobbed and put off in Australia to wait for a troop ship to bring him back home.

This story was told to Dave Bielby of CSV Action Desk Leicester and was submitted to the People's War Website by Lisa Reeves on behalf of Kathleen Rider and has been added to the site with her permission. The author understands the sites terms and conditions.

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