大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People's War Site by Darren Ellis of Wakefield Libraries and Information Services on behalf of Muriel Blythman and has been added to the site with her permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

I was having a conversation with my sister, Shirley, a good while back about our younger days. She said "do you know, I can never remember going to infants school". She was only five at the time of the War and I was three years older, and I said to her "that is because you didn't go for nearly three years. The 'powers that be' had closed our school to accommodate prisoners of war who were working on the railways, which ran just above our school, whilst they got accommodation ready for them.

School was cleaned out and we returned. We had some very good teachers, one of who encouraged us to knit for sailors and we adopted a minesweeper in our class. We used to make seaboot stockings, the ones that go all the way to the thighs, scarves, gloves, balaclavas and we used to put little letters into each garment. The captain came to school to thank us. He was a very striking gentleman with a big moustache and beard and I was allowed to touch it and give him a kiss. He told us the crew really liked to receive the letters and gifts.

We didn't really seem to suffer for missing our early years at school. We did arts crafts and cookery. I still have my school recipe book, which over the years I have referred to. It is a bit battered now after all these years but I have never forgotten how to cook using dried eggs and a teaspoon of this and a tablespoon of that, making do with whatever was available.

I left school at fourteen years old, whilst the war was still on, and I was taken to a clothing factory to work. I had no better option and I had to earn some money. Guess what? We amde battledress for the forces which was very hard on the fingers. We were glad when victory was declared and we started to make de-mob suits.

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