大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War site by Bernie Hawkins and has been added to the website on behalf of Elizabeth Davis with her permission and she fully understands the site鈥檚 terms and conditions.

I was one of a family of five girls and one boy. During the War my father, who worked for a bank, was sent by the company to work in the midlands while my mother, myself and two of my sisters, Rosemary and Peggy, who both worked for Coutts Bank, stayed in Forest Hill. One of my sisters, Babs, joined the Wrens, the other, Violet, was married and my brother, James, who had been a cadet at Dulwich College, joined the Rifle Brigade. (He sent back air mail letters throughout the War and was wounded in the neck at the Battle of Messina.)

There were many Canadians stationed around London, and I remember my two sisters joining the Beaver Club near Trafalgar Square so they could meet and dance with them.

I decided to train in first aid and worked at the first aid post in Lower Sydenham, based in a former children鈥檚 hospital. I stayed there two nights a week, working with casualties from the bombing. We used to be worried whether our house would still be there when we got back in the morning. The family of one girl I worked with were all killed.

My day job was in the Westminster Bank鈥檚 Holborn Branch, managed by a Mr Phoenix. All the bank machines had been moved downstairs to the vault and I remember he used to make us all gargle with TCP because we were all cooped up together and he thought there was a threat of diseases spreading among us.

Most of the male employees had gone to fight in the War 鈥� only the older ones were left. Because of the shortage of men, and because I was one of the older girls, I was put to work on the counter. Up to then only men had been allowed to work as tellers. Later I was transferred to Charing Cross Branch. It was always a rush to try to be home by 6 o鈥檆lock so I could get to the air raid shelter before the bombing started. If I didn鈥檛 make it I had to stay in the house under the table. Strangely, I remember being under the table with my sister鈥檚 back to me and counting her curlers 鈥� to take my mind off the bombs, I suppose. When the bombs had stopped, I remember standing at our back door 鈥� our house was on a hill 鈥� and watching London鈥檚 docks burning. In one raid the wall of our kitchen was damaged and had to be shored up, but mother stayed there throughout the War.

In early June 1940 I had a week's holiday from the bank and decided to go to Paignton with Thomas Cook's. I remember seeing hundreds of soldiers on the beach - perhaps they had just landed from the evacuation of Dunkirk.

One very vivid memory is of waiting for the bus at Charing Cross Station and listening to Vera Lynn singing 鈥淲e鈥檒l Meet Again鈥� over the tannoy. It was very emotional 鈥� some people were in tears. I can still hear her now. She was lovely, my favourite.

I was married on the 8th of August 1942, having met my husband, who worked as an engineer, through a friend who owned a boat. After we were married we lived on a boat in Chiswick Dock. Later in the War the flying bombs started falling. One hit the water 10 yards from the boat and the wheelhouse was smashed in the blast.

Then, in September 1944, when I was expecting my first child, there was a huge explosion. Everything rocked, then there was a deathly silence. We thought a gas main had exploded, but it was the first V2 Rocket attack on London, in Chiswick.

We couldn鈥檛 stay on the boat after that. We went to stay with friends at their house in Chiswick. I carried on working at the bank until Christmas and my son was born in March 1945. On VE Day I looked towards London, with my 2-month old son in my arms, and wondered what the future would hold.

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