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Winifred Cocker (Hilson)
Chesterfield and Windsor
Training as a nursery nurse

I lived outside Chesterfield. I remember being pushed under the stairs when the bombs were dropped.
Stavely Works — went to the Grammar School there.
One day me and a friend cycled. We were looking at an aeroplane overhead and we nearly went into each other.
When we arrived at school everyone was in the shelter.
Mostly life seemed reasonable.
At 16 I went to Windsor to train as a nursery nurse.
The dooglebugs were around at this period.
I was there for 2 years.
We had a VE and VJ day.
We had the children in and we would go for a walk with them in the pram.
Windows came in one time. No-one was hurt.

We put the children in the basement during the night.
We used to go to London and see a couple of shows.

On Oxford Street once someone said they'd been a bomb at the other end of the street and we hadn;t even known.

We would go to each other churches.
I only went home once during the two years.
I had one sister who trained as a teacher.

We did have a block booking at the Theater in Windsor on a Monday.
We used to go there and met a lot of RAF who had a block booking also.
We were invited to their camp.
We would go to a dance and the cinema and then cycle al the way back.
One or two of the girls had boyfriends who were killed.
I had met them through our visits to the cinema.

When I was at college I put on weight.
We would have a saucer with our rations on it or butter, margarine and sugar.
I remember having bread and butter with sugar sprinkled on.

Before we finished our training we spent a month in the maternity hospital.
It was a big old house.
You would go to breakfast with dishes with covers on with food like kidneys.,

I remember going out at night and seeing all the forces on the streets.

I finished my training in that September and my sister came down to help with my bike and luggage to go back home.

This story was entered on to the People's War Website by Lisa Reeves of CSV Action Desk on behalf of Winifred Cocker and has been added with her permission. The author fully understands the sites terms and conditions.

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