大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People's War site by Maggie Smith from WM CSV Action Desk on behalf of Mary Stuckey and has been added to the site with her permission. Mary Stuckey fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

At the beginning of the war, I was working in a drapers shop in Handsworth. There was a lot of bombing of Birmingham and I was travelling each day from Blackheath (where I lived) to Handsworth. Sometimes while waiting for the train with the other passengers, we could hear the bombs landing and the aircraft overhead. There were no lights on the trains and we only had small seats (six to a bench) because the trains were so crowded.

I had a friend whose father was a shepherd on a farm at Broome. They needed help on the farm and I applied for the job. That was in 1940 when I was 20 years old. I got the job and for the next 4 1/2 years, I spent my time milking cows (which started at 6.30am) and then doing other jobs such as looking after the calves, weeding in the fields and generally helping with whatever needed doing. I loved it and enjoyed working in the open air. I could go home for the weekend every two weeks by bus. There were three or four girls working on the farm and i am still in contact with one of them. We had such good times together.

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