大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People's War site by Catherine Garvie, Learning Project Manager at 大象传媒 Scotland on behalf of Agnes Maitland Johnstone and has been added to the site with her permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

My earliest memory of the last War (1939-1945) is of the evacuees arriving from Glasgow. The local school wasn't big enough to cope with so many extra pupils. The local children (I was one of them) went to school in the morning and the others in the afternoon. They had brought their own teachers. As children of course we thought it was wonderful. Parents were obviously concerned.

Next to arrive were hundreds of soldiers. They took over hotels and large houses. Our main street (High Street) is very wide with trees down the middle where the army vehicles were parked at night with guards on duty. We of course had complete black outs.

Some of the Commandos did their training in Moffat. I remember hearing them running over the roof tops at night. The hills surrounding Moffat provided a good training ground; in addition St Mary's took others.

We were suddenly living in a different world. All these young men!! Looking back I realised as young girls we never felt threatened. We visited each others homes and walked back in the dark. The solders were well behaved. I don't remember anyone being raped or people being mugged or old ladies having heir handbags snatched. Girls didn't go into pubs so we were spare the awful scenes that we see on the television now of girls falling out of pubs drunk!!

The only bit of trouble I remember was when Italy came into the War with the Germans. The windows of our local Italian shop were smashed. The local people didn't like that, the family were part of our community and the chip shop was a meeting place for young people. We were shocked when the father and oldest son were interred while their second son was a rear-gunner in the Air Force. It seemed ironic!

We had one air raid. A German plan was being chased by one of our planes after a raid over Glasgow. The German dropped his last bombs just on the outskirts of the town. We think he tried to miss the houses (well we gave him the benefit of the doubt)!! The next morning we all went to see the craters!!

The Girls Training Corps (GTC) was an organisation for young girls which was set up all over the country. I suppose it was really to prepare us for going into the forces when we were 18 years of age. We wore a uniform. It was a straight navy blue skirt and a bomber jacket, black stockings (tights had not been invented) and shoes and a forage cap. We felt very important!! We did some marching, keep fit and country dancing. We organised concerts for parents and friends. We also went up into the hillside and collected sphagnum moss which was used for bandaging wounds. So we felt we were helping the War wounded.

The organisation was disbanded at the end of the War after a large parade in London where the Lord Mayor (I nearly said Provost) took the salute. It was wonderful to be taking part. There were thousands of girls. We slept in the shelters that had been used by the Londoners during the bombing raids. These shelters were under the under ground railway. It was suffocating for our girls who were used to open spaces in Moffat, so a good part of our time that first night was spent escorting the girls back up to ground level for fresh air or to the toilet to be sick!

However, the rest of the week end was wonderful. We went to the theatre to see "Oklahoma" - wonderful!! We sang the songs all the way back to the shelters.

We lunched at Lyons Corner House in Oxford Street and had lots of requests to ask the orchestra to play for us.

Food of course was scarce and most things were rationed. As a family we were not too bad. My grandfather was a butcher! I think a bit of bargaining went on. Sausages for a quarter pound of tea or a bit of butter. My grandfather would not eat margarine. He reckoned it was made with whale oil! That was taboo! Instead a cook from one of the hotels used to save him a pie dish full of roast dripping. (I expect she would get the best cut of beef!) We hadn't heard of cholesterol in those days and I have to say the locals queued up in long lines. My grandfather was 93 years of age when he died.

We didn't see the doctor very often. It had to be serious to call him; we had to pay for his visit!! We didn't see the dentist very often either, only if you had toothache. With sweets rationed (I think it was 6 oz per month) our teeth were alright.

We were quite ingenious too when it came to food. We were able to get dried eggs and my mother made little cakes and she added water to the powder and made an omelette. When she could get real eggs she would preserve some of them in a big stone jar but I don't know what was in the liquid. Another thing she did was to try and save electricity. We had a hay box; this was a wooden box filled with hay. She would prepare the porridge for breakfast the night before and bring it to the boil and then put in the hay box and cover it with hay. Then she shut down the lid and in the morning it was ready. Most people grew vegetables and fruit which was a great help.

I remember telling my mother that I needed sandwiches for one of our G.T.C. concerts. For the filling she cooked parsnips and mashed them and then she added banana flavouring. It was very nice for those of us who had forgotten what a banana tasted like; it was pretty good!

We didn't know about Chinese, Indian or Italian carry outs. A treat for my group of friends was a pot of new potatoes boiled and dripping with margerine. We would gather in the kitchen of one of my friends and talk and laugh the night away. Happy days!!!

In order to have as much day light as possible we had double British summertime. It meant it was light till midnight and after. I think it was meant to keep the German bombers at bay! As young people we loved it because we played a lot of tennis and our ambition was to play at midnight, which we did.

The radio we had ws operated by battery which had to be taken to the shop to be charged frequently. It was only used to hear the news! Everyone had to be silent while my grandfather listened to it. I think it would have been the death penalty if we interrupted that!!

I remember the end of the War. May the 8th 1945. It was wonderful; lots of celebrations. Then looking forward to fathers, husbands, uncles, cousins and aunts coming home (sounds like a Gilbert and Sullivan musical!!!)

The only disappointment I had was I didn't manage to join the WRENS. Still we were free to walk over the hills again.

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