大象传媒

This contribution as been submitted to the People鈥檚 War site by a volunteer from Lincolnshire CSV Action Desk on behalf of Mrs Pauline Culvert and has been added with her permission. Mrs Culverts understands the site鈥檚 terms and conditions.

I lived out in Haven Bank when I was a child. I remember the day war was declared because I had measles and my little brother was just getting them too. We were all sitting in the living room. I was wrapped in a blanket in front of a blazing fire. I can see the wireless in the corner of the room, now. My mother was sitting one side of it crying and my father was sitting the other side, quietly smoking his pipe.

One day, I was outside with my mum and she was sweeping the yard. Two aeroplanes were flying towards us very low. I think they had followed the railway line and then the River Witham. We could see the pilots, the planes were so low and as they went overhead they waved to us and we waved back. We thought they were British but in fact they were German. When they had flown over us they bombed on the search lights near Coningsby. It all seemed so odd and out of place.

We had a spare room and my mum was asked by one of the aircrew men, a man called Joe Grady, if she would let it to him so he could bring his wife to stay. She lived in Nottingham and their young son had died some time before and he was trying to get her away from their home for a while to help her get over it. My mum agreed to this and so the wife moved in. When she left, their friend鈥檚 wife moved in with her daughter. They were Betty and Jacqueline Hurn and the aircrew man was called Ken. We got to know each other very well.

I remember the last Christmas of the war vividly. My mum filled the house with RAF air crew since they would otherwise have had nowhere else to go. She killed some of our chickens and invited everyone to come. I can see them all now, as if it was yesterday, all sitting around our big round table. They were all talking about their families. Mum had made a big fruit cake and had iced it using dried milk. The cake was lovely but the icing wasn鈥檛 so tasty! I got a carol book for Christmas and my friend came over and we played the piano and sang. After dinner, the men played cards. Everyone was so happy. When it became clearer that the war was ending I remember Ken coming back one day to tell us that his plane had gone out and crashed. All the crew were lost. The eight men who had been so happy sharing our Christmas had all been killed.

When the attacks on London had calmed down, Betty decided that she and Jacqueline would go back home and stay with her parents until the war finished and so they left us. Two weeks later, the doodlebugs started so my mum sent a telegram to her to tell her to come back and so the very next day, they did. When that came to an end, VE day was imminent and they did go back home then.

On VE day we all had flags hanging out of our windows, even where we lived in a remote area of Lincolnshire. My mum made me wear a dress which was blue and white stripes, with red shoes and a red belt. I had to go to church wearing this and I hated it and felt ridiculous but mum thought it was very patriotic.

Two days before VJ day mum got a telegram from Betty and it said that we were invited to go to London to visit them if we liked. My mum thought this was a very good idea and my brother was very excited about it too. She sent a telegram back to them telling them which train we were catching and what time we expected to arrive in Kings Cross. In the late evening she got a suitcase packed for us all and then she packed a wooden box with vegetables, fruitcake and a chicken that she had killed and prepared. She woke my brother and me up to tell us that we would be going to London in the morning. (VJ day itself). Early in the morning we cycled to Dogdyke station with the wooden box on strapped to the back of one of the bikes and the suitcase on one of the others. We left our bikes with the station master at Dogdyke and caught the train to London, changing at Boston. When we got on at Boston, the train was absolutely packed with people. My brother and I sat in the guard鈥檚 van on top of our wooden box. When we finally arrived at Kings Cross station, there was a tannoy announcement asking if Mrs Sutton, Pauline and Brian would kindly report to the Station Master鈥檚 office. When we got there we were greeted by the whole Hurn family. It was a totally overwhelming event to us, having come all the way from rural Lincolnshire.
We took our belongings to Charring Cross station and left them in the property office. We were then taken to Lyons Corner House and I found this to be quite extraordinary. I thought the King and Queen must come here to eat it seemed so special. We went to Trafalgar Square which was packed out with people. There were people everywhere and also some people selling memorabilia. My mum bought me a little red, blue and white brooch. We then walked on to Buckingham Palace. We got right through to the front, at the railings, by squeezing through gaps and as we got in position the doors on the balcony opened and the King and Queen and family appeared. The whole place cheered madly and they waved to us all. The whole day seemed so incredible to me.

We went back to their home in Kent to stay with them for several days. The town was all lit up and there were bonfires and fireworks down every street you went down, or so it seemed to me anyway. Everyone seemed to be out in the streets celebrating and everyone seemed so very happy. I remember there was a sweet shop down the road from their house and its window was full of jars of sweets. My mum gave me my sweet coupons and I got a Mars bar which was the first one I had ever had. I made it last more than a week because I didn鈥檛 want it to end.

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