大象传媒

Nellie Leedon told her story to Helen Kemp (CSV Volunteer for Thanet Libraries) at the Summerlands Nursing Home in Westgate-on-Sea, Kent.

I was born in 1908 in Warwickshire. My father was in the police and mum and dad lived in the policehouse. They met in a public house and had a big wedding. I went to school in Warwick.

My dad had to go wherever the police sent him and eventually mum and dad separated and I went to live with an aunt. I did well at school, passing for the grammar school but we couldn鈥檛 afford the uniform.

I couldn鈥檛 get a job anywhere because of the recession. I went to Birmingham and got a job working in a borstal looking after the baby (Joan) who was the daughter of the man who ran the borstal. When I got older I used to go with the boys to camp and when Joan got older I then looked after the boys.

I met my husband, who came from Northampton, in Blackpool and we used to go dancing. We were married in 1938 at Wilnecote Church. My husband was a widower with a son and had a fish and chip shop. I managed to get a lovely outfit for our wedding, and turned up in all my refinery.

When we had been married six weeks my husband was called up but they discovered he was blind in one eye. So we carried on with the shop feeding the evacuees and were given extra fat and fish to feed them.

We decided to borrow 拢250 to buy another shop and the mortgage worried me to death. We washed the potatoes in the garden and my daughter tore the newspaper to wrap the fish and chips in. We also delivered the fish and chips around the village in cardboard boxes. My husband also made Smiths Crisps. We sometimes had mice in the chip pans.

Our daughter was born in 1941. I saved 2d. a week to pay the midwife.

I remember one day, during the war, my husband had just left a Nissen hut when it was bombed. We were some of the lucky ones.

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