大象传媒

I was in Epsom. My oldest brother had joined the airforce and my younger brother lied about his age and got in too.

The war drew people together - there was more of a community spirit in those days. It changed the nation. I became a Salvation Army Officer and trained at Camberwell.

I can remember the siren going off when I was in the swimming pool and being told to hurry up and get out and get home. Putting on clothes on a wet body in a hurry was not good.

I lived in Epsom when the doodle bugs came over. Although they were going to London, the engines would stop over us and that was not good. We knew someone was going to get it.

We slept in Anderson shelters in our neighbours garden. The sides were wet! My dog would welcome us back in the morning with a "are you alright?" look - it was funny how animals knew there was danger around. I remember going through the underground where loads of people slept. When things were really bad, the King called us to prayer and churches and mission halls were packed out.miracles happened - Dunkirk and North Africa.

When I left school I worked in a grocery and greengrocers. I was going to night school for shorthand and typing before the war, but everything stopped.

We grew our own vegetables - we didn't miss sweets etc as we'd never had them. We had 1/2 pound biscuits on a Saturday which were divided up on a Sunday morning. My brothers and I would take it in turns to get up early on a Sunday morning to make the tea, and you divided the biscuits up then. That was all the biscuits you had all week. Mother made a fruit cake which lasted all week. I would often queue very early in the morning for yesterdays bread - 4 or 5 loaves for 6d. I bought 1d worth of sweets - a farthings worth of 4 different types which would come in a screw of paper.

There was a very strong Boys Brigade and Girls Brigade in Epsom (150+), and it was horrible to hear the ones who died - my boyfriend at the time BobbyWatkins was unfortunately one of those who had their lives taken away from them.

The searchlights would come on when we were coming home from shopping and my mother would say "Come on - let's see how far we can run before they go out" and then the guns would start - very scary!

My brother was a Pilot Officer in the RAF and would fly over Epsom on the way to Germany. My mother would worry terribly until she heard the planes come back again. This happened night after night and when he eventually got leave, his nerves were shot to pieces. He pulled his cap to pieces on the train coming home.

漏 Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.