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 Annabel Tutt and has been added with her permission. Mrs Tutt understands the site鈥檚 terms and conditions.

I am fortunate that I was excluded from the war鈥檚 violence having been born in 1946 but the damage caused to relationships touched me deeply.

My sister Carol was evacuated to her granny鈥檚 at the age of 18 months in 1940 from London to the remote depths of Sligo on the west coast of Ireland. The contrast between the two places was so distinctly divers; no running water, no electricity or gas. The cooking was done on the turf fire and the idyllic countryside was sprinkled with thatched 3 roomed croft cottages framed by the awesome mountain Ben Bulben. My sister was totally spoilt with love and attention by her devoted guardians, my grandmother and uncle who adored her. Uncle Tom took her daily to school.

My father was in the army and stationed in Scarborough. He was made up to Sergeant. Home on leave, he once took a bus to Peckham in London and as the bus pulled into the bus stop before the one he was going to get off at, he saw a tool shop so he ran down the bus stairs and jumped off the bus. Being a carpenter by trade he loved his tools. The bus carried on and never made it to the next bus stop. It was blown up 鈥� a direct bomb hit. He was a lucky man.

My mother braved the war in London. She was a hard working lady all her life. Unfortunately she was placed in an ammunitions factory and hated every second of it. Luckily she escaped and became a barmaid. Mother often told me tales of the war. She loved the spirit and how the people united. Stories of when doctor鈥檚 visited, neighbours would ask her for her only set of bed sheets as theirs were in tatters. She would rip them off the bed and loan them out.

One night, my mother was returning late from work when out of the blue a night watchman stuck a gun in her ribs shouting 鈥渨ho goes there?鈥� My mother lost her voice for two days due to the shock.

Mother was bombed out twice, both times when the house inside was nearly finished after being painted and redecorated. Once it happened whilst she was at work and the second time when she visited my aunt in a nurse鈥檚 home over night.

My mother and father went to Ireland after the war to pick up my mister and bring her home to London. They were two strangers to my sister, and she evidently never recovered from the loss of her beloved grandma and uncle. Traumatised, she took her vengeance out on me and she remained jealous and hostile all her life. My mother and her had a very unhappy relationship and I was 8 years my sister鈥檚 junior, spoiled.

Summing up, we lived a very fractious life due to the war. Accusations tossed between my parents due to them being apart. The damage the war caused on the emotions of my sister, I bore the brunt of because mother worked full time and my sister minded me.

There were two Irish brothers who were lodgers throughout the war, Bernard and Tim. Tim suffered shell shock and caused us great problems when drunk. My father wanted him out but my mother had received such loyalty and help from them during the war she was reluctant to ask them to leave. Dad won in the end.

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