大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War Site by Katie Holyoak, for Three Counties Action, on behalf of Enid Hollis, and has been added to the site with his permission. The author fully understands the site鈥檚 terms and conditions.

This is my story of the war years: -
When the announcement was made by Neville Chamberlain that we were at war with Germany it was a sad day for my friend Rosemary Klaffl, for her father worked at the Austrian Ligastion in London.

They held a party at their house in Nth Wembley to which I was invited, as they thought peace had been made.

I had food which I had never tasted before. Soust Herrings 鈥� raw figs, sauratte, and white wine.

What happened next was the father was put to the German Embassy 鈥� and sent to Germany They were interned in the Isle of Man as aliens, and I wrote to her, she crochet a lovely collar in fine cotton.

Then the letters stopped, and I learnt later on she had been released as a safe alien and worked at Bletchly Park. She then married someone in the diplomatic corps from Hanslope and had a posting to the Caribbean (excuse my spelling only I am 79 yrs old and not in the best of health.)

On Sept 3rd 1939 war was declared, and I attended the polytechnic at Kilburn studying to be a dressmaker. So because my school was in London, I was evacuated to Northampton. At the age of 13yrs it was an adventure 鈥� and a chance to get away from mum.

We were put on the train at Kilbion High Road Stn with our rations, and gas masks around our necks. On arrival we were marched down Lower Priory St, and it was a poor part of town. The woman came out and took the children that they wanted. A lot of them to get the rations and also to get the billeting money. This lady took three of us girls age 13yrs. 2 girls were Jewish who had escaped from Germany. Put in one double bed, and got bitten with bugs.

So the headmistress took up one hot sunny afternoon marched to the other end of Northampton Kingsley Rd a woman Mrs Sergeant took me in would not let me do embroidery on Sunday, and kept talking about her operations and I promptly fainted. Put to bed and the headmistress came to see me, and was quite concerned, for I hit my head on the bureau. Well she went in for another operation, so I was shifted up the road to a family with five boys in the family and one girl Eileen who was at the Grammar School and played the piano very well, we would have good times singing round the piano.

On my fourteenth birthday March 12th 1940, they laid out a blue satin dress, petticoat and silver shoes and invited 7 boys and 7 girls to a party for me. We played 鈥渕urder鈥� sardines charades and had a great time. They were very kind to me as my father had died age 28yrs, leaving my mother with little girls age 6mths-3yrs of age, and no widows pension, so although my father had bought the house in 1928 for 拢850 鈥� my mother got all paid for by the Prudential Insurance 鈥� but no widows pension so we had to let upstairs on our house at Nth Wembley.

Finishing my educating at the Polytechnic I came back to London, and started work in New Bond St. 1946 and then the bombing started I remember trying to get to Oxford Square tube station, and lines had been put out of service due to bombs. One morning I arrived to find what I thought was the end of my job 鈥� for the street had rubble all down it, however as I walked down No27 New Bond St had not been hit.

We would take our work down into the basement when the day raids came.
I was making beautiful clothes for the rich and famous. Certain material was not rationed, so they would have house coats and gowns made up of this material.
My hand Anne lived at Stoke Newington and they had a great deal of bombs dropped on this area. She then got called up for the WAFFS and was posted to an ak ak battery gun base in Wales.

As my mother was a widow, I did not want to go into the services, even although I was a member of the Girls Training Corp. I had marched on Wembley Stadium where we used to train.

So thought I had better get a job of more importance. Heard on the radio girls badly needed for the telephone service. So took my exam at Wren House and I passed. Sent them for training at a telephone place which was in Covent Gdn. Walked through all the veg and flower stalls to get to it. (the Trunk exchange was very important communications, mainly operators) Finished the training and was then sent to 鈥淔araday House,鈥� Queen Victoria St. London This was the big Toll and Trunk Exchange with many girls coming from all over London, some got killed. The lady who sat next to me a Mrs Jarris died walking through a market place, a landmine was dropped. The day before she had showed a photograph of herself and family. Another girl was blinded, she came to see us wearing dark glasses. They had sent for her husband who was serving in the Med. In the Air Rescue Service.

We did shift work, the late one until 10pm at night, and would sleep underground in bunk beds.

I was in the 鈥淭oll Exchange鈥� with an A and B side one would dial the code and leave it for a call from Portsmouth for say Reading. The other side was a high multiple with calls wanting London numbers for in those days there were so many exchanges some automatic and some manual. So one would be ask for say a Mayfair number and dial it out and leave it.

We had calls piled high trying to get through to the hospitals and camps these were the essential calls and given priority.
The building was six storeys high with our canteen at the top.
We would pass messages up and down the lines 鈥� like would any like to swop a 2.10 for a 6-2pm. Or would any one like a pot of jam for a1lb of sugar etc.

However, I was 19yrs of age and we had a great fun too 鈥� for the boys would come home on leave, and wait for the girls as they came off duty.

I had friend who married an American Airman 鈥� who actually was Norwegan and had escaped to join his mother and father in America. Another girl married a Norwegan Sailor. Another friend had a New Zealand pilot sent sail to join and get married.

A lot of the girls went to the American Servicemans club in Piccadilly, and had nylon stockings and many other gifts from them for the men never knew whether they would live or die.

For me I had a boyfriend who flew as a radio operator flying Lancaster bombers and when he came home we would go and see all the shows in London and have even had a meal at the Caf茅 de Paris in Regent St. The theatres stayed opened, saw Carasel, Arsenic and Old Lace, Our Town which was all mime, Oklahoma, Lilac Time. Being air-crew they would do better with food and would give us chocolate ovaltine etc.

His pilot and navigator were Australian, and they bombed Hamburg, and so many other German cities, he was based at Metheringham in Lincolnshire.

As the raids got worse I ask to move to a telephone nearer home. So was put to Willesden Green telephone exchange which was a manual exchange which meant you spoke to the caller and ask them what numbers they wanted a lot of Jewish people lived in that area who have fled from Germany before the war saturated.

We were to give Ann Shelton an alarm call in the middle of the afternoon, as she was a singer with Ambrose band and did cabaret and we forgot it 鈥� well! What a rollicking we got

We received parcels at the exchange sent from Australia tins of fruit etc.
We had pigeon pie and often found a few feathers in it.
Would go out at weekend鈥檚 to other local exchanges if they were short.
Spoke to one telephonist who was a man and he said he had a spare ticket for the finals of the speedway at Wembley, so arranged to meet him 鈥� and he was an old man. Ask me for another date 鈥� but no way!

Another boyfriend who I married many years later served as a RAF 鈥� radar operator in India and was out in the monsoon. Went right up to the north east to detect the Japs trying to get into India. He came home just before India got their independence, 1947. We were married in 1949, at Hornchurch in Essex where my mother had bought a shop.

After the war finished I went back to the lovely needlework and worked at Fortnum and Mason鈥檚 in Piccadilly, making clothes for many famous people. Lady Churchill, Megan Lloyd George, Henrietta Tiarks (who became Duchess of Bedford), Mrs Sohwith, Lady Ryle and so many more, Princess Marina, Princess Margaret.

Little more about the time I was an evacuee at Northampton. We were not allowed visitors for 3 mths so we would settle in to our billets. Had a visit from my mother at Xmas my grandmother paid the railfare, and bought me a mauve cardigan. The winter of 1940 was very cold, and the race-course at Northampton had been dug with trenches to stop the Germans landing their planes or parachutes on it.

And I disappeared into one when walking home snow deep across the Race-coarse as it was called. Apparently yes ago it was a race-course but there was a fatal accident when people was a were killed when horses bolted. For we did our trade subjects at the polytechnic which is now a University and the other subjects at the Barrack school next to an army barracks.
To get us out of our billets the teachers arranged craft-lessons and we learnt ball-room and country dancing. One night I said sorry to a sandbag thought it was a person, it felt like a lady, as it was blackout.

The boys made puppets and I would dress them, and we put on shows up in the attic. As they were Victorian houses. Did not want to come back home. Northampton was a very interesting place, we were taken into all the churches, and there was the market and we were taken to see Shakespeare at the Theatre Royal and many cinemas.

Continuing the evacuee days 1yr 鈥�

When you think how many teenage children arrived in Northampton, how did they hate Willesden Polytechnic, Paddington Polytechnic, Kilburn Polytechnic, Kilburn Grammar Sch, Convent at Willesden.

Of course some children did not go. There of course were younger children who went with their older brothers and sisters. We formed a girl Guide company, and went to a farmhouse at Spinney Hill which was the retirement home of an old time artist of the music hall, she gave us permission to collect wood/logs and we had a trek-cart bringing it to the old folk for their fires.

The boys at my last billet in Kingsley Rd made puppets which I dressed and we put on shows in the attic.

The craft lessons we made from hazelnut coverings brooches to sell, painted them gold outside and different colours inside very attractive.

We made handbags out of felt with cardboard inside and a zipp at the top straps, as one could not get handbags.

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