大象传媒

The story of my war experience started in January 1940 when I was employed by a firm in Yeadon, a few miles form my hometown of Otley, in West Yorkshire. I was employed with the firm for 6 years as a bookkeeper and wage clerk. I was 16 years of age and had the responsibility of calculating and paying wages for 100 employees. At this time, after tax and insurance deductions had been made, a single man could not be left with less then 拢2 per week and a married man with less than 拢3 per week.
The owner of the factory used to buy silver paper from hospital collection sites, which the public had collected for charity and towards artificial limbs. The silver paper was sorted on a conveyor belt into different types e.g. aluminium, lead etc with the useless samples being discarded. The aluminium was then put into the furnace and melted. Magnesium ingots were purchased and the aluminium was run into them thus combining them. This was then ground to a fine powder to make bombs. On reflection this was probably an early example of recycling. Not surprisingly, the firm鈥檚 motto was, 鈥淭he Nation鈥檚 Waste for the Nation鈥檚 Protection鈥� and it was employment within this industry that made my employment one of the reserved occupations so I was not called to fight or join the forces.
I., like many others, was involved in a lot of voluntary work. As a member of the Girl Guide movement we ran and delivered messages, knitted balaclavas, socks, scarves and mittens to keep the sailors warm on a minesweeper, which had been adopted by the Guides. I also joined the local Civil Defence and was on telephone duty one night per week. On a Sunday I did voluntary work at the local hospital also on the telephone, where there was a maternity ward for locals and 6 wards of German prisoners.
The day peace was declared in Europe was a wonderful day and one I will never forget as it was also my 21st birthday. It was declared a national holiday and celebrations were joined throughout the country. Chains of bonfires were lit across the country, the first of which was in Windsor and lit by King George VI. In Otley a local man, Sam Ives made a torch that was carried by the boy scouts who ran in relay from the town to the top of a local landmark, Chevin. This ceremony was performed annually for many years by groups of boy scouts competing to see which group was the fastest. I am unsure how long this was continued as I moved away in 1947, when I married.

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