大象传媒

This story was dictated to me by my mother Mrs Margaret Hesketh (nee Stephens).

I was on holiday with a friend in Skegness when suddenly the lights in the ballroom were dimmed and an announcement was made that war had been declared.

I went home and met with mother and my fianc茅. In the morning my mother told me that I should go and see Chief Officer Ball of the Fire Brigade, although I was all for joining the Wrens.

I was then trained as a telephone operator, working for the Fire Service. My job was to take calls from members of the public, including emergency calls. In an emergency I had a button to press, which sounded the fire bell in the main hall.

The other girls on my shift were Phyllis Jackson (who lost her fianc茅 on the submarine, Thetis) Ann Walsh, and Vicky Salt.

When I was working at the fire brigade sub-station by Hamilton Square my fianc茅 used to meet me with my bike and then accompany me home, in the pitch black.

I used to cycle along Claughton Road to the fire station with incendiaries falling, but it didn't bother me.

Two particular calls I remember were: bomb and fire (very badly hit with incendiaries) at Charles Stephens (the funeral directors this had been my daddy's business) in Wellington Road, Oxton and also a tragedy when a hydraulic lift at Hamilton Square failed and 40 people were killed. I also remember a firemen with a nail through his foot.

I remember watching a dogfight over Central Station in Birkenhead. Then, going home after a 7-11 shift, one morning, I had to go through all the glass and damage in Argyle Street and Conway Street near to the main post office.

I used to dread the droning zoom of aeroplanes and listen out for what could be coming next. There was lots of attacks directed at the railways and shipping.

My brother-in-law, Charles Stanley, was a pilot on the River Mersey and responsible for seeing convoy and naval ships safely in and out to sea. The Pilot boat he eventually captained after the war - Pilot Boat Number 2, Edmund Gardner, is now preserved at the Maritime Museum, Liverpool.

My sister-in-law, Marion, had a job are reading letters as a censor before they were sent off to people in the forces overseas. My brother Lewis was an air raid warden and then a purser on a Ship.

Other memories include: Gracie Fields appearing on the balcony of the Ritz, then a very large new cinema, in Birkenhead and the Argyle Theatre being bombed.

Then the war took me to Scotland. I was married on 10th May 1941 at St Bartholomew's Church Rock Ferry, to Darcy Hesketh and we held our reception at the Royal Rock Hotel and then went to Wavertree station to catch a train to Edinburgh. When we arrived in Edinburgh at midnight, we must have looked rather lost on the station, as a gentleman and his chauffeur took us to our house in Slateford.

When I got married in 1941, my sister Mame, bought me a dinner set and tea set at Stoniers, a large china shop, in Bold Street, Liverpool, but they were bombed so I never did get the present.

I worked for the National Fire Service in Edinburgh as a telephone operator, it was very much quieter than Birkenhead. I made good friends there, including a girl from Lithuania, whose name was Iuwana, but as I thought she looked like a Clare and it was easier to say, I always called her Clare. Our best friends were Bill and Doris (Dot) Simpson and her sister Nennie (who was housekeeper to a gynaecologist in Edinburgh). We remain firm friends right throughout our lives long after the war. Another friend, Peggy Dunsmur was manageress and buyer of the hat department at Binns in Edinburgh.

While I remained in Edinburgh, my husband Darcy had various postings including Pooleye, Dingwall and Shetland, before going overseas with the 8th Army to Italy.

After working at the Edinburgh fire brigade headquarters I was posted to the Gordie sub-station towards the city, I used to catch a tram there. Then I was posted to Slateford which was nearer to home.

Immediately after the war I moved to Rock Park to live, with my husband's parents. With my experience of working and taste of freedom, I took a job at the Ship repairers Grayson Rollo. When I was interviewed I was warned by a Miss Woodward that I would hear a lot of swearing, I told her I had brothers so wasn't worried. I had to memorise all the shipping firms names, but I did so and was
quite at ease with my work.

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