大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War website by Sandra Beckett on behalf of Phyllis Rowe, the author, and has been added to the site with his/her permission. The author fully understands the site鈥檚 terms and conditions.
FIRST AID:
A front room in our home at 66 Highertown was a Red Cross Centre. I think it was mainly connected to the Home Guard, who practised nearby. This meant a lot of activity in the house, and encouraged me to take Red Cross exams.
EVACUEES:
Our grandmother lived with us and was bed-ridden. When she died during the early part of the war, my mother, Winifred Trewhella, then volunteered to have evacuees. We had three lovely children from Rushmore Road in the East End of London. Kathleen was 7, Rose 6 and then little brother Bert nearly 5. My sister, Roselle, was 7 and younger than her siblings, so she enjoyed their company.
PAPER COLLECTION:
Children were encouraged to collect papers for the War Effort and were awarded a military rank according to how well they did. Roselle became a Field Marshall!
AMERICAN SOLDIERS:
The Americans were stationed near the Treliske area, just at the back of our home, and when in convoy to go to one of their depots they would be parked on the main Highertown road. My mother would send my young sister out with mugs and a jug of coffee. She always volunteered because they filled the empty jug with sweets and chewing gum, both very short in wartime.
Two of them would often come in for a while and have a chat, and then go to the truck and send in two of their friends.
When they were going to the River Fal area prior to the invasion they would come in a few at a time for a break. On one occasion we found on the doorstep in the morning a gramophone marked 鈥淔or the girl who like music鈥�, which was me. It was signed 鈥楨arl鈥�, and months afterwards Earl arrived from France at our door and said he had leave, but didn鈥檛 want to stay in London. We didn鈥檛 have a bed, but arranged for him to sleep out in a local small hotel, and he spent his days with us.
He was exhausted and apart from his mealtimes, he slept on a sofa. He said we were the only people he knew, and we鈥檇 only spent an hour with him!
We were sorry to see him go back to the war. He promised to write and to come again when he could. We never saw him again.
SOLDIERS ARRIVE FROM DUNKIRK AT TRURO STATION.
At the time of Dunkirk I was a part-time member of the Red Cross and we went to Truro Station to help with wounded soldiers from France. I suppose they were waiting for ambulances to take them to the City Hospital. We gave them tea and would you believe it? 鈥� Cigarettes.
FIRE WATCHING
I fire-watched at the County Hall and in training we were taken onto the roof which I did not like!
My 2 younger brothers fire-watched at the Cathedral which I should think was much worse.
CHRISTMAS DAY
Towards the end of the war things were very quiet in A.R.P. H.Q. and I was on duty on Christmas Day alone. Inspector Ivey who lived near the County Hall came in and said he would relieve me for an hour to go home and have Christmas dinner. I puffed up the hill to Highertown, wolfed down my dinner and ran back. I still think it was the best Christmas dinner I ever had, as I was expecting to spend the time in solitude 鈥� with my sandwiches.
TRURO HOSPITAL 鈥� BOMB
I won鈥檛 say too much about this as an account is in 鈥淲hen Bombs Fell鈥�. We saw the place and heard the explosion and my Dad grabbed his tin hat and went to the hospital
Barbara Edwards tells the story well in my book. Her family were bombed out and her mother, father, grandmother and Barbara came to live with us that night and stayed for quite a while 鈥� I do not remember quite how long!
PLYMOUTH RAID
From fields in Highertown we saw clearly the blaze that was Plymouth burning. My father who worked for the Eagle Star Insurance Co. was asked to go to the Plymouth Office next day and retrieve what documents he could.
ELASTIC SHORTAGE IN WARTIME:
There was a great shortage of elastic, so that one length had to do for several pairs of knickers! I still have (which I obviously bought at the time) a piece of elastic (waist size) with a hook and eye attached. So when you had clean knickers you had to change the elastic.
COOKERY:
I have a wartime leaflet from a newspaper of that time with recipes for wartime cakes (no eggs). The chocolate cake was very much in demand I wonder what we would think of it today.
Recipe: 3oz.Marg or fat, 7oz plain flour, 1 tsp baking powder, 陆 tsp salt, 1 陆 oz cocoa, 3oz sugar,
录 pint warm milk and water, 1 tsp. bicarbonate of soda, 1 tbls vinegar, 陆 tsp vanilla essence.
Rub the margarine or fat into the flour, baking powder and salt. Add the cocoa and sugar and mix with the milk and water. Dissolve the soda in the vinegar and add to the cake mixture, with the essence. Mix, turn into a greased 6鈥� tine and bake in a moderate oven for 1 陆 hours.
The wartime recipe was much used.

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