- Contributed by听
- CSV Actiondesk at 大象传媒 Oxford
- People in story:听
- Rosina Phillips n茅e Gayler
- Location of story:听
- East End of London
- Background to story:听
- Civilian Force
- Article ID:听
- A5219886
- Contributed on:听
- 20 August 2005
鈥淭his story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War site by a volunteer from Adult and Community Learning, Woodstock, on behalf of Rosina and has been added to the site with his permission. Rosina fully understands the site鈥檚 terms and conditions.鈥
I was 19 years old when the war started and I joined the ARP working from Bethnal Green Town Hall in the East End of London. I worked on the mobile canteen, going round Bethnal Green and Mile End at night providing food and drink to people sheltering in the air raid shelters, arches and the Underground Railway. When the bombs and Doodlebugs were dropping we would stand straight up against the walls in the hope that they would pass us by that night.
People would come home from work, get together what they needed for the night, food, clothes, bedding and go down to the Underground and stay there all night. The next day they would get up and go to work again.
Later I worked as a telephonist. When Bethnal Green took a direct hit I took many of the casualty calls and passed messages on to the relevant services.
There were lots of direct hits. Most people in the East End had Anderson Shelters or basements converted into shelters.
The war took away our teenage years, but you just got on with it, helping wherever you could, just as everybody else did. There was camaraderie amongst people. In the air raid shelter people made friends or some sat knitting and reading books. Mothers fed their babies.
Many people were made homeless and had to shelter in buildings like churches in the area. Organisations worked together like the ARP and the local St Simons Zeolot鈥檚 Church, Morpth Street, Bethnal Green.
I got married in 1941 and was evacuated to Rochdale when I had my baby. Whilst I was away the part of my house in London that the baby would have been in was bombed. I had to leave my baby in Rochdale whilst I returned to London to see what the damage was and sort things out before going back again.
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