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This story has been submitted to the People’s War website by Liz Andrew of the Lancshomeguard on behalf of Mary Egerton and added to the site with her permission.

I was sixteen when war broke out and I was still at Burnley High School and I had two more years to go till I went to College. We were asked to help in allotments and big gardens; we knitted balaclavas; we made up lots of parcels for the Forces — we put in the odd letter — nothing naughty. We never had a reply.

In Christmas 1940 there was terrible bombing in Manchester and Liverpool and my father wouldn’t let me go to my College interview. The Centre of Manchester was wrecked. Eventually I did go to College — it was Avery Hill College — a London College which had been evacuated to Huddersfiled.

My Dad worked nights in one of the big Burnley engineering works making munitions and we had an evacuee from the Channel Islands. He was a bit younger than me — and he didn’t stay long.

I remember the weekend that war started. My brother was a painter and decorator for Burnley Corporation and he was out on the Friday morning marking all the kerbs with white and putting white lines down the centre of the street so we’d know where we were in the blackout.

My husband-to-be had a sunblind business in Burnley and everyone began clamouring for material. They invaded his premises. He bought extra machines and brought them out onto the pavement making up blinds and curtains.

Our holidays during the war were in Blackpool and Morecambe — it was a great thrill because there were so many RAF and Army in both resorts. They took over all the Boarding Houses and hotels. The Army were also billeted in the Methodist church in Burnley — we always wanted to peep round the door — All we saw were a lot of sleeping bags down the sides!

I finished my teacher training in 1943 — it was a reserved occupation and I was not allowed to join the Forces. I had to teach in Manchester — there were no vacancies in Burnley. I travelled in and out on the train. By this stage of the War I was not exposed to any bombing — It was really all over by 1940.

Nothing much happened in Burnley. We got on with our ordinary lives. We had no shelter — we had to hide under a table or under the stairs. My mother used to equip it with everything we might need — but we never needed it.

The six years of the War were absolutely different from anything else in our lives. People all helped each other. They did things for other people. There was friendship and camaraderie. We have a link with everyone else who was around at that time.

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