大象传媒

This story has been added to the People's War website by Liz Andrew on behalf of Jean Claughton and submitted to the site with her permission.

I was thirteen when war broke out and at Settle Girls High School. We were told that we might be a target for machine gunners and that we had to find something like a green curtain to bring into school and we'd each be given a spot inthe shrubbery. When the sirens went we were to lie on a waterproof on the grass and pull the curtain over ourselves for camouflage...It never happened.

We had a refugee from Vienna at our school - she was called Elga Felberbaum - we hated her and wished she'd go back!!We had to share our school with evacuees from Bradford Grammar School. We were pleased because it meant extra boyfriends! There were three sessions of school - we'd go from about 8.30 till 11am. Then Bradford Grammar would go in the afternoon and we'd go back in the evening.

On one occasion my mother sent me to take my five year old cousin to pick mushrooms. We were walking along the steep road that goes out of Settle towards Malham and, as we walked along, a German plane flew over us. We hastily pushed my cousin into a ditch next to the stone wall to hide him but the pilot just waved to us. He was very close - You could see his head quite clearly - but he must have thought -"They're only kids." I think he must have been lost.

My father was a local minister and on the Sunday morning that war broke out he was giving a service. I remember James Garth going up to the pulpit and whispereing to my father and then my father announced that War had been declared. We all went outside and I always remember hearing a woman who lived in the cottages nearby - she was shouting to her boy, "Come On Billy, Get Inside, There's a war on."

We must have heard that Hitler was anti church and been told that the Germans would shoot him because I remember my mum saying, " Don't worry - we'll shoot you first, " This was supoposed to reassure me but she wouldn't have known one end of a gun from the other!

Father became part time RAF chaplain to the unit which was stationed at Settle - 319MU. It was wonderful for Settle women - all their men had gone - but then there were all these new ones. All the men looked lovely in their uniform - "Wait till you see them in their proper clothes," said my mum.

They took over the big hotels in Settle - the Falcon and the Ashfield and everyone in Settle had to have somebody billeted with them. The policemen brought the lads along. We had lovely ones - I even got engaged to one of them. It was great.

There were Italian prisoners in Whitefriars and German prisoners in Hellifield Pele. As a minister, my father would visit the Italian prisoners.As time went on I started to work at Horton School and I started to get on the bus to Horton with the German prisoners who were working at the Quarry. They were lovely. I remember one of the older prisoners, an elderly person (though maybe he was only about 45!) always sat next to me so that I would feel quite safe!

One night during the Blackout the chapel caretaker had left one of the lights on so my father had to go to the church with the police. He didn't have a key so they had to shoot the light out through the letterbox!
The Air Force Unit gave a Christmas party in Settle for all the local children and, being the chaplain's daughter, I used to go along to help. I remember some of the children tasted ice cream for the first time - and they cried!

When the RAF left, the Landgirls arrived - they had a purpose built hostel - but any excess were billeted in people's houses. I remember how hungry they were and my mum saying, " I can't cope with these girls and how much they eat."

But I had a lovely war - for me there was no danger and all the newcomers really opened Settle up. We met people whom we'd never have met before.

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