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This story has been submitted to the ´óÏó´«Ã½ People’s War by a volunteer from Lincoln CSV Action Desk on behalf of Eileen Rashleigh and added to the website with her permission. Mrs Rashleigh fully understands the site’s terms and conditions.

I grew up in St. Albans, Hertfordshire and this is my story from the years 1939 — 1944. I was a Brownie when war was declared and on the day after my mother received a telephone call for me to collect my Six and report to the school opposite my father’s shop, called Golden Fields. We were among many others there, WVS, scouts, police, mothers’ union and teachers. We were told that lots of children were coming on trains from London and our job would be to take groups round the local area and ask householders if they would take one or two in. This was very exciting for us as the children were all about our own age and we soon got talking to them. As far as I can remember we took several groups and all were taken in. After this all went back to near normality. I started at Senior school and after Christmas went up to Guides, having the same PL as I had in Brownies. (I also had the same leader when I went to Rangers!) In 1940 we were asked if any girls would like tot help at the local hospital to run errands. My friend and I said we would like to go as we both wanted to be nurses so in the autumn we set off. This was again very exciting. We had to answer the door and telephone and take messages and answers. We played Kim’s game to help our memory. Eventually we help on the wards. I remember fetching the first batch of penicillin and putting it in the fridge and the ward Sister going spare because of the smell. We went to the hospital in the evenings and Saturdays. Then another message for help came to collect papers, rags and glass. By this time I was the Leader of the Scarlet Pimpernel Patrol and we decided to take up the challenge. As my father was in the RAF my mother and I had moved up to the shop and let our house for the duration so this was very handy. Saturday mornings we took our wheelbarrow round the streets and collected our salvage. We then sorted and weighed it and took it all to the scrap yard where we received payment. We took this money to Miss Dymock-Green who sent it to London towards bricks for B.P. House. The afternoons were spent exploring the countryside. We had an old OS map and compass and on our bikes rode away. We would look for a farm and then ask the farmer if we could light a fire and boil some water to make cocoa as this was all we had. Sometimes the farmer would give us some milk and occasionally an egg!

In 1941 an experimental day camp was held at Gorhambury where we had to meet Rangers at the entrance at 6 a.m. in our oldest clothes and then cycle to the site. There we learned how to pitch tents then with stirrup pumps and buckets full of camouflage point we sprayed the tents! Imagine the mess. Paint everywhere — including us! We had a bowl of soup at dinner time, and then mid afternoon we cycled home. Our company was scheduled for three days and other company’s took turns. We loved this and said could we not really camp? This was allowed the next year. The highlight of our year was cycling out to camp with all our gear on our backs or on the bikes; we loved it. We had to get emergency ration coupons to hand in to the QM. Having since been a QM I really wonder how these Guiders managed to feed us so well.

Three incidents come to mind; the first being a wide game that resulted in us finding two escaped prisoners of war — young Italians who were very homesick but they had to go back to their camp. The second was the only bomb dropped near the camp between our camp and the scouts, which killed a cow. The third was on VJ day when we were allowed to stay the up to listen to the news. I was a ranger by then. The news was very moving.

As my mother had died in 1944 I had had to leave school and run the shop so my childhood was finished but what a lovely war we had!

During this time I remember going to the ´óÏó´«Ã½ in Langham Place to make a recording that was going to be sent to the Guides in India to tell them what we were doing for the war effort. As I remember there were five Guides from the Home Counties and I was one of them.

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