大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People's War site by CSV/大象传媒 Radio Nottingham on behalf of Mrs Hilda Swan with her permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

It was 1939, when I was working as a Ladies Maid to Admiral Maddons daughter, who lived in Forrest Road, Sussex, near London. She was due to get married, and I had helped to stitch her wedding dress and trousseau, and satin, silk and lace underwear and nighties for her honeymoon. I was honoured to recieve an invitation to her wedding, and delighted to accept. It was held at Brompton Oratory, a Roman Catholic Church in London. It was a real High Society Wedding. While they were on honeymoon, I recieved a telegram from my home in Acresford, near Swadlincote in Derbyshire, from my worried parents, to return home immediately as war had been declared.

The police came to Forrest Road, and said we had 24 hours to leave, if we wanted to leave before we were bombed. Winston Churchill allowed us free transport out of London. The streets, railway stations and trains were packed solid. People were rushing everywhere, it was a mass evacuation. The armed forces were everywhere too, as they made their way to the Barracks. I rememeber travelling with a young couple who had a baby with them, he was in uniform, and I wondered if the young women and child, would ever see this soldier husband and Daddy again.

Once back in Acresford with my parents, I got a job at Measham in a factory making Rucksacks and anklets to fit around the bottom of the soldiers trousers.

My father was an Air Warden. When the sirens went off, he looked to see where the bombs had fallen. He reported his finds to the police. He made sure no light could be seen through any house windows during the blackout.

I was a firefighter, and rushed to the fire with a bucket and storage pump to put the fire out. There was no air raid shelters in our small hamlet, so we had to remain in our homes, and hope the bombs missed us, when they try to hit Domisthorpe Coal Pit in the next village. One day we stood on the hill at Stretton En de Field, just a mile away, and saw the sky light up over Coventry as it was hit.

We all had ration books, identity cards and gas masks, which we had to carry wherever we went.

When I was planning to get married, the family all saved up their coupons, to help buy my wedding dress and food for the reception. My wedding cake was the last one which Radfords of Burton on Trent were allowed to ice. After that, imitation icing , like a stiffened white paper was put over the cake, as the icing was too much sugar to make, as it was rationed. My parents provided a small reception for the family, by saving food coupons up. To make the butter go further, we would boil a drop of milk, and beat it into the butter.

All the roadside sign posts and names of villages were removed during the war. The lights on our bikes were dulled with a black glass showing only enough light just to see where we were going. We could only see a shoret distance ahead, as there were no street lights. Beer was rationed, so the pubs only opened a few nights a week. We were a close community, and never saw anyone we didnt know. We all looked after eachother like an extended family. We dreaded seeing someone deliver telegrams, as we feared the worst, as it was usually to say a relative was missing or feared killed while serving their country. Looking after eachother, helped us overcome out fear and grief.

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