´óÏó´«Ã½

I’m Marjory Stockton, and I’m 84.
When the war started I lived at home. I was very lucky, I didn’t have to work. Then came the announcement that you had to go into a factory, or the forces. I was all for going into the forces, but my father said ‘No’. So I went into the civil service, in the Cunard Buildings in Liverpool, and that was the headquarters of the North Western Approaches. The senior man there was Sir Percy Noble. And, I must admit, we had fun, we had a good time, despite the bombs etcetera. I spent a lot of time queuing for cigarettes and cream cakes, and thoroughly enjoyed it really.
So I was 19 when I started the war work. I stayed in that for 18 months and then I got married, and I was having a baby. I think I was 20 and a half when I was having the baby. My husband was away. He was in the forces, and he was over in Germany. I lived with my parents, and really had a very very happy time. We were very lucky as regards food, because my father was a businessman, and knew a lot of people, so we weren’t actually on rations. But having said that, we always shared with people. We usually ended up with the bone when father got home, because he’d been giving it to everybody.
During the war, it was a very happy time, but afterwards, I’m afraid it wasn’t. Things change. People change. I think the war changed a lot of men. That’s how I felt about my husband. He came home a different man. And I think it was all down to where he’d been: Belsen, Arnhem.. I stayed married to him for 25 years and had two more children, and I’m afraid, then it ended. I think the war was really responsible for what happened to him. He never talked about what had happened to him.
Going back to what Liverpool was like during the war.. it was horrible. We lived near the River Dee, so they used to try and decoy the Dee, to stop the Germans getting to the docks, the shipping and everything, on the Mersey. So, really, we were in a horrible position. In the country, yes, but they used to decoy the beach, so that the Germans would drop their bombs more or less on us. And we missed quite a few bad ones. But I went to Liverpool the day after it was badly bombed, and you couldn’t see for dust. It was horrible. All the beautiful buildings.. ours wasn’t touched, Derby House, funnily enough, but the bank, and India Buildings, they were down. And I thought ‘Why?’ you know, you think don’t you, why can’t we live in peace? I don’t think we ever will again. I’m sure we won’t. It was a sad time, but also a very happy time, the war. And I think it was what you made it, actually.
We used to live near a camp for Italian Prisoners of War. And my father used to feel so sorry for them. We used to walk there at night, and take them cigarettes, which was all wrong, I suppose, but we didn’t think so.
The troops used to go from there, and there’d be big liners on the river, and my own brother was on one, and I didn’t know. He was going out to Italy. The captain used to take you round the liner, and we used to wave and shout good luck to them. It was very touching, and very moving.

© Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.