大象传媒

A few years ago I taped some conversations with my great-aunt Lady Cuthbert CBE, (now 100) who was Chief Woman Fire Officer for England and Wales during the war. This is an edited extract.

WOMEN'S FIRE SERVICE
"I was trained as a fireman because they didn鈥檛 know how to train women. They had absolutely not planned anything really. They didn鈥檛 think there was going to be a war. I learnt every fire command in London as a fireman, which I had to know. We went about on bicycles.
They didn鈥檛 expect me to go and put out fires. I think they vaguely thought we would just be cooks and do the admin.
They found it terribly difficult to have women serving because in the control rooms in the old fire brigade their wives weren鈥檛 ever allowed in. Even if it was desperate 鈥� a doctor was wanted for a baby - they could just stand at the door and shout to somebody to come. So to have women running the control rooms to them was sacrilegious.
Women were so used to broken nights with babies that they could cope with the nights of raids and the men simply couldn鈥檛 stand it. They were dropping on their feet with tiredness but the women weren鈥檛.
In the end women did everything 鈥� driving the ambulances, driving all cars, doing all the hose-winding up at the end and all the telephone work. The only thing they didn鈥檛 do was actually fight the fires. Where it took three men, it would have taken at least five women to hold a fully laden hose. And so that was the only thing we didn鈥檛 do. Every little fire station had three women allotted to them. The women would say to me: 鈥淚鈥檓 sitting under the table and my last appliance has gone out. What am I to do? Will you send me another fire engine?鈥� There were bombs raining down. They were terribly brave. I鈥檇 say: 鈥淚 just haven鈥檛 got one.鈥�

BED BUGS

When the children were evacuated the fire service and civil service took over all the schools and so the women went to sleep in the schools. I slept for over two years on practically bare boards with five other women and I used to watch the bugs crawling up the wall. I collected some in a matchbox and took them along to the poor station officer in Lambeth. When I look back I realise how desperately hard work it must have been for him and I said: 鈥淗ave you seen these?鈥�
鈥淥h no they鈥檙e nothing to look at,鈥� he said. He then dropped one by mistake and he was down on his knees looking for it because he recognised that they were proper bed bugs 鈥� not fleas you see.

CHURCHILL AND THE ALMIGHTY

I remember one night when I was on duty and the sky was so bright you could read a newspaper in the yard of Lambeth Headquarters. Little tiny specks of molten fire were coming down. Churchill kept on ringing up the Chief Fire Officer saying: 鈥淲hatever happens, you must save St Paul鈥檚! St Paul鈥檚 must be saved!鈥� There wasn鈥檛 a single fire engine left anywhere to go and then the Almighty stepped in and changed the wind. I met Churchill afterwards and reminded him of it.

EASTENDERS

I have the greatest admiration for the eastenders. They were marvellous. How they stuck the war I don鈥檛 know. I heard this from a fireman.
鈥楢 fireman went to a very badly bombed area where an old lady was standing outside a house. And he said: 鈥淟ook Mum you really ought to get away because this street is not safe. They are bombing this area all the time.鈥�
鈥淵es son,鈥� she said. 鈥淚 quite agree with you. I ought to move.鈥� So that was that.
Two nights later the street was bombed again and he went back and there was the old lady standing on the pavement and he said: 鈥淢um! Why didn鈥檛 you move as I said?鈥�
She said: 鈥淵es son, I have moved. I鈥檝e moved next door.鈥� Isn鈥檛 that a lovely story?

TB

We always stuck to the rations. We ate very little meat. Most people had relations in the country who sometimes sent them up eggs or butter. Then I got TB as there was a girl with galloping consumption in the shelter and I must have laid down on the mattress through the bombing 鈥� 37 nights running I think we had 鈥� and she obviously gave me TB.
I went to a sanatorium in Aberdeen and I was there for four or five months. One lung collapsed and the man said to me 鈥� a wonderful man 鈥� 鈥測ou haven鈥檛 got a family, your husband鈥檚 fighting, do you want to go back to the fire service?鈥�
And I said: 鈥淵es please,鈥� and he said; 鈥淚f your health breaks down you will kill yourself you know that,鈥� and I said, 鈥淵es, it鈥檚 worth it. I鈥檓 not going to hang about up here.鈥�
So I went back to the fire service with only one lung and I had to go every fortnight to have the lung pumped up. They jabbed a needle into my ribs with no anaesthetic - it didn鈥檛 hurt much - and they pumped in the air.
Often I couldn鈥檛 breath very well because it was so tight. If I had to visit the fire women鈥檚 quarters I used to arrive not being able to speak with breathlessness. They told me afterwards that they were terrified of me because I鈥檇 go round inspecting the women in complete silence. Of course I couldn鈥檛 speak you see.

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