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This story was submitted to the People's War by Judith Harridge of Leamington Library on behalf of Dorothy Street and has been added to the site with her permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions.
One particular night, the buses weren’t running, the trams weren’t running and everyone got up and got dressed and walked down the road to work in Manchester. It amazed me how they did that! We didn’t get many bombs really compared to somewhere like Coventry. I was at work and I was a secretary. It was connected to transport and I was in a reserved occupation so I didn’t join any of the services. My husband said if anybody’s doing any fighting I’ll do it! My husband was in the army and he went from Iceland to Ceylon, India, Burma, South Africa and East Africa. He was away a lot of the war. When he came back I continued working – we didn’t have a family at that time. I left work when my daughter was on the way. My husband started in business on his own so I had to go and do the office work till he got on his feet. It was lovely getting your husband back! It suited me fine … and him!
Do you remember where you were when they said the war was over?
I was in London and I’d just gone down for a few days from Manchester and VE Day was declared. My friend and I went with lots and lots of people outside Buckingham Palace. There was an enormous crowd. I can remember the singing and the cheering. I don’t think there was any hooliganism or anything at all. It had been a long time since a celebration.

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