大象传媒

My mother Florrie Gough ran a corner shop in Featherstone near Masham's Square which was named after Lord Masham the pit owner.

During the war when rationing was in operation and everything was in short supply, including paper bags, women would come to the shop for flour and bring a clean apron, tea towel or tablecloth to put it in. My mother's shop had seen hard times before with the 1926 strike but she wouldn't see her regular customers go hungry even though she lost money through it. So rationing was something she took in her stride.

I received my call up papers and was stationed at Strensall Barracks and then Scotland. My girlfriend was Amy Grandidge, we wrote to each other after I was called up as we could only see each other when I was allowed home onleave. Early in 1942 I was kitted out with new uniform and given my innoculations ready to go abroad, so I wrote to Amy and said let's get married. I was given three days leave and there was no time to waste as I had to go and see the Bishop of Wakefield to obtain a special licence. Amy and me were married at North Featherstone Parish Church on the 16th of February 1942.

When the war was over and I was one of the lucky ones who survived,I took over the running of my mother's shop as she had been widowed in her fifties when my father died due to poor health after being gassed in the trenches during the First World War, his name was Robert Featherstone Gough.

REGINALD GOUGH DECEASED
05/03/1911 TO 10/08/2001

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