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I must have seen an article in the Birmingham Mail asking for people to entertain the troops. I was 16 or 17 at the time. I had been singing and dancing since I was 5 years old and was currently singing in a dance band one or two evenings a week so I thought I would volunteer,
The auditions were held at the ‘Cresent Theatre’ off Broad Street. I was working in New Hall at the time. The night came for the auditions , it was pouring with rain- I was still wearing my school gabardine raincoat and must have looked like an orphan in the rain when I arrived at the theatre.
I was absolutely amazed when I glanced around, everyone looked very professional, evening dress for the men, long dresses and lots of make up for the women. I had come straight from work and I felt completely out of it- I only had my music.
When it was my turn to perform I noticed the judges did not seem to be interested in me as I stepped on the stage, but as soon as I started to sing they turned around and listened to me. When I had finished singing they asked me if I could sing another. At the end of the song they asked me if I could sing in another show on Thursday. So I was accepted.
We travelled all over in many different vehicles. We toured Ack Ack sites, Barrage balloon sites, army depots and American army camps. We used to love going to American camps, one in particular was Packington Hall Solihull, we had a meal in the Officers Mess and then they always gave us a food parcel to take home. One of my problems during this work was that I was working for the Civil Service Inland Revenue at the time and we had to do a compulsory overtime- an extra hour per day. I decided that I would do my extra hour in the morning so I began at 8am , sometimes I did not arrive home until after midnight so it was often quite a long day.
On the Anniversary of D-day, an American soldier who had returned to Britain said that he had been stationed at Packington Hall and that he had been training for the D-day landings. So when I heard that I felt that I had made a contribution to the war effort.

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