´óÏó´«Ã½

I, Jean Gibson was in the 11th Armoured Brigade in the 2nd world war. This is not however where my memories start:

I was around the age of 13-14 years old when the 2nd world war had reached its peak years. I lived in Newcastle which was a main target for bombs due to the heavy industry on the Tyne. My family and I lived near ‘Vickers’ which now is known as BAE Systems; BAE systems used to and still does make ammunition, tanks and weapons. This made it a main target for German air bombers. This was because if there was no ammunition being made and no tanks being created just destroyed the British Forces would soon run out of supplies very quickly. The tanks that were being created needed to be tested. They simply tested the tanks in the streets. Yes normal streets. Imagine looking out of your window and seeing a massive war tank driving down your street you wouldn’t know what to think.

Due to the fact that Newcastle was a main target for bombs most of the younger generations were evacuated. I was one of the oldest to be evacuated at the age of 13-14. This is because at 14 years of age you could get a job and for the boys they would soon be able to join the army at 16 or 17.

However I was just young enough to be evacuated to Workington. This is just past Carlisle. These days it is maybe about two and a half hours journey. I couldn’t really remember how long it took to reach there. I remember it as being only ten minutes but this obviously isn’t the actual time that it took. I thought this because there was so much going on and not many people knew what was happening to some extent. My two younger brothers and I were transported to Workington by electric buses and then we were transferred onto trams. The tram journey was the worst part. This was because it was very bumpy and unsettled. The trams were much crowed and very uncomfortable.

When we reached Workington my bothers and I were separated and I was also separated from all of my friends. However I didn’t mind this because I didn’t have to stay there for very long and I made many new friends that will stay in my memories forever. On my arrival in Workington I was accepted into the home of an elderly couple. They were very nice people but they didn’t have very much experience with children.

I didn’t stay in Workington for very long because sadly I got chicken pox. I was suffering from this virus after about 6 months of staying with the old couple. I was sent home to be with my family in Newcastle and later I was referred to hospital. I recovered from the chicken pox only to become seriously ill with rheumatic fever.

Fortunately I was young and fit enough to recover from this illness without many after effects. I was now old enough to stay in Newcastle and get a job at the age of 15. At the age of 14 years old I attended short hand lessons. Short hand is very complicated but very beneficial. This is because you could write much, much quicker. There was sometimes just one symbol like a diagonal line for a long word such as ‘COMPLICATED’ and a diagonal line would obviously much quicker to write.

There were many social events that you could participate in. One of my favourites was dancing! I loved dancing. I used to go dancing at ‘Oxfords’ with all of my friends. This event occurred every week. I lived next to Vickers, as I have already mentioned, and there was an air raid shelter at the end of my street in the church hall. Also an advantage was that my next door neighbour had a private shelter in their cellar. My sister had a big part in the air raids; she was an ‘Air Raid Warden’. This meant that she had to make sure that all the residents of our street were accounted for and safe when there was an air raid. Everyone in our street was always safe and no major occurrences took place.

A major part of the war that changed our lives drastically were the rations! The rations that we got every week were:
® 1 egg
® 2 ounces of butter
® And some meat coupons (the meat that we used to purchase was rabbits or chickens.)

On the joyful occasion, the end of the war, there was hundreds of parties on the streets of Britain. Everyone was celebrating including me! The streets were decorated with many bright and vibrant colours. There was dancing and a lot of music. The whole country was celebrating!!!

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