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MY MEMORIES OF WORLD WAR TWO AND MY WARTIME WEDDING.

BY KATHLEEN HUNTER (nee VALE).

At the outbreak of World War Two, I was living at our home in Dagenham, Essex, with my parents, three sisters and two brothers. Dad was working at the British Oil and Cake Mills in Silvertown, London, which was part of the Unilever Company. My younger brother, aged 12 years and sister, aged ten years, were evacuated with their school on 1st September, 1939, two days before the war began. Later, another sister enrolled as a trainee nurse, leaving my sister Marie, myself and our brother John aged three years, at home with our parents.

Our neighbours on one side were a Jewish couple, Mr and Mrs. Gold, who had dropped the ‘stein’ from their surname. The neighbours on our other side were a Mr. Rudgeley, his wife and his brother. The Rudgeley brothers were followers of Oswald Moseley, the Facist politician, who held rallies and marches in London and elsewhere. The Rudgeley brothers used to dress up in their black shirts every Sunday to go off to the rallies.

Mrs Gold were terrified of them and eventually moved back to London. After the outbreak of war, when the brothers got called up for the Army, they changed their tune, and were quite decent men in the end. Mrs, Rudgeley and my mother became the best of friends and never missed a day to chat over the garden fence.

We had to register for the services or war work once we were eighteen. Until then I had only been employed in the Dagenham Girl Pipers, but with the outbreak of war, the band disbanded for a certain time and the band members had to seek work elsewhere. I was directed to work at J. Ismay’s in Ilford, an electric light bulb manufacturing company who, during wartime, produced light bulbs for aircraft, airfield runways and for searchlights, as well as for other military uses. The machines we worked on were noisy and the hours long. I found it very hard to work in a factory.

My friends and I used to cycle from Dagenham to the factory in Ilford and many times we were caught in air raids. If we felt brave we would continue our journey, but most times we had to take shelter. In winter months there was also a lot of smog, as most people had coal fires, and with the wartime blackout law, which forbid the showing of a light during the hours of darkness, it took hours getting home, with a torch held downwards to find the curb!

The German air raids were relentless at times, night and day. We had an Anderson shelter in the garden, which had sleeping bunks, food and oil lamps and, during the blitz on London and after, we were sleeping in the shelter most nights. We got used to it and my parents had made it as warm and comfortable as they could in the circumstances.

There were soldiers billeted in the park opposite the road in which we lived. They manned anti-aircraft guns and the tremendous noise from them during air raids seemed to be on top of us. There was always shrapnel in the gardens, broken windows and debris. One night there was a direct hit in the next street to us and Dad insisted that we evacuate. Jean and Douglas had already been evacuated with the schools on the 1st September 1939, and Lily had enrolled as a trainee nurse. It meant that my Dad would be the only one left at home.

I went to work the next morning, only to find the factory had been bombed, so there was no work. My mind was made up for me and eventually Marie and I, my mother and John, made the journey to Bannockburn, where we stayed with an aunt. The only work available for Marie and myself was domestic work and Marie got a job in an hotel kitchen and I got an interview for a job in a big mansion. The chauffeur there was named Mustard and he collected me for the interview in a big car. The local council had informed the lady of the Manor that, as she had the rooms available, Army officers and their batman were to be billeted there.

I suppose I was the ‘upstairs maid’ and I had to prepare the bedrooms for the new visitors. As my duties started early in the day, I had to ‘live in’ and I shared a room with the cook. I was only there for a month because my mother wanted to move on to Dundee, where the rest of her family lived. My mother and John stayed with her father, and Marie and I stayed with our Aunt Lily, who was married to Jim Hunter. It was while staying with them that I met Uncle Jim’s brother, Alec, who was to be my future husband.

Alec was working in Wick in Scotland for Americans who were building an air base there. He was a plumber/welder and was in reserved occupation so his call up into the forces was delayed. Alec and his brother Norman realised we missed our friends and home so they took us out to an ice rink, to the cinema and to our first Hogmanay in Dundee, which was a new experience for us with drinking, singing and ‘first footing’ most of the night! Marie and I worked in the local Co-operative Society in Dundee until some time in 1941, when my mother felt it was safe enough to return home. I then returned to war work at Ismay’s in Ilford.

At this time I also attended weekend engagements with the Dagenham Girl Pipers. The band was allowed during wartime to employ ten girls full time to work on ENSA, entertaining the troops. The rest of us were invited to do part time work. My last engagement with the band, just prior to my wedding, was to mark an important piece of boxing history.

On May 20th 1942, in London, we played at the boxing match between the light heavyweight boxers Len Harvey, the reigning champion, and Freddie Mills. We were booked to escort Freddie Mills from his dressing room to the boxing ring. He looked very young and striking, with a colourful cape around his shoulders, as he was piped by us towards the ring. He knocked out Len Harvey in the first few minutes and became the new champion.

By July 1942 Alec and I were married and my parents gave us a lovely wedding at our family home in Dagenham. The wedding was in the local church and the reception in our house. In spite of all the shortages at the time, there must have been some bartering going on as a huge tin of corned beef appeared, and salad. An aunt made our wedding cake. I do not know how she obtained the butter and eggs, but she and my uncle managed an off licence at the time, so maybe a bottle of scotch became available for the local grocer! An elderly neighbour sold me her clothing coupons and I bought material and had my wedding dress made. It was a very happy time.

My husband was called up for Army service in September 1942 and, like many wartime marriages, our time together was limited. I saw him about three times between then and when he was demobbed in 1946. His first leave was for fourteen days in 1943 and we spent a week of it with my in laws in Dundee. They had four sons in the forces and their time with them was also precious.

His next leave was a 48-hour embarkation leave, before he was sent to North Africa and then to Italy with the 25th Tank Brigade REME. I did not see him again for three years, when he had a leave of 28 days in the U.K. He had to return to Italy before being demobbed in 1946.

I was very lucky as so many of the wives had lost their husbands and were left widows, and children had lost their fathers. It was a hard time for us all, as well as the nightly bombings on London and other cities, we had shortages of food and clothing. We really had to make do and mend. We had no telephones or television, our news came from the radio or the Pathe News at the cinemas. Letters from our forces were sometimes received in a batch all at once, or after a long wait lasting weeks, one letter would arrive. I wrote every single day!

However, we always had good meals. My mother was a baker’s daughter and a good cook. She knew how to make bread, cakes and pies and made sure we had a hot meal every day. She used butter every day and I think she ran her own little black market scam with our milkman. He called for his money on a Saturday afternoon, leaving my brother John to look after his horse and float. Mum would give the milkman a glass of whisky and something to eat and I remember he was very unsteady when he left, walking down the path loaded with bread puddings and cakes. John eventually got the Saturday job of driving the horse for the rest of the round, and we always had food in the larder!

To help feed us while food was rationed, she also kept a few chickens and looked after them like pets, putting a splint on one bird she said had rheumatism. John called it ‘Hoppy’ and it would follow him about. When it came to Christmas, Hoppy’s days were numbered and, although our Dad tried to jolly us all into the Christmas spirit, when he was about to carve the bird, John realised it was Hoppy. John started to sob and in the end we were all put off eating that Christmas dinner.

I sometimes went with my friends to the Ilford Palais, where we danced to all the big bands, Joe Loss, Billy Cotton and Edmundo Ros. It was there that we first heard ‘American Patrol’. Members of the forces that were on leave, or stationed nearby, would be there and we all enjoyed it. It was our only out-let, as we also had to work long hours on war work. We missed a lot of things in life with all the shortages but we found other ways to compensate. We girls used to set our hair with sugar-water to make it stiff and because of the shortage of silk stockings, we used to paint our legs, we had no nylons in those days! It was an exciting time in a way, as well as a frightening time, wondering how it would end.

We really had our backs to the wall in the beginning and Winston Churchill inspired us all to carry on, his speeches to the nation were great to listen to and gradually the situation began to turn. When America entered the war and their servicemen came over, with all their equipment and arms, we were no longer alone.

Everyone helped each other during the war years and everyone spoke to each other.
We were very lucky as we all survived and celebrated the end of the war with a street party with all our neighbours. The six years of war began when I was seventeen and ended when I was twenty- three. My memories of that time are still very vivid and this year I will be remembering the end of the Second World War.

KATHLEEN HUNTER.
JULY 2005.

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