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This story was submitted to the People’s War site by Joanne Burgess on behalf of Jean Henry and has been added to the site with her permission. The author fully understands the site’s terms and conditions.

I had quite a boring war I lived at home with my parents going from one reserved occupation to another. I could not do fire duty because I was colour blind. So mainly I was a shorthand typist, moving from one firm to another

My Dad had fought in World War 1 and was almost a cripple,
it had blighted his life. Due to this my dad was asked to do a civilian job and guard the electricity station on Kirkstall Road. He would be armed with a broom handle and to this my Dad said ‘not blooming likely’. If any Germans parachuted in my Dad would have fought them off with the broom handle, he never took this job.

I had my 21st birthday during the war and my mum and the neighbour saved up their rations. One saved up butter and one sugar so they could make me a cake.

The war breaking out certainly spoiled my love life, since all the young men were called up. I stayed clear of the Americans, most people did not have a very high opinion of them or the girls that went with them.

In our garden we had an Anderson Safety Shelter. It was made of corrugated iron and dug down two or three feet into the garden, earth and grass covered it. The shelter accommodated eight or nine people in total, me my mum and dad and neighbours used it.

We had a ceremonial opening of the shelter but unfortunately the shelter was sited at the bottom of a slope and it rained and the shelter flooded out. There was two feet of water inside the shelter and we said ‘so much for the Anderson safety shelter’. We dried it out and moved it around so it did not take the water when it rained.

When we used the shelter properly during an air raid I remember been scared and outside was lit up like a Christmas cake by the incendiaries. I also remember someones feet smelling inside the shelter.

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