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This story was submitted to the People’s War website by Anne Wareing of the Lancashire Home Guard on behalf of Ann Clarke and has been added to the site with her permission…

I was only 18 months old when war was declared, so consequently I have few memories and some I will have been told by my parents.

My father was the Police Officer for Mellor Brook and the surrounding area. At the time my mother did not work, as policemen’s wives were not allowed to out and work until the early part of the war.

When I was 3 I went to the village school and my mother who was already a time served baker and confectioner, went to college in Blackburn to train as a shorthand typist. She then got work as a secretary to the test pilots at Salmesbury Aerodrome nearby.

As the local policeman my father was often on duty in the evenings when the German air force were trying to bomb the aerodrome. During the air raids my mother and I would sit in the cupboard under the stairs, playing records. My job was to keep the record player wound up.

My father was frequently sent to Liverpool to help during the bombing raids there. He saw many disturbing sights but would never talk to me about them.

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