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This story was submitted to the People’s War Site by Three Counties Action, on behalf of Beryl Lucas, and has been added to the site with her permission. The author fully understands the site’s terms and conditions.

In 1945 I was doing work of national importance as a shorthand typist in the Ministry of Pensions (i.e. War Pensions) in Birmingham

Initially I worked for doctors who were medically examining members of the Forces recently returned from the Front Line with injuries or illness. I typed the medical reports which were used in connection with the awarding of war pensions to those who were found eligible.
Later I was typist to a limb fitting surgeon who specialised in fitting lower limbs. I well remember my shock on first going to his office and seeing it full of legs of all shapes and sizes, many of them wearing a sock and shoe.
The clerks in the Birmingham Branch were mostly elderly men (at least, they looked elderly to me) who were pensioners from the 1914-1918 War. Many of them were wearing artificial limbs or glass eyes and one ex-officer sported a monocle.
Shortly after the war ended, I was promoted to being a clerk myself. I then had to arrange for the emergency admission of some sick pensioners to the War Pensions hospitals and for the payment of treatment allowances (equivalent to 100% pension) while they remained in-patients. Sometimes I even had to arrange the funerals.
Later, I did welfare work amongst War pensioners and their families from both World Wars, visiting homes mostly in East London (that was an eye opener — sometimes I scarcely dared to sit down!). We encouraged housebound pensioners to learn some handicrafts to prevent boredom, and then arranged sales — often a big store would offer us a counter for a few days — to give them a little pocket money. Our Department also cared for orphaned children of those who had given their lives for their country.

I recall VE Day as an occasion of great relief and rejoicing. When VJ Day came, my family and I were having a few days away at Sheringham on the east coast. The Town celebrated the occasion with fireworks over the sea that were, by the standards of those days, spectacular.

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