Message 1 - WW2 in North East England
Posted on: 22 November 2003 by gladgran
This is my friend, Janet's story:
Janet is ten years older than I am, she is 81 and now registered blind. For her family the war started, not on the 4th September as published, but on the first, when her mother received a letter telling her that, since she had qualifications in First Aid, she had been selected to lead an ambulance team. Janet was 16. Her mother explained that she had a new job to go to and ‘we will all have to stick together and help each other’.
Janet’s story: “On the Monday I was to take a Civil Service Exam, but it was cancelled because the government could not allow mass meetings or any unnecessary travelling. I was in the 6th form at Wingate and left school to work as an ICI clerk, for which I would have had to take a bus from Hartlepool to West Hartlepool to catch another bus for Billingham, if ICI had not provided a special bus to take me there directly.
“Janet’s father was a Hartlepool fisherman and was no longer allowed to take the boat out to sea, so he lost his job. Being over 50 at that time, he became a member of the Home Guard and worked at the Control Centre at the Borough Hall. Having his Skippers tickets he was given a yacht and six RAF balloon experts, to escort merchant vessels in the North Sea. During that time he had his hand crushed and lost a finger.
“During the war I worked part-time as a nurse in a hospital with no patients. Every Sunday evening from 9 pm until 5 am, I worked at Kiora Hall, Roseworth, where I put hot water bottles into every bed in preparation for casualties who, fortunately, did not arrive. During the night we were given lectures by a Nursing Sister and taught the essentials of nursing care. I did a short spell in the Fire Service. I was sitting down, having been given a bowl of soup, when the Station Officer walked in and everyone, except me, stood up. When I was told afterwards that I ought to have got on my feet, too, I protested that I didn’t see why I should. I was not there long! My ‘tour of duty’ ended the next week! A friend taught me how to operate a telephone switchboard which became my full-time vocation after the war.
“My older brother, a chemist, was sent to the ammunitions factory, at Birtley, where he gave lectures on how to avoid explosions and later worked in bomb disposal. My younger brother, destined to become a school teacher, was sent to North Africa and, later, to Burma. I well remember our rejoicing on VJ day.
“I well remember Bob’s last night of Embarkation Leave, the sirens had sounded a long while ago and we had just decided it was safe to come out of the shelter when we heard the sound of a ‘plane and a bomb whistling down. Mum and Dad pushed me under the table. All the windows of our house were blown out, or in, depending whether they were at the front or back. Ceilings caved in and doors fell off. My brother was covered in soot – we had to laugh! We had to push a teaspoon under the bathroom door because it was jammed by a big lump of clay behind it.
Happily Janet, her sister and brothers all survived the war.
All the best. gladgran
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