Working Through War

Living and Working in Kidderminster

My sister was weaving blankets in the local Carpet Factory and I was employed at 25 MU R.A.F. Hartlebury in...

Nightworker

I remember looking out of my bedroom window, at the lake in the Clough. As I was being shot at, he'd...

Firefighting on the Home Front, in Chelmsford

These two letters were written to his elder brother Ernest by my father, Reg Quick, in September 1940 and...

A Whitehaven Miner Remembers World War Two

I left school at fourteen and began work at William Pit in Whitehaven. As stated in the above account,...

A Teenager's War

I started my apprenticeship in the summer of 1942 in a shipyard in the London docks. In Hyde Park there was...

Wartime Memories of a Girl in York

Another sad time for me towards the end of the war was when a dear friend, a Canadian pilot based at...

A Kaleidescope of Characters

We learned that Winnie and Ron, on a visit to an aunt living nearby, took shelter in the Anderson dugout in...

Waiting to be called up

With war imminent, on September the 2nd l939 Dad managed to hire an open fish lorry to take Mum, my sister...

Life in a Small Country Hotel

Most of my guests came from overseas, from the British Colonies and, in particular, Canada. Some visitors...

Gourock's Wee Gas Lassie - a memoir of wartime in Gourock

So it was a big day when the gas lassie came to call, because once Mam got the rebate then she would...

MY STORY…MY WAR

During 1939/41 I was sent to live in four different ‘family’ homes before ending up in a...

Bombs, ARP & Home Guard, Part 2 War Work and Rationing

And I can remember going down, when we'd raised the money for HMS Bridport, to the ceremony outside the...

Part of Derby's War Effort: At the Vickers Armstrong Factory

To oversee production the hierarchy was seconded from Vickers factory in Crayford, Kent....

A Primary Teacher's Experiences 1

I had bought myself a new bicycle with some of my end-of-term pay-packet, just before war was declared, and...

Grace's story: In East Grinstead

I had been married for just a month when war was declared and very soon East Grinstead, like many other...

Scouts, de Havillands and Table Tennis

So started 20 years of working for The de Havilland Aircraft Company - initially as a shopboy, at 17...

My Early Days at the BBC

To get from TA ll to TA l you had to take a practical test on station with the EiC in attendance...

D-Day Imminent: Meeting American Soldiers in Wiltshire

In a mini blitz on 2nd March my maternal grandmother was killed by an incendiary bomb which bounced out of...

A Teacher's Memories of the Netting Industry

I reported at Bournemouth and they said 'Oh, you're wanted in Bridport in the Materials Section, so...

A Little Overtime Work

Ted on many occasions rode home with anti-aircraft shell splinters pinging off the pavements as he passed....

Short memories: A Child in Lincolnshire.

The next memory is from when I used to sleep with my Older sister who was sixteen or seventeen at the time...

A Dairy Maid's Story

When I first came to Britain I couldn't speak any English, but I learned it in no time at my boarding...

Wartime Memories of a Young Farmer

An air battle was in full cry overhead and suddenly a Junkers 88 was shot down, two parachutes left the...

My Mothers' Experience of World War II - Memories of a Young Girl

My eldest sister, Doreen, was working in a factory making tins and I went to work at Carr's Biscuit...

Wartime in Birmingham

Birmingham was heavily bombed by the Luftwaffe. One thing that sticks in my mind is hearing the whoomph!...

A Teenager's War: The Effect of the Blitz on a Young Girl in Bristol

After receiving first-aid at an air-raid shelter under the playground of Fairfield School, Elsie was taken...