Working Through War

Laughter Through Sadness

Sometimes we were followed from Birmingham to Kingsbury station by German planes shooting bullets. It was...

My Mother's Story (Joan's War)

In 1939 just before the war started, all the seamstresses employed by Harrods were sent to work at Harvey...

A Dispatch Rider with the London Fire Brigade

I was accepted and each morning for two weeks had to travel to New Cross in south east London to be trained...

Working in Warwick

After the Tothill Street office of BISC was bombed, the company was sent to Ashorne in Warwickshire and...

School and Work in Bedford During the War

Later I went to work at the offices of Pobjoys, at Goldington Hall... I had a dime, and one said,"Gee,...

Life in Munitions- or ‘Gor Blimey!’

It was another munitions factory and we had boiler suits, turbans and steel capped shoes... We then went on...

The London Blitz and War Work My Memories as a Young Mother by Alice Norton

I was living in Rotherhithe, South East London, between the docks and the railways, both of which being...

Sisters in the Printing Trade in War and Peace by Alice (Franks) McKay

Between the Wars: In 1924, a year after their Mother's death, Gwen was offered a Monotype Keyboard...

A Teenager in Wartime England

Reaching the age of eighteen, my employer's pleas for exemption from wartime service were rejected by...

Shadow Factory Cameraderie and the EVT Washing Machine

My story relates to a shadow factory built just a few miles outside Bromsgrove in the industrial town of...

My Wartime Occupations

Shortly after, the supervisor rushed in to tell me that there had been a mistake and that I should have...

Germans Provide Seats

It was wonderful to leave with the other girls; I don't know which I enjoyed more Molly's company...

Women in Wartime

The service entailed long hours within the departments dealing with Government traffic and we were...

ZX695

It was the practice of the company to close the factory down for the holiday week, usually the last week in...

Starting Work in Wartime

Her next idea was to get all the papers for the Sunderland Sea training College to train as a sea going...

From Office Girl to NAAFI Manageress

As I was a member of a Dancing School I had a very busy time, we gave displays almost every week, in...

My Mother the War Worker

One morning as they slowed for the Halt a returning Bomber badly shot up over Germany was trying to make...

Fond Memories

I went to Glass Street School and remember finishing school at 4.30 and going to Burgess's in the...

One Moonlit Night

I remember seeing guns patrolling the streets, air-raid wardens around Myrtle Street, the smell of burning...

London and Oxford 1939 - 1945

On the day war broke out, 3rd September, 1939, my father, traumatised by his experiences in the trenches in...

Working at John Barrans, Leeds

The standard of work was very high at Barrans as they made suits for Austin Reeds, Harrods and Selvidges on...

My Home Town

By this time Dad had become a Air Raid Warden, he took use thats Mum my sister and me to show use...

Barkingside Memories

On the Saturday morning of the Battle of Britain we went to work at the Henry Hughes factory in Hainault...

War Memoirs of Reginald Kenneth Probst (part 4)

It was one of our chaps, Jellot, later to become Chief Civil Engineer Southampton Docks, who went off on...

A Teenager doing War Work

There was also Henry Hall's Band, which played dance music, as well as Vera Lynn, Anne Shelton and Bing...

Not A Minute To Spare - In Thornbury

From the beginning of the war I worked at the Food Office. The Food Executive Officer was Reg Millard, who...