Dorset

Work in a War Nursery

I had a choice of two and went to North Dorset, where a nursery had been established in the country mansion...

The Invasion That Never Came

With the Colonel's wife, we scrambled at the ambulance station where we prepared hot water bottles,...

An Officer's Wife Remembers

Wife of a serving officer posted to Bridport, Mrs Davies arrived in Bridport in the summer of 1941. And...

A Solicitor in the Fire Brigade

I remember after the fall of France - it would have been about 1942; our eldest child David, he was just...

People I Remember in the War

The School was quickly swollen with extra pupils — private evacuees sent to Bridport to stay...

Militia Call-up, 1939

Merriatt, incidentally, was pronounced locally as 'Mrrt', 'r' being treated as a vowel, as...

D-Day the Build Up Through the Eyes of a 14 Year Old Boy: In Weymouth and Portland

Weymouth and Portland were the main ports of embarkation for landing on the beach known as Omaha... The...

Living and Working in Bridport During the War Years

This system - using coupons as money - limited the amount of stock you could carry... Tanks and lorries...

Audrey's Wartime Adventures -Part 7: David and the Greek Prince - 1944

Not long before D-Day I was in Torquay doing a course in Domestic Science when I heard from my brother...

Life in Weymouth: The ARP, First Bombs, Shelters, Rationing

First bombs dropped on Portland — at the outbreak of war we were picnicking in a lay-by overlooking...

West Bay During the War Years

Father was very busy with the shop - he was very short-staffed - it was a grocery shop and he had a...

Memories of Bridport in the War

When the incendiary bombs fell in Happy Island I seem to remember going along the road to a garage where...

Bridport, 1939

So we sat on our bicycles, we opened the windows of the house, and we heard Mr Chamberlain, in a very grave...

Preston,Weymouth,Dorset

From 1941 until 1944 I was living at Winslow Road Preston Weymouth Dorset... I also recall the American...

Life in the Home Guard on D-Day

Later on a request went out for volunteers to go to a gun battery at Friars Cliffe , recently built, and...

Seven Years of War - Part 2 - Basic Training Completed

Then we could have been going to Norway but alas, Norway also fell to the Germans. I would have to lose my...

Wartime Holidays: At the Red Lion Pub in Sturminster Marshall

Travel in wartime was difficult, trains were packed with servicemen and women and we often had to stand in...

Working for the Ministry of Agriculture

I went to Bridport Grammar School in 1936 completed the five-year course and did o one year in the sixth...

Wartime Life: Evacuated from the Channel Islands

My mother, my sister and I hid in Melplash with our two children as we didn't want to let the children...

In Search of a Lost Father

I was heartbroken when my daddy had to go back to Canada, at the time I was very young, but still had...

A lad in Weymouth

My mother's sister, Auntie Lil, lived in llchester Road, Westham: with her husband, Uncle Fred who...

My Memories of the War in Iwerne Minster

During the war we had a fight over the village, with spitfires and german planes, one of the emeny planes...

One Day in August 1941

He crashed at Holwarth Farm, 1 mile south of Overmoigne, near Warmwell, Dorset returning to the airfield...

War in Weymouth, Dorset

Weymouth and Portland as a place was very instrumental to the war as Portland has one of the largest and...

Never was So Much Owed to So Many Who Received So Little

I was just out of my teens when I received my conscription papers forceing me into the Army, if I deserted...

Apprentice at War

I was fortunate in obtaining an apprenticeship with the Parkstone Joinery, a firm of some repute in the...