Eileen's war in Essex

It was a Sunday morning 3rd September 1939, I was 19 and the prime minister announced we were at war with Germany.

I remember my mother getting black out curtains ready, we all thought we would be bombed but of course it was 1940 before it really affected us here in Britain.

However that first morning they tested the air raid sirens and we all panicked thinking it was for real and we rushed to get our gas masks.

I was working in a chemist shop in Prittlewell at the time and everybody thought we were going to be invaded, my boss panicked and evacuated with his family up North where he came from. As a result I lost my job but managed to get another one in British Home Stores in Southend High Street on the shoe counter, where I stayed until 1941 when I was called up for war service.

While working at BHS I used to have to cycle from my home in Shoeburyness to Southend, to work and back. This could be quite dodgy if there was a black out and no moon, you were only allowed a small light that shone downwards, which wasn’t much help.

My little brother (who was only eight at the time) was evacuated to Wilmslow in Cheshire to stay with an aunt and uncle, it was very hard to be separated.

Some nights I would go to dances in Southend and the last bus home was 10pm, of course I didn’t want to leave that early, so would walk home alone to Shoebury in the blackout (6 miles) along the sea front and across a field by the coastguard station. There was a search light along Thorpe Bay seafront and the soldiers manning it would call out and whistle at me.

When I was called up I was going to join one of the forces but changed my mind and went to work at Marconi in Chelmsford in the paint shop spraying wireless parts for the forces. For a time I lodged in Braintree with a girl I worked with, I then went to a lodging house in Marconi Road Chelmsford. I used to go home at weekends.

Nights out in Chelmsford were always fun. There were hundreds of American soldiers and air - men stationed close by and they used to swarm into the town. They always had lots of money, (not like our poor fellows).

They would come to the dances, mostly at the Corn Exchange and teach the girls to jitterbug.

My sister Phyl, who was 2 years older than me was called up too she went to work at Hoffman’s ball bearing factory., she worked nights and then travelled home, she preferred to do that.

One terrible night on 19 December 1944 a V2 rocket was dropped on Hoffmans, the very department where my sister was working and a fierce fire broke out. Thirty people including my sister were killed.

I was on nights at Marconi and as the two factories were opposite each other the noise and vibration were horrendous, I was thrown from my stool and somebody shouted, “Hoffmans has got a direct hit”. This was about 1am and when it got light Bill, a man I was working with and I went over there. The devastation was terrible and we couldn’t find anything out but learned later the awful truth.

Later that day I was taken home and of course my parents were devastated. I didn’t have to go back to Marconi’s I was allowed to stay home and was released from war work.

On 29 December 1944 my sister was buried in a communal grave in Chelmsford cemetery with 18 of the other who were killed (they were unable to identify each body). There was a lovely ceremony conducted by the Bishop of Chelmsford.
On the 2nd anniversary a memorial garden was dedicated by the Provost.

In a few short months the war was over and I started work as a post woman in Shoeburyness.

I used to go to the dances in St Andres church hall and one night I met this lovely handsome soldier (a Geordie) he was just back from Burma and stationed at Shoebury Barracks. He asked to take me home and eventually we were married at St Andrews Church and were happy together for 59 years. He passed away in April 2005 and I miss him terribly but I have a very loving family, Dennis, Margaret and Catherine and 4 lovely grandchildren.

© Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.