My War memories

I was born on 2nd. February 1919 in a house called The Briars in Thundersley, Essex. The house is long gone, replaced nowadays by a large housing estate.
In 1923 we moved to Bethnal Green, where my father had a glass factory. We lived in a wonderful house, reportedly built by the Hugenoes - its still there, now being the home for a number of charities. I always remember seeing Oswald Mosely and his blackshirts, who used to gather outside of our house before setting off on their marches.
My father died in 1935 and I will always remember his funeral which was at the time of the silver jubilee of George V - the streets were all decorated and it was not a nice experience having a funeral at that time.
In 1939, my mother and I moved to Chingford. I had left school and started to work in the offices of Peter Robinson in Oxford Street - I will never forget, one morning, coming up the steps at Oxford Circus tube to see that the store had been badly bombed the night before.
I envied the girls in uniform so with my mother's blessing, I joined the Auxiliary Territorial Service (ATS) in May 1941. After a month of basic training at Droitwich, I was posted to Luton Hoo in Bedfordshire which was the HQ of Eastern Command. My first job was working for the assistant chaplain general where, in hindsight, I seemed to be posting padres around the country. After 10 months, I was promoted to lance-corporal and went to work in the office of the Intelligence branch - this was during the desert war and we used to get reports on the Afrika Corps.
I remember returning to Luton Hoo one evening, after leave. It was a long walk up the driveway, rather scary with rooks cawing overhead. Suddenly, a guard jumped out in front of me, bayonet at the ready "Who goes there" he shouted. Being a new and very frightened femail soldier, I just about managed to stutter "F-F-Friend" and was allowed to pass.
I moved to various other locations including Harpenden, Clacton and Aylesbury and was promoted to sergeant. In Aylesbury, we were, on paper, responsible for Chequers, the Prime minister's residence. In charge of the office was a male sergeant-major, a bit of a joker. He told me one day to telephone Chequers to let them know that Churchill would not be there for the weekend. He gave me a codename of an animal. I duly contacted the duty office at Chequers - he picked up the telephone and I said "The White Rabbit is not required this weekend" He replied "Sorry Miss ?" I repeated the message. The duty officer said to me "I don't know what you're talking about miss". In desperation I said " Oh God ! Its in code - Churchill's not coming". I could not have cared less if the Gestapo had been listening. Over the years, I've always wondered whether this was one of the sergeant-major's little jokes ?
Towards the time of the invasion, despatch riders would bring in documents for me to sign for marked "Overlord - Top Top Secret". Little did I know at the time quite how important these documents must have been which for a fleeting moment had been in my hands.
As D Day approached, we were not allowed to write, phone or have leave for home. One day out walking in the grounds, I heard this very loud drone and looked up to see glider after glider passing overhead.
I was demobbed in 1945 and went to join the Control Commission for Germany and went to Hamburg. I will always remember the level of destruction that I saw there - the germans were very much the defeated country. We could get anything we wanted on the black market with coffee and cigarettes as payment. The people were so poor and desperate for food, often eating food found in rubbish bins. After 18 months, I had had enough of the ruins and the poverty and returned home.
I enjoyed my time in the army during the war - we worked very hard, but had a good social life. I often felt guilty afterwards, knowing the atrocities that had been taking place on the continent, just a few miles away across the Channel.

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