My 1939-45 story

Joyce Myhill born 7th Dec 1921

In September 1939 at the start of the war I was living at 18 Short Brackland Road in Bury St Edmunds I was seventeen years of age and have lived in Bury all my life.
I worked in a small café in the Buttermarket called Ince’s where I started work doing odd jobs cleaning and washing etc and in time eventually worked my way up to manageress.

I met Albert Myhill (later to be my husband) in late Sept in the black out
He and a friend he was with asked my sister and I the way to the athenaeum which had been made into a service canteen for the forces, Albert later that evening told me in fact that he only just left the Athenaeum and was asking the way as a chat up, having told them the way they asked to meet us the following evening which we agreed.
We continued to see each other till Albert was posted to Aldershot and eventually to Cairo in the Middle East in early 1940.
We wrote to each other regularly and in one letter from Albert he asked if we could get engaged to which I agreed.
Meanwhile in Bury I had received a letter advising me that I had to volunteer for some voluntary services or be called up, I chose to to join the Auxiliary Fire Service ( part time) together with some canteen work at the Church army mission hall in Raingate Street.

After a while the letters stopped arriving and I began to wonder what had happened, and one day Albert’s mother got a telegram to say that Albert was missing presumed dead, we heard nothing more for several months during which time I feared the worst.
In Bury around this time they had built an Air raid shelter across the road from where we lived and I spent many nights there during the air raids. I had also been trained as a telephonist for the fire service and when it was my turn of duty I would spend the night there.
It was now early 1942 and I feared the worst for Albert when one day I received a telegram from his mother saying that Albert had been captured and was a POW, eventually I received a letter and Albert told me he was alive and well . I sent food parcels, which also contained cigarettes, soaps, towels and even some aspirins. But once again Albert’s letters stopped which I later learnt that Albert had escaped from his camp and was free for 3 Months in Italy living of the land and food from the villagers of a little place called Rosasco before being turned in by a farmer who had offered shelter for the night in his barn on Christmas Eve. For some months I never heard from Albert and some of the letters I had sent were returned, I later learnt that Albert been recaptured.

In Bury we tried to live as normal as possible with the black outs, food rationing, and clothing coupons etc, I used to work night shifts when working for the fire service, and would also take part in training on some
Weekends, some evenings I would work at the Church army canteen serving tea and coffee and also continued to work for Ince’s café during the day with Sunday being my only day off.
I remember on one occasion Albert’s sister Eva came to stay with us for a week and said she would like to visit a friend in Risby, so we caught the train and visited Eva’s friend Phyllis where we had a lovely evening, again it was the black out as we made our way home and waited in darkness on the station platform where no train arrived till 1o’clock in the morning, when we finally arrived home my father was waiting up for us
And was extremely angry and would not believe as to why we were late
And made me take Albert’s picture off the wall, saying I should be ashamed of myself out at this time night while Albert was at war.

Albert’s mail started again after his recapture and we continued to write until he was finally liberated, and came home in April 1945 Albert was very poorly but insisted that we got married and we set a date for May 21st 1945 after obtaining a special licence. We were married at St Mary’s Church Bury St Edmunds; we could not get a photographer because of it being Whit Monday and rationing. For the reception my mother had managed to get an ox tongue and gammon joint, and the café where I worked allowed me to make my wedding cake, my sister Nelly iced the cake and my auntie from Lakenheath brought California Poppies
which decorated the table, we had benches from the air raid shelter and we went to Hull for our honeymoon
Albert was finally discharged from the army through ill health in Nov 1945. We were married for 56 years until he passed away in Feb 2001 we had two daughters Susan and Sarita and I now enjoy my six grandchildren and eleven great grandchildren.

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