A Civilian at Work

I left college in 1939 and worked throughout the war.
Holidays were mostly spent Youth Hostelling or at wok camps picking fruit, lifting potatoes etc, once outside Croydon — once in Perthshire where the owner gave us a bonus of two eggs!
Jobs — first a clerk, then in Censorship in Liverpool in Littlewoods — a glass building — translating prisonerof war letters and also letters of Jewish refugees who were interned on the Isle of Man because of the fear of invasion. In summer 1940 I took a bedsitting room at Euston in London for 10shiilings and sixpence a week. Then I moved to Stoke Newington to work in a Rest Centre for bombed-out families — 24 hours on and 24 hours off midday to midday, plus one and a half hours fire watch in the night. During the Blitz I was told of for having my torch on outside — while University College was on fire close by! Work at the Rest Home suddenly ended when Hitler stopped bombing London and invaded Russia (our salvation!) Then I joined the Ministry of Health for 6 months checking on insurance cards. I finally transferred to work as a German translator at the Foreign Office at Bletchley for a year. I translated telegrams about the movement of goods, iron ore etc crossing to Spain and Italy. (We knew nothing about the decoding work going on in other huts there)
When I left I was sent to work packing household-dried milk in the old Amami shampoo factory near Victoria. Wages were £1.10s per week and rent was £1 a week in South Kensington sharing a luxury flat (£150 a year rent) leaving 10 shillings a week for food, including lots of dripping sandwiches at 2d each.

I was then sent on a course at Chislehurst, Kent, learning to repair wireless sets for the Resistance. I traveled by “Workmen’s train” — having to reach your destination by 8am to qualify for the cheap ticket meant leaving home before 7am.
Then I go a job as Teacher of French and German at Christ’s College, Finchley, boys only, where the previous teacher had had a breakdown. I later got the job of Head of German at Banbury County School — one girl took German A levels ad got into Oxford. She met one German — the pastor at the Lutheran Church, Oxford. We had lots of cycling and Youth hostelling round Banbury — we even got to the Shakespeare Memorial theatre at Stratford to see the Taming of the Shrew one weekend. Here I lived I the YMCA — salary now £5 a week- out o which I paid 35/- for full board sharing with 2 others! We even got lunch.
In July 1944 when I was paid two moths salary (to cover August as well during the school holidays) I paid £3 to join the YHA as a life member — I still get their handbook and magazine after 59 years!

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