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I would like to pay tribute to my dear Mother, like many Mothers at that time, she had already endured hardship and poverty beyond belief. When the war started, she was raisng seven children in a tiny house, them came the heart break of having her son being called up and the younger children evacuated. I was sixteen when war broke out, too young to aprreciate how wonderful she was. She looked after those of us still at home, took in relatives who had been bombed out and coped with water shortages, no fuel, and long perids without gas and electricity. My youngest brother was born in 1939 and I remember my Mother taking him to the Anderson shelter and putting the Mickey Mouse gas mask on him. I hated the Anderson shelter, it was cold and damp and the walls ran with water, I stayed in the house and took my chance! The doodle bugs were frightening as they sailed above the house tops with a flame at the back, when the light went out there was an almighty explosion. A rocket, however, was entirley different, not a sound until they hit the ground leaving an huge crater, one fell in the park behind where we lived, only moments after we had arrived home, everything there was shatered. Depite all of this I can remember her singing, she was only 51 when she died.

I started work in the Crown Wallpaper Factory at Bow Bridge in 1939. I lived in Dagenham and transport was always disrupted, getting to work meant walking, or jumping on anything that was going in that direction. Later I was sent to do war work at a converted factory in Grove Road, Chadwell Heath for the Plessey Company where I made aircraft parts and repaired parts from damaged aircraft. Rings and lighters were also made from the Perspex which came from the harnesses of damaged planes. I worked from 7.30am until 6pm or 7pm each weekday and 7.30am until 1pm on Saturday. It was during this time that 'Music while you work'was introduced for an hour a day which we heard over loud speakers, we all sang along, laughing and smoking, making the best of it. When the Red Alert sounded, this meant there were planes overhead and we all went down to the shelters. One evening an huge bomb dropped and failed to explode in the Amar works, another department of the Plessey factory which was down the road from our factory, we could see the bomb sticking out of the ground. Both factories were evacutated until it was defused. On another occasion a land mine hung by its parachute on a tree near Chadwell Heath station! The underground from Gants Hill station was also used by Plessey for war work and it wasn't until the war was over that it was used again for transport. Men came from all over the country to repair the tunnels and the bombed houses. I continued to work for Plessey after the war when my children were young, working from 6pm to 10pm,there was plenty of work then and Plessey made some of the first television sets. I returned to Plessey full time when my children were older and continued until I was sixty, they were good and bad days for us all.

When work was finished there was fire watching which lasted all night. There were sleeping arrangements on site, flat pieces of wood on legs on a concrete floor and one blanket. When the sirens went off it was our duty to go up to the roof of the building with a bucket of sand and a shovel and pick up incendiary bombs. The only light on the roof was the search light or sometimes the moon, mostly it was very dark. During the night there were fry ups and cups of tea all made on the soldering flames. We were paid by the government for this work, but the real bonus was a free cooked breakfast which we ate in a nearby cafe, we were always hungry in those days of shortages.

On Saturday nights we went dancing at the Hammersmith, Romford or Ilford Palais. We often went to Trafalgar Square or to the cinema, I remember going to see 'Gone with the wind' when it came out. Where-ever we went there was the heavy drone of the bombers heading our way and the fear and excitement as we watched the Spitfires in action above our heads. No-one was allowed past Brentwood, we could see the skies aglow where the fires burned, watched the flares dropping from the enemy planes and the guns firing from the backs of lorries in the parks. Some evenings after work we were invited to GI camps, one was situated in Barley Lane in Chadwell Heath, we travelled there by lorry or jeep, I remember dancing to Glen Miller and his band at Matching Green. The GIs gave us oranges, chocolates and tins of chicken for our families and for us there were silk stockings and cigarettes. Sometimes they asked their families to send us food parcels. There was never time to really get to know anyone properly, they were only on leave for seven days, friendships were over so quickly and then someone new came along. However, about half the girls I worked with became GI brides and went to live in America or Canada. In later years I would occasionally meet one of them whilst I was out shopping, they were here visiting their families,some of them had found it difficult to settle in their new homes.

I had one holiday during the war, I went to the Isle of Wight with a friend whose sister had been evacuated there with her baby after her home had been destroyed by a bomb. In order to visit the island you needed a pass-port and to know someone who lived there. Although it ws used for training purposes and there were troops stationed there, for us it was wonderful, quiet and peaceful.

Next year we have been married for sixty years. My husband was 'desert rat', he fought throughout the war and suffered with breakdowns for many years after. We have three wonderful children, seven grand children and two great-grand children. We retired to Walton on the Naze and love being near the sea. I am 83 now and I still work, I do three mornings a week in a local bakery. I love it!

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