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By the time the War started I was a young woman, having been born in Belmont Street, Swadlincote, South Derbyshire in 1924.

It was however during the war in 1942 that I got married to a serving soldier from London. He was stationed locally at Melbourne, guarding POW’s and I first met him at ‘The Rink’ dance hall in Swadlincote. His name was Frederick Fairall and I immediately “liked the look of him”. His family came from Bermondsey, originally from “off the Old Kent Road” — Kinross Street.

You could say it was love at first sight.

He had to bike over from Melbourne to see me and once I left my dancing shoes in the little bag attached to the back of his bike — needless to say I didn’t see them for a week or two.

We were married at St John’s Church, Newhall on Sunday 18th October 1942 at 10 o’clock. The ‘honeymoon’ was brief as my husband had to be back at his post by the following evening. Everyone including relatives and friend contributed to the occasion with gifts and offers of help. I made my own wedding suit, I got the lend of a hat and I was given coupons for my shoes. People gave flowers (roses) from their gardens and I had my best friend, Winifred Hodgekinson as my bridesmaid — I had known Winifred all my life. After the Wedding ceremony we had a Wedding Tea.

The Wedding cake was given and I iced and decorated it. Friends gave tins of food. There were no real presents as such but I was given coupons for stockings and towards the end of the War we did receive a belated treat from my husband’s parents with an all expenses paid trip to the Savoy Hotel and Theatre in London. Our marriage produced three daughters and a son.

I had two older brothers involved in the conflict, one in the Royal Air Force and one in the Army. They were both stationed abroad and due to the restrictions in operation during the war they themselves couldn’t communicate in detail with each other or their family at home.

However, while one of them was stationed in Cairo, Egypt and was out in a bar having a drink he got a ‘tap on the shoulder’. On turning around, who should it be but his brother!

My husband had a bit of a ‘charmed’ life during the war! On one occasion we went down to London when he was on leave. We were on our way to Woolworth’s in New Cross to buy some new heels for my shoes. We were going down Tower Bridge Road when, at very short notice, he decided to go into the barbers on the street corner for a haircut and asked me to ‘hang around’. The sirens sounded so an air raid nearby was in progress.

After 10-15 minutes we continued on our journey to discover that Woolworths, the shop we had intended to visit had been destroyed in the air raid! If my husband hadn’t stopped to have his hair cut we might have been killed.

On another occasion we decided to go to the ‘pictures’ though I wanted us to go to a different theatre to see a different film from the one he wanted to see.

He insisted the theatre I wanted to go to was a ‘flea pit’ and we both ended up at the theatre and film he had chosen.

It was fortunate that we did as the theatre I had wanted us to go to was flattened in an air raid while we were watching his choice of film in his choice of theatre

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