ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½

When I was a child, my family and I lived on the Isle of Man. We were extremely poor, as my mother’s money was all lost due to the collapse in the cotton industry. I remember having to go to pick up the discarded fish, crabs, and lobsters on the quayside, the ones the fishermen considered too poor to sell, just so we could have something to eat. We moved to Liverpool when I was a teenager, and knowing war was imminent, I found a plot of land, bought some tools and grew vegetables so that my family and I wouldn’t go hungry.

During the recruitment drive, for the services, I was asked if I would like to join the police. Surprisingly, nobody asked me how old I was! I worked for the police until is amalgamated with the fire service. We worked in a rota system until the bombing became too heavy and all the women except for my colleague, Doris Lockley, and myself were told to leave the city centre. She and I carried on working even when the situation in the centre was very dangerous. One night, we discovered that the man who looked after the fire engines had run away. As my friend had to stay at the switchboard, I took charge of refuelling the fire engines, and showing them where to go, as many were unfamiliar with the city layout. This entailed riding on the engine with the crew, through the bombing to the fire and cycling back to the fire station through the bombardment!

One night we ran out of fuel but I remembered there was another tank concealed beneath the paving flags, which might have had extra fuel in it. I couldn’t lift the flags myself so I had to commandeer the crew to help me get to the fuel.

Doris and I remained at our post through the worst of the blitz, and I carried on working seconded to the fire service throughout the war. With my home grown vegetables, I made soup to feed the fire crews during many of our shifts.

After all this, I was promoted to be in charge of the women’s section at the Bootle headquarters until the end of the war when I had to return to work in my mother’s shop.

© Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.