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During the war I lived in SW London with my parents despite the air raids.
In 1940 when my future husband was called up we got engaged. Then in 1941, aged 19, we were married in February and he left the UK in May, destination unknown. In August 1945 my husband returned at last from the Middle East. During the war years I worked in a reserve occupation and did fire-watching regularly in the Civil Defence and helped serve tea to bomb site workers.
Despite all of this we had 52 years of a happy marriage with 2 sons and 7 grand children, but I must admit the memories are still very vivid.
A few days after our wedding I went up north with him to where he was billeted. We caught an early train from King’s Cross but at York we ran into a heavy snowstorm. We were 2-3 hours late reaching Newcastle and managed to get the last bus out. We reached a point where we couldn’t go any further and drifted down to Stanley where we spent the night in a bus garage. My husband reported to the police and was told that he must get to Consett or he would be on a charge. He assured me it was only a few miles and left me with the other bus passengers. They decided to walk and so I joined them. It really was an experience, especially for a young London girl. We finally reached Consett having walked in snow drifts as high as 6 feet fences. I was told afterwards that I had walked about 8 miles. I was quite famous as “the little bride who walked from Stanley�
My husband was not in any trouble as he had managed to catch an early train. The lady I stayed with in Consett was so kind and we remain friends to this day.

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