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This story was submitted to the People's War website by Daniel Jones for GMR Actiondesk on behalf of Ethel Wilson and has been added with her permission. The author is fully aware of the terms and conditions of the site.

When I was 7 year old, I was offered the chance of evacuation, but my parents turned the offer down so as to keep the family together. We lived in 2up-2down, and my father made a bedroom under the stairs in the middle of the house. He smoked, so one of the jobs was to shop for his cigarettes.

I also shopped for my grandmother at a local Co-op. The order had always contained a tin of salmon and 2 oz of thick twist for my grandfather. A tin of salmon only arrived when it was my grandma’s turn, and as the list went in alphabetical order, she was always at the end, as her name was Stevenson. So for entertainment I used to wear gran’s clothes and perfume. Due to an accident at work, father was not called up to forces, so he was a van driver for Robertson’s Jam Works. My sister was six years younger, and my mother had used a baby gas-carrier, she was too small for a standard issue.

Grandma never went out during the war, but on VE day she went to Abbeyhey women/men’s club. Family had had canaries, and on return the best singer was dead. Gran said it died of shock of her going out.

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