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We interviewed Ellen about her life in the times of World War 2. She was ten years old at the beginning of the war and luckily for her, her school closed for quite sometime. Her school was closed for safety reasons and mainly because most of the teachers there had to fight in the war. When the school eventually did open up again, it was only open on the mornings, because of their teachers being at war, they had volunteer workers to substitute but they didn’t know much more than the children did!

Her sister Mary worked on a farm as a land girl stepping in for her uncle while he fought in the war, sadly, he did not return. While working on the farm she was the unlucky victim of an air raid. The whole farm was destroyed in a matter of seconds. She was fortunate enough to narrowly miss death as she escaped the cow barn and ran for dear life. That was the end of the farm the end of the rural life for her. She moved back with Ellen and the rest of the family, only to discover that without a farm to provide she too had to use a ration book. For her, the worst part of it was trying to find the stamps to buy tobacco, for her father. The once cheap brand of Virginia tobacco was now very sought after. With the rationing limiting food and other things, Ellen’s family was forced to make the choice between sugar in their tea or a homemade cake, made especially by her mother. Her family decided to cut down on the sweetener in their tea in order to have one delicious cake each week.

Sean Scott and Georgina Hooper

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