Working Through War

The West Cornwall Carpenter

My father Raymond Harvey, was the local carpenter, cabinet maker, wheelwright undertaker and decorator in...

WW2 Apprentice Engineer

Two years as a butchers delivery Boy at the Co-op at Yarm brought me to sixteen.At sixteen your employment...

I worked as a crane driver

Here I worked on all the cranes in the factory but mainly in the melting shop. It was manned by ex...

Army Post office. Later.

I was demobilised on March 1st 1946 after over three years in the Army Post Office and went back to my...

I was a newly-wed

My Wartime Experience in Holmer, Hereford.

The factory was never bombed, but the station near to the factory was hit... The factory building was still...

My life as a WAAF at St Eval, Cornwall

St Eval was a large operational station in Coastal Command, which played a leading role in the curtailment...

OUT OF THE FRYING PAN

At the time of Dunkirk, I went to work one morning to find the floor of my van was covered with 5-gallon...

Engines for war

My toolmaking skills developed and were put to good use in the engine development contracts and orders...

Inverclyde Shipbuilding

The yard I worked in was the Glen shipyard and this ran from William St to Glenburn. There were lots of...

A Motor Mechanic during the German Occupation of Guernsey

My father and mother owned greenhouses so I helped in the greenhouses for quite a while as a member of GUB...

Nursing in Withington

When we hear the air raid sirens, father would put mattresses on these slabs and we would sleep down there...

Soliders Boots

I started work at Courtaulds in Nuneaton but they were on short time with one week in and one week out so...

A Black Shirt In Our Midst

During 1939 to 1940 I worked first as an usherette and then, later as a cashier in a cinema in Yate, called...

Office Evacuation

A few days before WWII was declared, 100 girls ages 14- senior staff left Express Dairies Head Office,...

A Civilian’s Angle on the War

Then in Malvern HMS Duke arrived on the scene. They got bombed out so came to HMS Duke, so Malvern had lots...

How to use this book

For further information about clothes rationing ask at your local Citizen's Advice Bureau, W.V.S...

Bevin Boy

No escape from Bevin Boy call-up

There were about 300 of us Bevin Boys there and I was in a hostel with some of them but I wasn't...

The Girls of Lend-lease

There were 12 British civilian girls at the H.Q. in 1943 and these appointments came under the Lend/Lease...

Working for Willmotts - Chivenor and Hitchin

In 1940 my father, who worked for Willmotts, was sent to take charge of building work on Chivenor aerodrome...

Black silk stockings requested for WRNS by royalty!

It was then back to Scotland to Crail, near Fife at the Defence Depot for two years. Whilst I was at Crail,...

Radar

One time I was sent down to Salisbury plain with twelve other girls to do RADAR experiments for the war...

Marshall's - A Woman's Job in a Man's World

Expecting office work, I was dressed in a skirt, so all day long the apprentices found reasons to send me...

Happy memories of Cheltenham

There were dances at the Town Hall on Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays and sometimes on a Monday if there...

A FOOTBALLERS WARTIME STORY IN DERRY

You had Gerry Lynn, who was a Limerick boy and, of course, the manager himself, played a bit of football in...