In September 1939 my family was living in Woking on sea, in Essex, and we stayed on until compulsory evacuation after Dunkirk moved us on. We moved to London to stay with relatives until we found a house in the N. West London.

We stayed in London because my fathers company (Danish Bacon importers) was taken over by the Ministry of Food.

My father said if we were going to get bombed we would all go together. We had many horrific experiences; we slept on mattresses under the stairs for two years. Watched the planes fighting in the skies during the Battle of Britain. Saw the red skies during the day when London seemed to be on fire.

Ack –Ack guns were going through till dawn as well as during the night ECT. Then came the flying bombs and doodlebugs to bug us. On top of all this we had water rationing. We had to go to a stand pipe in the street twice a day. A day to collect water in jugs etc. we had to share bath water (4 of us) with only 5” of water in the bath.

Food was rationed everything was very short including potatoes, and bread. We had shepherds pie once a week made with our ration of corned beef and jelly No Veg.

Sweets were rationed as well. I painted my legs with a tan cream as you can’t buy stocking. All clothing was rationed. My mother did all the washing No washing machines then. Then the Hoover broke so we had to use a carpet sweeper.

Coal was rationed to one sack a week; dried eggs were quite nice and could be scrambled.

We all thought the war would never end, it began when I was a school girl and when it was over I was working as a shorthand typist in a famous London gown shop.

I wouldn’t have missed those years in World War 2.