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I was 10 years old when the 1939 war was declared. There were three children in the family. I had an older sister and a younger brother and my father was a doctor. I lived in the ‘Potteries’ amongst the pottery ovens belching out black smoke, the Shelton Bar steel works aglow with bursts of flames, and miners going down the pits to work!
I clearly remember the announcement on the radio that war had been declared; and hearing tales of the first world war from my father I was very upset and worried. My father’s practice covered a fairly large part of Burslem, but included a few ‘far flung’ patients up to l5miles away.
Father was exempt from the services and we didn’t experience much bombing, but whenever the sirens went, Father went to the First aid post and we children went to sleep in the cellar. My brother and I shared a large cupboard, and my sister had a camp bed.
We did not have any evacuees because my mother was needed to answer the phone and generally help with patients.
My toys at the time included a doll’s house and large rocking horse, which were given to the local hospital’s children’s ward, as new toys were virtually unobtainable.

For about a year we children were evacuated to our grannie who lived by the sea in Banffshire, Scotland. My brother and I went to the local primary school. and hated it! They were very strict, and a spelling mistake meant a rap on the fingers with a ruler! We did nearly all our schoolwork on slates with a wooden border and a horribly scratchy slate pencil.
Returning home I went to school in Leek; travelling on a small bus with slatted wooden seats, carrying my gasmask of course; and as a member of the school Girl Guides, I was very fortunate to meet Lady Baden Powell.
Celebrity concerts were occasionally held at the Victoria Hall, and as Father was a theatre doctor, I was lucky to meet many famous people, Tommy Handley and the ITMA team spring to mind.

During part of the wartime we owned a tiny cottage in the country with a large garden; which helped provide us with fresh vegetables, the occasional chicken, and farm eggs. Also to add to the egg supply, we had a new refrigerator which had come in a huge wooden box; and with help, and much to the family’s amusement, I made the box into a hen house holding a cockerel and three bantam hens!
Clothes were rationed, so when my sister grew out of her dresses I quickly learned how to alter them to fit me; she, unlike me, was tall and slim!
Also, we were very fortunate when we girls were the proud possessors of pure silk knickers from a patient in Leek! Luxury indeed!

The end of the war in 1945 was a time of great relief.
and I well remember all the parties held in celebration!

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