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A WAAFs wartime memories Part Three — Life in London whilst working at the Cabinet Offices

Part three of an oral history interview with Mrs. Noreen Jackson conducted by Jenny Ford on behalf of Bedford Museum

“I was on duty the night before and we’d had a lot of bombing, we’d had doodlebugs around and the doodlebugs were awful. I used to come off duty at ten o’clock at night and used to get a bus back to Chelsea, we used to sit on the bus and these blessed things, you’d hear them coming and then it goes quiet. We had a flat in Chelsea, in a block which were like gold and we used to hear these things coming and you just used hoped that you weren’t on it. I mean we were near Chelsea Hospital and that got hit and it was just luck really but they were frightening. And I think that they were the only thing that got us down because we had friends living in Bedford at that time and we came down and spent several weekends with them because it was so, it really got you down, the awful quietness when the thing stopped.

We went in the cellar at the flat, we all went down the cellar but I mean we didn’t … you had the crescendo of these things, they were much worse. The flying bombs were in 1944, that’s when it was much worse, that’s when it really began to get us down. I mean that was absolutely awful.

Of course we had to get into Europe to get them out. I think when we landed, it was terribly exciting, the excitement of knowing everything that was going on and knowing that you knew all this knowledge which you couldn’t say to anybody but I mean it was so exciting. I used to come home off night duty, go to bed and then perhaps go on the next night or go on at the afternoon, all different shifts and things like that and you ran your life. You had to just get on with life! And I think that the flying bombs that really began to get to us.

While I was in the WAAF we had these friends in Canterbury and we used to go down there quite often. My husband got petrol for official duties so we had to be careful with that. We put the car up but at the same time he was allowed to use it sometimes but not for these sort of things. We went down to Canterbury for a long weekend and I’ll never forget we went on the bus into Folkestone and I mean it was all a restricted area. I don’t know how we did it. We were both in uniform, sitting on top of the bus and when we got to Folkestone we sat on the beach underneath the guns! We were able to get on the beach because we were both in uniform, we sat on the beach and the flying bombs were coming over. We were sitting on the beach, sitting in front of the guns, just sitting there all day it was a lovely summer day, this must have been in 1944. We sat on the beach a long time that day, we just sat there, the gunners were behind us and you could see the Mosquito’s coming over and these flying bombs coming over the whole time, that was really when it was at it’s worst. When we saw these flying bombs coming over all the time, it was amazing but it was exhilarating actually. They knew they were being shot down, they weren’t all mind you because an awful lot of the ones we saw were coming straight over they weren’t landing, they weren’t near us they were going straight over to London you see. That was that.

The V2 was the worst but on the other hand the V2 was so huge that you never saw it, you just heard these awful bangs in Clapham Common or Deptford or somewhere, the East End. They didn’t use terribly many V2’s but I think they were horrendous. I mean the flying bombs did quite a lot of damage but I think psychologically the fact this (the V2 rocket) stopped - just got us all down. The fact you heard bbbbbbzzzzzzzzz and then nothing, you couldn’t know where it was going to come and it was just luck whether you got hit or not. We were both lucky because we were on funny duties walking around London and running for shelter. These are the things, I used to come off duty at ten or eleven I think and knowing that an air raid was going on, we knew that, and sometimes you used to wait until it had finished but this horrible noise.
I was 21, 22 and you know if you look at a 21, 22 these days, you live for the day don’t you? You were in uniform and everyone respects you, I mean everyone salutes you because you are an Officer and you work hard and you are doing a good job and you are doing an important job, there’s not doubt about that. I think that it was Special Duties, my granddaughter who has just gone into the Civil Service has had to sign (the Official Secrets Act) I never signed it and my husband didn’t, amazing isn’t it? They didn’t bother about that sort of thing. But I think it was a different world, you have got to realise it was a completely different world. People hadn’t got television and a lot of people hadn’t got radios and people bought the paper but you really went more by your radio more than anything else I think in those days.

The food was perfectly adequate, you got fed in the NAAFI or you got fed in the Canteens, it was dull but there was always enough, you had your little bit of corned beef. If you were a civilian you had your civilian ration card. And I used to be able to get, but sometimes because you were in uniform they would find a little bit extra or they’d find a kidney or a bit of liver, one slice of liver just because you were in uniform you see. You did get privileges without doubt. But at the same time people sort of say we didn’t starve we had a very good diet, it was very balanced it was uninteresting. But you could go up to restaurants and they this menu that was off the rations and you might find fish on that, there were lobsters, I mean that! I can remember lobsters so you could buy those. OK it cost you a bit extra but you could have your meal that cost 5 shillings or something mad, even in places like the Ritz. You had your menu which was 5 shillings but then they had little bits on the side which if you could afford they would have got hold of, I don’t say it was black market, it was just available.

But people were very generous. We lived off the King’s Road and I mean the awful part was that if you were in uniform you got things civilians didn’t get. I had a little woman who worked for me, about a bob an hour I think and I’ll never forget I came back with some kippers one day from a fish shop in Chelsea and she said, ‘There’s a law for the rich and a law for the poor!’ And she never worked for me again, because I’d got kippers and she couldn’t have them. I think it was an amazing time to go through really.

But it was amazing what you could do because I used to have people for supper and we used to get rabbit, a tremendous amount of rabbit and I used to do rabbit in a white sauce and bay leaves and people used to think it was chicken. So things like that you compromised a tremendous amount and everyone was very helpful because nobody was out to make you hungry and I don’t think there was any hunger really, we all kept very fit really. But I mean everybody smoked of course! I smoked, I had a long cigarette holder which I’ve still got, it was just part of the act wasn’t it? We used to drink obviously, I used to like a gin and French or something, gin and orange, it was available.

At home we had blackout and in the flat. At home my father had these blackout curtains, not necessarily black, as long as your curtains were thick, as long as they were dark you pulled them together - you mustn’t have any light. Everybody screamed at you if you did have any light. But I think most people had, in the flat in London obviously the curtains were alright but you wouldn’t go in there and put the light on like we do now and then go and draw the curtains, you had to be very careful. We had torches, yes. The street lights had shades on them I think. I’m thinking about down Whitehall, getting back from work or from Leicester Square or Shaftesbury Avenue, that area. There would be the odd, I don’t mean lights as such, the street lights had a certain amount of lights on them, I think they were all dimmed rather like car lights, so that’s how that would have been. You found your way and you had a torch. Obviously if there was an air raid on you got out of the way, that was the answer.

You just got on with life, you just went on unless there had been an air raid, there weren’t air raids every night. So you just went out and got on the bus and got off at Whitehall, you didn’t think what was going to happen, the war was going on. We all knew that the war was going on in Europe, as you say, in the papers and obviously the wireless. We knew just what was going on through our work but at the same time it was a job.

I mean the theatres were going on in London the whole time. I mean maybe they would be closed sometimes but I think there was a situation were I had seen everything that was on in London almost. You don’t realise there were lulls and as Officers we were quite well paid, not really well, but well and I mean you could afford to go up to the theatre and things like that. We used to go the theatre a lot and to the cinema, Pathe News was fantastic.

OK, when bombs were falling the streets were empty or you went down the shelters other than that you just got on with life. And if it happened and you were in a restaurant or in a theatre you either stayed there or you went down a shelter, you were just as safe. I think we all got to a stage where you are just as safe where you where as try and get down a shelter. Because the tubes were terrible if you got down, they were so smelly I’ve spent nights on the tubes, they were terrible.

You could go to the Grosvenor House, they had Officers’ Club every Sunday where you could go to if you were stationed in London and that was mix with anybody and dance with anybody. A lot of us used to go there on Sundays if we weren’t working. You were allowed to wear civilian clothes for that, you got out of uniform. In the Mess you would wear uniform but if you were at home I when went out in civilian clothes. You wore civilian clothes as much as you liked at home and things like this it was just when you were working that you wore your uniform. I know my wardrobe was quite good actually and I had quite a lot of civilian clothes because I got very good coupons. As a Service person I got a tremendous amount of clothing coupons and I was able to have all the clothes I wanted I think. I don’t know if the other people got them or not but we got plenty of coupons. If you wanted trousers or a suit or a coat or anything you could buy that. You couldn’t get nylons but you could get lisle stockings or thin silk stockings but then you see the Americans came in and OK you got your silk stockings or nylons from them. But I think we were all in the same boat. I wore a uniform which was dark blue as you know and I think we had light stockings with them, but stockings were the thing then there weren’t tights then you see. Then you see my husband got a de-mob suit which was absolutely awful. When they came out they got de-mob suits and he used to wear it, in fact he got someone else’s as well because they didn’t want it! You always carried your I.D. with you, Identity Card and also you had to carry your gas mask. I’m afraid we didn’t always carry them you were supposed to because we had big ones, you see.

I certainly can remember VE Day, we went up to Buckingham Palace like everybody else, we all went up. We just went up there and it seemed as though the world was alight and everybody was so happy. I think you just, it was like the Millennium thing a couple of years ago, it was just like that. We all just went up to Buckingham Palace and stood outside cheering.

We were still working so we had jobs to do and the Japanese thing was all going on. But at the same time it was a wonderful relief. We were all working, I can’t make you realise the intensity and the speed we were working at. We were all working hard doing eight hour shifts or 12 hours shifts, go home have two days off and go back on again. You would see your work and you saw that they were landing so and so and that was happening and that Montgomery was doing this, that and the other, you saw prisoners coming out. At the same time you knew that you just had to get on with your job and get the work out. Because then it developed very much into South East Asia, we had to do a tremendous amount of work for that to try and sort that lot out. All our correspondents in Europe then went to South East Asia, because it moved on, South East Asia didn’t finish until later. That had to be intensified.

We most probably celebrated until midnight and had to be back on at six the next morning, as simple as that. It didn’t affect our way of living at all we just had to get on with that because that was the most important thing to get the whole thing finished. I came out in the end of that year, I came out in the October or the November 1945 so really the end of South East Asia was the end of it. But it was the same pressure on all the whole time, the fact that Europe had been liberated was just one part of it and Churchill was there just the same.�

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