91Čȱ¬

This story was submitted to the People’s War site by Liz Geuken of the CSV 91Čȱ¬ Coventry and Warwickshire Action Desk on behalf of Audrey Harrold and has been added to the site with her permission. The author fully understands the site’s terms and conditions.

We stuck it in Coventry until June 1941- the day clothing rationing was put in. We went to Oswestry in Shropshire. We didn’t come back until March 1946. We had to wait for the government; they took us out and we had to wait for them to bring us back.

If it hadn’t been for all the American and British soldiers about in Oswestry, you wouldn’t have known there was a war on. They didn’t even have a proper blackout! But there was a big army camp, Park Hill they called it, and a lot of American and British soldiers were based there. The Americans built five hospitals in the area.

We got friendly with a girl who was a “Lootenant” (Lieutenant but they say it Lootenant) — Ginny Hopkins, and she was a dietician. She introduced me to tuna fish. I’d never heard of it before then. Chicken of the sea, she called it. She also used to bring my Tony sweets; she said he didn’t get enough candy. She was a lovely person, really appreciative of having a house to visit. We took Ginny to Coventry when things were quieter and she thought it was marvellous. Ginny wanted to go to France but she had an accident on a bike and they sent her home to America. But she used to write to me, until the letters suddenly stopped and I had the idea she’d died.

We also used to have some British soldiers in for a cup of tea as well. I got friendly with one soldier I met at a dance, Tommy Winning. He was a real Cockney. They lived in Bermondsey but his wife Nelly and daughter Pat were evacuated to Nantwich. It wasn’t far from Oswestry and we had them over. They were ever so pleased; it was a long time since they’d seen Tommy. We all kept in touch after the war and I still get cards from his daughters.

Another good friend was Harry Hollywell, who had owned two furniture shops with his brother. But he was called to work in a factory. My husband helped him learn how to use the equipment, that’s how we became friends. He was a businessman and could get hold of anything, it seemed!

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