Reserved Occupations

Bevin Boys at The Government Training Centre at Birley East Colliery

Occasionally the Bevin Boys fielded a representative football team, playing matches against local pits, and...

My Memories as a Warden.

There were Large, Medium and Small, also a Mickey Mouse one for the kiddies, and a cot one for babes in...

Underground as a Bevin Boy Part 2

I was landed with the thicker end and having negotiated the four foot passage with nothing more than a...

A SHROPSHIRE BEVIN BOY RECALLS

He insisted too that I worked with him on the same coal face so that " I can keep an eye on...

Wartime Diary of a Customs Officer: Ch 6 - Oct 1940

At home, many raids, Kay and Betty braved them, Beryl and I went to sleep in the Anderson... Home by the...

Cilvilians at War

I remember one day we tried to take a load to Coalhouse fort, which is a few miles further down the road,...

My Recollection Of The War As Seen Thrrough The Eyes Of A Child

Whenever I took that car outside to ride it all the kids would pile on it as I was the only child...

Homeguard Memories

The weekly ticket for the bus from Dunstable town hall to Vauxhall cost 3 shillings and sixpence for 12...

War Work in Glasgow

We had a blue uniform very similar to the army ones with the same tackety boots and tin hats and we were...

Wartime Power Supply in Northamptonshire

We had two that I remember; dad reckoned that under the stairs was the safest place in the house, so the...

My Life During the War

When the war broke out, I was living in a Welsh village in the Rhondda Valley called Treorchy, together...

Bombings in Cannock,Daventry and Coventry

The Bomb Squad came and defused it but the authorities told us we had to move so Mum & I went to...

Memories of Country and Town During the War

My father was a prison officer at Wakefield Prison and we lived with my Granny not far away from the...

From Pillar to Post - Part 3

Notice boards informed inmates of areas in the city badly blitzed and it was no surprise to mum when her...

A Welsh Girl’s Perspective: Part 3

When the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbour in December 1941, the decision was made - America was now in the...

Bevan Boys - Down the Mines

Emergency meetings were called in the House and Ernest Bevin then Minister of Labour put a proposal that a...

Part of Derby's War Effort: At the Vickers Armstrong Factory

To oversee production the hierarchy was seconded from Vickers factory in Crayford, Kent....

Voluntary fire fighting and rescue work.

A historic society based near Rotol Airscrews in Bristol recently published a complete diary of the...

Evacuation: From Essex to Lowestoft

There were more than enough teachers at Park to accompany those children in park whose parents wished them...

War Service - Southern Railway 1942-1946

So I was given a card and told to report to Feltham railway depot... I found that the railway stories of...

The Reed Family

My uncle tells the story of how he came home on a very rare visit and alighted from Shildon railway station...

Wartime Memories of a Young Farmer

An air battle was in full cry overhead and suddenly a Junkers 88 was shot down, two parachutes left the...

From Bricklayer to Fireman: On the 'Blue Watch' at Tooting Fire Station

We drove these cabs back to the main fire station....

Serving with the Fleet Air Arm

I never served on aircraft carriers but went to HMS Gosling at Warrington and then to Abbotsinch Naval Air...

A Career Change in 1942: From the Aircraft Industry to the Fleet Air Arm

Although I had a fulfilling four years in Folland's aircraft factory near Southampton, I was...

Cumberland Miners' Representative in World War Two London Victory March

One of my uncles was Tom Ritson who represented the coalminers from the county of Cumberland in the World...