May Elwood's story

My husband wasn’t in the forces and that was a sore point for him. He worked with his uncle, and he was in a reserved occupation. When he went to join the air force, his uncle put against it and they wouldn’t take him. He left his uncle’s firm and he wouldn’t work in his uncle’s firm after that. But he couldn’t get into the forces after that and that was a real sore point with him. He just got jobs about after that, he was on the ARP and the bomb disposal squad. I don’t think he ever had to do any but he was on that anyway. He worked for his uncle in pipe covering and all that in buildings, and he had to go all over the country with that. He was doing repair work and opening up these camps for the youngsters coming in, the evacuees. I used to go up to Derry with him after we were married, but when his uncle put in against him joining the air force, he left it.

Once you were in a government job you had to stay. I couldn’t leave a stitching job and go to another, it had to be on government work stitching uniforms or whatever .I worked in (William Ewart’s) and we did the brush coats for the Middle East. Then whenever I left they checked up on where I was going and they directed me to Carrickfergus. That’s where I did the parachutes and the cases for putting food in and dropping it. It was something I hated. I didn’t like the train journey down and I didn’t like the atmosphere, it was like prison. You weren’t even allowed out at dinnertime, the gates were all locked. They were very strict. I didn’t spend the rest of the war there, because I fought to get out but I still did war work. I made shirts for the forces in Belfast so through that and my doctor I said I’d go on my own work, because I didn’t like travelling. Because I was still doing war work, they let me go. I worked in Gallaher’s; I was all right in there. They kept the production of cigarettes just the same as before the war, the soldiers all wanted them! I didn’t like it but it was a job.

Most of the children were evacuated, our 2 brothers too. They were down in Tyrone; they didn’t have any option they just had to go. They were there until the war was over, though we got to visit them every so often, dear help them. They were on a farm and the eldest said it was the best gift he ever had because the master gave him the love of reading. So he came out of it well. Small schools, you see, they were taught well.

I remember the night the war was over, we were all in the centre of town and everybody just kissed each other, it was great. We never saw any Germans, no prisoners, no German planes. We heard them, and the bombs they dropped but that was all. There was a whole lot of Americans, because Belfast was the first place they came into after landing. They didn’t give you presents but you could buy things off them when you got to know them. They seemed to be kept well up with food, tinned stuff and the best of everything. My mother used to invite some of them up for dinner and I remember the first time, we were all sitting at the table, we had roast meat and she was doing her best. One of them gets the roast meat and a piece of bread and puts jam on the top. We had this other couple in for tea, my husband and I and we had eggs. I set down an egg in an egg cup he looked at it and said “What do I do with this?” He’d never seen an egg cup before!

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