It seemed a bit of silly thing to have to do...

I remember, early on, when I got there you had to have a medical — apart from the jabs (which didn’t bother me too much) I hadn’t been vaccinated against smallpox as a child so I had to be vaccinated.

After I was vaccinated I took rather a rapid turn for the worse, and they told me I’d have to go into hospital. Before I got into hospital, it seemed a bit of a silly thing to have to do (taking into account my condition), but there were regulations and of course rationing was on, so I had to take the unexpired portion of the days ration.

I had to go to the cookhouse with my piece of paper and they supplied me with a piece of bread, a piece of cheese, and a piece of cake and I had to take that to the hospital to eat whilst I was there. I had quite a long way to walk, and there was no transport to the hospital, but I had to get there all the same: carrying my small portion of the days ration.

This story was submitted to the People’s War site by Becky Barugh of the BBC Radio Shropshire CSV Action Desk on behalf of Herbert Lewis and has been added to the site with his permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

See more of Herbert's stories:

• A long sort of sock
• ”All genuine tickets please”
• All sorts
• I had to sit on the front of the tank
• ’Kitted out for civilian life’
• Shropshire during the war
• My only night in a shelter
• Riding a horse up the steps
• The first of the V1’s
• There was always plenty of cheese
• We weren’t told…

© Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.