Memories of a Petersfield Firewoman

I left school at 14, just before war was declared in 1939.

When I was 16, a lone bomber, mistaking Churcher's College cadets for soldiers, dropped a bomb and destroyed the workhouse. It shook the whole building where I was working (Norman Burton’s in the Square).

At 17, I joined the National Fire Service in Petersfield as a part time firewoman. Then a year later I joined full time.

Just before D Day, we had a number of men and women sent to join us from the Midlands but mostly from Lancashire. It was thought that with all the troops stationed in and around Petersfield, there would be air raids and danger with fires. Luckily the invasion went smoothly and we got through without any trouble.

As 1944 progressed, things were quieting down and the firewomen were invited to put in for a discharge.

I applied, left just before Christmas and was sent to the Engineers Stores Depot at Liphook. There I learnt to drive a small diesel train and later a large fork lift truck.

Being part civilian and part army, that’s where I met my future husband.

He’d been abroad in the Middle East in the 8th Army since 1938. On the way home in 1943, in preparation for the D Day Landings, the troop ship was torpedoed and sunk. Many of the soldiers were drowned, but because my husband was a strong swimmer he survived. Fortunately, he wasn’t sent abroad again, but no counselling in those days, just a fresh uniform and get on with it.

Entered by Petersfield Library

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