Putting on a good show in Lewisham

This story was submitted to the People’s War site by Pennie Hedge, a volunteer from BBC London, on behalf of Iris Merrett, and has been added to the site with her permission. Mrs Merrett fully understands the site’s terms and conditions.

I was a young woman during the war. Well, 15 when it started, 21, married and expecting my first baby when it finished. So that was all my teenage years gone. But we had a good time. When I was 17, my Dad used to belong to a club and the men from the Civil Defence, the ambulance service and that used to get into the club and we used to have a good time. One of men in the heavy rescue squad in the west part of Lewisham, the B Company, was a producer. He used to produce a lot of shows and he decided to start a show with the people there in the club. He called them the West Bees, and they’re still going.

I volunteered to go into the show. The first one we did was called ‘Why Worry’ and it was lovely. Everybody joined in. We used to go round the shops, ask if they had any material not on coupons, so that we could make a few costumes up. It was a good laugh. My Dad used to help a lot because he was quite artistic. He used to make the flowers and lovely dresses with flowers all over, made of crepe paper.

We toured the show all over Lewisham — the town hall, every little hall or club we could. When we came off the stage, the boys would take our costumes and go on stage in the same things. We didn’t have enough costumes to go round twice. It was a laugh. Then we put on a second show “Who Cares”.

Then I got married and was expecting my eldest daughter Diane. She retired last week, she was 60. Doesn’t seem possible, does it? But we enjoyed ourselves. If we were performing when the sirens went off, we would just carry on and hope it wasn’t near us. It was like when you went to the pictures. You’d be watching the film and you’d be bouncing up and down from the bomb blasts. But you didn’t leave, you still sat there and watched the films. When you look back, the times you had, its hard to believe now.

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