Late For Work!

This story was submitted to the People's War site by a volunteer from Bletchley Park VE Day commemorations on behalf of Olive Ward and had been added to the site with her permission. Olive fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

“When I was on my way to work from Southend to Fen Church Street in London our train was diverted before we could reach Fen Church Street on the district line and I had to get off at Shepney Green and walk. As we walked all the buildings were on fire, there were hoses and pipes everywhere. When I got to work I was late. I worked for the London, Midland and Scottish railway and it was an essential occupation. I was told off for being late and they said I should have got an earlier train, but how was I to know!

Another time I was walking round from St Pancras to my office and I could see Land Mines hanging in the trees where they had been dropped. My husband was a merchant sailor, my firm used to give soldiers and sailors wives leave from work when their husbands were on leave, but my firm told me my husband wasn’t in the forces — he was a civilian so I couldn’t have the leave. In reality their ship had been converted to a troop carrier and they carried thousands of troops and they had a machine gun at each end of the ship and he was one of the gunners. They went to the North African landings and his ship was the only one to come out of the landings and sail to Algiers. All the port was full of flags and bands playing to welcome them.

We lived in Southend and we were strongly advised to move as they expected an invasion, but my mother said, “Hitler can kill me in my own home, just as well as he can anywhere else — I’m not moving!” So we didn’t move. A lot of Southender’s moved to London and they were killed in the Blitz but we stayed in Southend and we were safe.

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