Everyday Life during WW2

This story has been submitted to the BBC People’s War by a volunteer from Lincoln CSV Action Desk on behalf of Alison Wilson and added to the website with her permission. Mrs Wilson fully understands the site’s terms and conditions.

These are a few of my memories from the war. I was nine in 1939 and lived near Beverley in East Yorkshire. I remember it took a long time to ‘blackout’ our large house. We had to be careful not to let out a chink of light!

I cycled to school at Beverley High School (about two miles) with a satchel full of school books, my gasmask which was quite lumpy and square, and also a hockey stick. You certainly had to be careful! We had brick blast walls about 1 foot away from our classrooms which made some of them rather dark.

Rationing meant there was very little fat, sugar and meat. Many of our meals were rabbit, pigeon, tripe and onions and brawn. Most of our clothing coupons were used for shoes. There were four of us.

Being near Beverley Barracks and Hull there were a lot of German planes about. Numerous land mines were dropped which made very big craters. We had tape stuck on the windows — diagonal patterns on the glass.

There was a 6” limit for the depth of bath water. Many evacuees came from Hull to Beverley when Hull was badly bombed in 1941. Many of them were housed in our school.

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