Memories of a Teacher at War

At 96, Miss Green had crystal-clear recollections of two wars, WWI and II. Only five years old, she could remember her mother being upset at the sight of the headline board positioned outside of the newsagent that wrote broadly, ‘War Declared’. She lived on Pillory Street that summer of 1914, and was to remain a resident of Nantwich all her life.

Her father, William and her mother, Jane(though her father always called her Bonnie Jean) raised Dora and her two sisters to be caring of the needs of others, and accordingly, Dora and her sisters, aware of the rumblings of war in 1939 all volunteered for service with the Red Cross. Dora, by now a teacher by profession, and ultimately a Head teacher, was selected for further training by the Commandant of the Red Cross for the area, a Mrs. Dixon, and sent to Leeds for the very difficult training. Only 3 of the 10 women of the class managed to pass, but Dora was successful and went on to become a Red Cross lecturer, training other volunteers to deal with anti-gas actions, incendiary devices, and the like. Three days of exams capped off the course, including both written and practical exercises, as well as delivering a lecture. As a practical exercise, she was put into a room constructed of brick, fitted with packing crate furniture and sackcloth curtains. The room was set alight and the volunteer had to put out the fire using only a kettle of water! Dora remembered there was a tiny window in the door, “So the inspectors could see if we were dead or alive at the conclusion!”

Dora’s closest friend was a girl named Alice Martin who lived with her parents on Greenacre Farm. Alice was a strikingly pretty girl with ginger hair and fair skin, and was very particular, “..as proper girls were then”, about her appearance. One night, a German bombing mission, apparently aiming for Rolls-Royce in Crewe, dropped a bomb on Greenacre Farm, raising the entire roof off the farmhouse, and miraculously, putting it back in place! Alice and her parents had only enough time to shelter under the stout kitchen table, and stayed there until the next morning. When Dora met Alice the next morning, Alice’s first words were, “I look terrible, don’t I?” Alice was covered in dust and soot from the bombing, but no one was injured.

Dora would attend regular lectures as part of her duties with the Red Cross. A regular lecturer was a Dr. Johnstone, who would teach in the Quaker Chapel, and sometimes in the building known as ‘The Dowry’. After one session, there was an air raid whilst Dora was walking home. Naughty as it was, she decided to continue home, rather than risk going into a shelter that could have a questionable occupant (a man she had not been properly introduced to). Her father, though he was retired, volunteered as a ‘Fire-watcher’, was at home when the raid started, and Bonnie Jean begged him not to leave the relative safety of the house. When Dora came through the door, his first words were,” Get me my sandwich and flask, I’m going!”, and off he went to keep an eye out for fires in the community sector for which he was responsible. Dora’s walk home through the raid seemed to inspire (or maybe embarrass) him.

Miss Green was proud of her uniform and her role during the war, saying she “was proud of her country, as people should be.”

This story was submitted to the People's War site by Henry Wheeler of the BBC Radio Shropshire CSV Action Desk on behalf of Dora Green and has been added to the site with her permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions

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