"All genuine tickets please"

There didn’t seem to be any trouble with travel and transport where I was. The trains were all running just the same. Half the troops that were on these trains didn’t pay any fare.

I remember ticket collectors coming around and he said “all genuine tickets please”. He said that because I remember at night time, coming out of the gates when it was dark, chaps would be trying to find cigarette cartons, bits of paper, anything they could find - to hand in as a ticket. They didn’t say anything though.

This story was submitted to the People’s War site by Becky Barugh of the BBC Radio Shropshire CSV Action Desk on behalf of Herbert Lewis and has been added to the site with his permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

See more of Herbert's stories:

• A long sort of sock
• All sorts
• I had to sit on the front of the tank
• ’Kitted out for civilian life’
• Shropshire during the war
• My only night in a shelter
• Riding a horse up the steps
• It seemed a bit of a silly thing to have to do
• The first of the V1’s
• There was always plenty of cheese
• We weren’t told…

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