The working day
NextBack“I had left school in 1924 at fourteen years of age and at the outbreak of the war I moved to work for Albert Smith, who made fishing tackle at Dominion Works in Ludlow Road with his son, John.”
“Smith's were doing air ministry work for Terry's known as AID work (Aeronautical Inspectorate Despatch). I used to have an inspector come three times a week to inspect the springs. You could hardly see them, there were only ten in a bag. They were for the number 3-maintenance unit for Bristol and Gloucester aircraft. "I started at 8.30 and worked until 6 pm. Then one night a week I did surgery as I was in the Saint John's Ambulance Brigade. The next four nights I had to go on inspection and work on a little press from 6 pm until 10 pm. The bombers were going over and dropping flares. You were frightened but you just had to put up with it.”
"”Every time the siren went you were supposed to go to the air-raid shelter right down the bottom of Millsboro road. I worked with Joan and the first time the siren went she and I were the only two there, the others wouldn't go. We went in the morning and the all-clear didn't go until the diner time. 'Joan was married to a man in the Fleet Air Arm. He went out on duty one night and was never seen again. We went into the cloakroom and she was kicking the wall, her husband had gone and she lost control.”
