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To understand the employment situation in mid-war 1943 I need to set the scene, and can do no better than use my family as an example.

My father was 16 when war broke out in 1914 and he joined the Royal Navy, seeing action at Jutland and the Dardanelles. When the forces were demobilized in 1918 there were very few jobs, and the `homes fit for heroes' did not materialize. My father transferred to the Merchant Navy. My parents married and he eventually found a permanent shore job full-time. This involved a cycle journey of approximately 30 miles each way in all weathers with hard manual work for eight hours. He maintained this throughout the Depression and they bought a house.

My brother matriculated at 16. His options were Banking or Civil Service but he was able to get an apprenticeship with Ericssons in telecommunications. My mother did not have to pay for the apprenticeship, which was probably unusual, and my brother received from the firm six shillings a week (30p) for fares to London. He cycled approximately 30 miles a day and pocketed the money. He joined the RAF, became a wireless operator/air crew and was killed in November 1942. Two uncles, (one a pilot, one a doctor) and a close friend were also killed that month.

My doctor uncle had said if I matriculated he would pay for me to become a doctor. I matriculated seven months after he was killed. I was 16 in June 1943.

Incidentally, for a long period at the commencement of the war my school hours were 9am-lpm Monday, Wednesday and Friday one week and Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday the next, and part of that could be spent in the school shelters. Study was up to the individual. Mass congregations were feared because of bombing.

There was no career discussion or advice from the education authorities before we left school. On the morning we were leaving we were called in one-by-one into the headmistress's study to be asked what were our plans. Mainly for girls the choice was office work, nursing or telephones. It was suggested I went as a teacher: two years training for State schools, four years as a domestic science teacher; i.e. four or six years more study including Sixth form. Financially this was impossible. My father's weekly wage was 拢2.12.6 (拢2.62) and I had a younger sister at school. I would have liked to have gone to Art College. There was an excellent one near us, but this would have been considered frivolous. There were no evening classes either, because of fuel, black-out and bombing.

My father took me to a Labour Exchange. They offered nothing but suggested I filled in with a job until I was 18 and would have to join up. When war started men between the ages of 18 and 40 were conscripted, later extended to 46 years of age. My father was in a reserved occupation grade one (water supply) and could not have gone into the forces even if he had wanted to. Women were either taken into the forces at 18 or had to have a full-time job plus war work such as fire prevention. Mothers with young children were temporarily exempt. In Germany true-blooded German women were never conscripted. But in January 1943 those German males not already in the forces between 16 and 65 years were called up.

I did not want to be a Civil Servant or a nurse, but had my eyes set on engineering in the Women's Auxiliary Air Force, but two years later. So my father took me to London by bus. We bought a newspaper and looked for a job. We found one in an accountant's office off the Strand. Pre-war there would have been a queue down the road for the one situation. I was taken on at 拢2 a week (Civil Servants started at around 拢1.50). I had to check figures in statements, cash books etc. We had no mechanical aid. This meant mentally running up the farthings-half pennies column (4 farthings = one penny), carrying over into the pennies column (12 pennies = one shilling) and then the shillings column (20 shillings = 拢1) and then the pounds. The Biro庐 was yet to come.

In addition I had to answer the phone (a small switchboard) and help with the post. There was a boy of about 17 years training to be an accountant. We never once had a conversation. No one ever spoke sociably. I survived this for three months. Trains were blacked-out but I think they ran normally. At this point day-time bombings in London were fewer, but nevertheless we had warnings. Our small office never took cover. In fact, I would not have known where a shelter was.

In January 1944 I was employed by a shipowners' London branch office in the City. There was the boss and myself. I did everything from typing letters and charter parties, phone, bank to collect money to pay-off ships' crews, took ships' senior replacement crews for passports and visas, kept the books up to monthly trial balance, and made the tea. My boss spent most of his time at the Baltic Exchange seeking business, as well as in the `branch office' next door - the pub. I found to my chagrin that I was in a reserved occupation grade two (merchant shipping) and that it would be difficult to get out even to join the WAAF.

So life at 16 had become hectic workwise - I had no set hours - and socially there was only home life. Large crowds were not encouraged; one London Mecca dancing hall received a direct bomb-hit full of dancers, so one avoided mass gatherings. I took my sister to the cinema one night and, as we left, a stick of incendiary bombs wiped it out and the walk home was terrifying with shrapnel failing around us.

We had to make our own amusement. We accepted the situation. It was only until the end of the war, which we were going to win. People joked rather than grumbled; and people were so sociable.

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