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Interview with Fay Price
Fay Price was nine at the outbreak of the Second World War living in Grimsby. A twin, they were the youngest of six siblings. Her memory of the start of the war was the ending of birthday parties. Her father was a fish merchant and was able to…
Interview with Ruta Popika
Ruta Popika was born near the river Nemunas, in what was Lithuania before the war. She remembers her family being forced to move eastwards and westwards from Lithuania according to the changing tides of war. Remembers the occupation of the Baltic…
Interview with Beryl Pickwell
Beryl Pickwell lived in Lincoln during the war. The youngest in a family with three brothers and two sisters, she remembers the day war was declared. Her father and two brothers worked in war factories, Clarke’s Crank and Ruston and Hornsby. She…
Interview with Betty May Pearson
Her brother-in-law William Mollison Walton, after training to be a pilot in Canada, was based at RAF Swinderby with 97 Squadron. In 1944 his aircraft was attacked and he baled out. He spent two days on a small island where he buried his parachute,…
Letter to Kathleen Wynn from Rex and Rose Anley
Thanks her for letter and states that Rose has contacted Red Cross office who have had no news. Writes about state of Chelmsford and catches up with family news. Mentions lack of sleep due to generally getting two sirens a night.
Permit allowing Malcolm Staves to enter St Andrews, Hull
A permit allowing Malcolm Staves to enter St Andrews, Hull to attend his place of work.
Interview with George Thomas Marsh
George’s family lived on a farm at Bassingham Fen. His earliest memory of the war was when he was about two and a half, his father pointing out a Lancaster flying over. On 5 November 1944, EH977 Stirling crash-landed nearby and he saw the massive…
Interview with Merv Owen
Merv Owen was a school boy during the war. He recalls two aircraft crashes in and around Welton in Lincolnshire, a Lancaster and a Ju 88.
Interview with Margaret Ottaway
Margaret Ottaway lived in Louth, the sixth of seven children, and tells of her childhood there. Tells of an air raid shelter they had in the house. Witnessed, as a seven year old, an enemy air raid on 19 February 1941, which caused damage and…
Interview with Sylvia Fraser
Discusses her father's pre-war charabanc business and the pub he ran during the war. Also mentions her work in a factory in Grantham and the occasion when a possible spy took his own life when he was arrested. One day an airman and his friends…
Interview with Iris McClements. Two
Iris McClements remembers being issued with a gas mask at the age of 11, before the war started. Her family moved to Eldwick when she was about 13 to avoid the bombs. She joined the Women’s Junior Air Corps and recalls being issued with a bucket,…
Malcolm Staves' Fire Fighting Card
A card authorising Malcolm Staves to take part in Civil Defence Fire fighting.
Malcolm Staves' Supplementary Clothing Book
A ration book issued to Malcolm Staves.
Letter to Malcolm Staves
![EStavesMEStaves[GF-GM]400712-0001.jpg](https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/square_thumbnails/1011/11358/EStavesMEStaves[GF-GM]400712-0001.jpg "EStavesMEStaves[GF-GM]400712-0001.jpg")
A letter to Malcolm from his Grandparents. A lot of domestic news but also congratulates Malcolm on his promotion.
Interview with Dorothy Lusby
Dorothy’s was born in Cleethorpes, her father served in the Army during the First World War. They moved to Grimsby at the outbreak of the war, when she was turning 13 years old. She recalls the bombings and having to stay in an Anderson air raid…
Interview with Joan Rosemary Macklin
Joan’s maiden name was Fellows. She speaks of her school days up to leaving at 16 and a half when she took up an apprenticeship with a dressmaking shop in Hastings. When war was declared the dressmaking business suffered, so she went to Islington…
Interview with Kenneth Lindley
Kenneth Lindley was born in Hillsborough, Sheffield in 1926. Before joining the RAF Kenneth was an engineer’s apprentice, and often helped the Air Raid Warden by acting as a messenger. He reminisces joining the Air Training Corps as a teenager.…
Cadet 1935-1945 Peter D Stevenson
Peter Stevenson's account of his service in the Officer Training Corps at Grantham and later in the Air Training Corps. Tells of his life in Grantham and the effect of the war on the town. Also his involvement post war in museums and projects to…
Interview with Hilda Ledger
Before the war, Hilda Ledger lived in Berkley and worked in a big house. During the war, she registered to work, as required for her age, and was sent to Metrovic, a Lancaster bomber factory in Manchester. She describes working nine-hour shifts, five…
Interview with Jack and Jean Howes
Jack Howes was born in 1933 in Nottingham. His father was a machine engineer and by the start of the war they were living in Lincoln where he worked for Ruston-Bucyrus. His father was then transferred to Grantham where he lived during the week. His…
Interview with Pauline Holloway
Pauline Holloway grew up in Harrow and turned eighteen one month before the end of the Second World War. She recollects listening to Churchill’s speeches on the radio, sheltering during air attacks in a purpose-built extension to her house, and…
Interview with Margaret Hodgin
Margaret’s family lived in Fiskerton and her first memory of war time, when she was seven and her brother four, was of her father digging a shelter in the garden. The children would walk or cycle to Reepham school.
Margaret was about eleven when…
Margaret was about eleven when…
Interview with Johanna Heslam
Johanna Heslam was a young child when Holland was occupied. The family had to move on several occasions because their area was being used for military purposes. Johanna experienced increasing loss as shortages began of clothing and then food. Even…
Interview with Betty Hedges
Betty Hedges grew up in South London in the final years before the war and she recalls a happy childhood. She describes a close family and community life where the children played unworried in the streets and she talks about the games they played and…
Interview with Richard Heath
Richard Heath remembers watching Lancaster aeroplanes flying in the skies above him from his back yard and listening to the sound of them fade into the night. One morning he could see red flares exploding in fields nearby where a Lancaster from…