Tales of air raids and evacuation in war time

PAULINE VICKERY, AGED 96, RECALLS LIFE IN THE CITY BEFORE AND AFTER THE BLITZ

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THIS week, Pauline Vickery (née Ireland), now 96 years old, remembers the Plymouth war years from her own personal perspective.

"I was born on August 16, 1928, in 13 Home Sweet Home Terrace, Cattedown a fifth child to Frank and Perla Ireland. When war was declared on September 3, 1939, I was 11 years old and about to start Public Central Grammar School in Coburg Street, having just passed my 11-plus exam. Here, I joined my elder sisters, my younger brother following four years later.

"Food rationing was immediate and strictly enforced. I remember the local Co-op Society sending mother's order wrapped in brown paper and string. Bread, fish, fruit, offal and vegetables were unrestricted but obviously in short supply, and we went a few years without seeing bananas or oranges. Apart from the rationing, the first few months of the conflict were quiet, if I remember correctly, but we certainly felt the horrors of war in the following years. The bombing, gunfire and destruction was frightening, to say the least.