Category: People
July 19, 2020|Local People | Personal memories | Second World War
Joyce Cleife – Cycling to Work
Joyce was l8 when war broke out and living with her parents in Fareham. She was working for Flux’s Laundry in their office in High Street, Gosport, handling the invoices for the luxury yachts that moored in the harbour. When war broke out, the yachts were commandeered and she was moved to the laundry’s office…
Find Out More »July 19, 2020|Local People | Personal memories | Second World War
Margaret Gwynn – A Schoolgirl’s Memories
My first memories are as a child living at No.7 Star Cottages, the two-up two-down middle cottage of three next to the Star Inn (now Greens). It did have electricity. It had no sink, no running water and no inside toilet or bathroom of any kind. That facility was up the garden where a wood…
Find Out More »July 19, 2020|Personal memories | Second World War
Anon – Planning for D-Day with Admiral Ramsay
I started my service in the WRNS aged 17 in 1944. I wore a plotter’s badge with DD under it. DD stood for “Drawing Duties”. I was called to HMS Vernon (Gun Wharf) in March 1944 and introduced to a Naval Lieutenant with whom I was to work. The work was on masses of charts…
Find Out More »July 19, 2020|Buildings | Businesses | Commerce | Local People
W. Wheatley and Son – New Premises in 1977
Very shortly, the new premises at Wheatleys will be complete. The main contractors, Prince of Southampton, began work in September 1975, and once the forecourts has been completed, including some landscape gardening, a modern lean-to cover attached to the early 19″` c. wall, a relic of the original Malthouse, the considerable operation will be over….
Find Out More »May 29, 2020|People | Personal memories | Second World War
John Pearce – Memories of an Evacuee
At the outbreak of World War II, Portsmouth children were evacuated to the Isle of Wight. My mother refused to let me go, as she reasoned that if the Germans invaded our country, they would use the Isle of Wight as a bridgehead. However, when the bombing of Portsmouth became very bad early in 1940,…
Find Out More »May 29, 2020|Local People | Personal memories | Second World War
Eric Tucker – An exciting boyhood
Ann Tucker was about 12 years old and was living on Hoads Hill about the time of the build up to the invasion. She remembers convoys of military vehicles going up the hill and one of the vehicles, which could have been a halftrack, caught fire and exploded showering the area with debris. Ann was…
Find Out More »May 8, 2020|Local People | People | Second World War
Ernie and Stan Woodford: Brothers separated by 5000 miles
Ernie and Stan Woodford were brothers, brought up in houses on the Winchester Road, nearly opposite Lower House, and also at the bottom of Mill Lane. Mrs. Woodford with Stan and Ernie -Toll House Winchester Road c.1933 Their father worked at Buddens Farm. They were both called up early in the War – Ernie at…
Find Out More »May 8, 2020|Local People | People | Personal memories | Second World War
Peter Merrett – working for the war effort and the A.R.P – an nearly killed by a German fighter
Peter was 20 at the outbreak of war, living in Bedford Place (now Dairymoor) with his parents. He was serving an apprenticeship in his father’s garage (Forge Garage), and in 1940 volunteered with his eldest Muriel sister for ARP duties – Peter working at night, with his sister by day, as ambulance drivers. The ARP…
Find Out More »May 8, 2020|Local People | People | Second World War | Wartime Wickham
Ron Parkins – Rookesbury Park Gardens
Ron lived through the war with his parents and sister at The Bothy, Rookesbury Park Gardens, off Hundred Acres Road. He was 12 years old in 1939, and attended secondary school in Harrison Road, Fareham, which had about 500 boys and girls from the surrounding area. He travelled to and from school by bus, run…
Find Out More »May 8, 2020|Local People | Personal memories | Second World War
Rosemary Copeland – Keeping life normal in Wartime Wickham
My father, Mr Jack Urban Froud, was the boot and shoe repairer – his shop was at the corner of Mayles Lane, in what later became the Pine Furniture Shop. He was too old to be called up but like most men of his age in Wickham was in the Home Guard, and apart from…
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