Life on the Home Front in
Canterbury, During World War II
Memoirs of Dorothy Sackett
 

Dorothy, (far left, front row) with her colleagues at Blighs, c1943
 

On 3^rd September 1938 Percy & I we were married at St Gregory’s Church, Canterbury, after courting for three years.  We started our married life at 51 Wincheap, Canterbury, near to where Percy worked for Robert Brett & Sons. The following year, on 20^th June, our daughter Patricia Ann was born.

On May 26^th 1940, due to a notice at Robert Brett’s Yard, stating that lorry drivers were needed to go to France, Percy, along with Sidney Wiles, went to the recruiting office in Roper Road, Canterbury, and spoke to the Officer there.  Sidney Wiles asked what the pay was, and when told it was a shilling a day declined to join, but as they were leaving Percy was called back and told he would eventually have to go, so he signed up there and then, and that night when he came home, told me he had joined the Royal Engineers!

That decision changed our lives for the next six years.  The following day Percy had to report to the local Drill Hall in St Peter’s Lane, and was billeted in Black Griffin Lane for six weeks, until the unit was sent to Halifax, Yorkshire for more training.

I was left with an 11-month old baby, and 29 shillings a week Army Pay. The rent for the house was 15 shillings, which left 14 shillings to live on and pay for everything else - no benefits in those days!  It was decided that I would go back and live with Mum and Dad.  Mum was delighted, as she loved Pat dearly. Naturally the 29 shillings was given to Mum to keep us both, which left me with nothing, so I started looking for work.

My first job was in a baker’s shop at the top of St. George’s Street, the main street in Canterbury, and my wages were £1 per week. The baker’s name was Fred Finnis, and he also owned another shop in Butchery Lane.  He was a first class baker, so we were always busy. In the Blitz on Canterbury Mr Finnis lost both shops, so I had to look for another job, which I eventually got in York Road, Wincheap – another bakers.  I used to cycle to work from Vauxhall Road to Wincheap.

In 1942 there was a Baedeker raid on Canterbury at around 5pm, starting in Thanington, dropping bombs all the way down Wincheap, right through the City, and finishing up in Sturry. There were many casualties along the way – many killed and injured. The shop where I was working was badly damaged by a bomb that fell on the house opposite, where a lady was killed.  I was injured and taken to hospital.  That was the end of that job, as the baker gave up the business.

After I recovered from my injuries I looked round for another job. I went hop training for a few weeks, and then met Millie and Mabel, my sisters-in-law, who were working at Bligh Brothers on war work. As they had no children they were eligible to be called up, but because Blighs was doing war contracts they were allowed to stay in Canterbury. They suggested I try for a job at Blighs, and I got an interview with the manager, Mr Reginald Moat.  He didn’t think I was strong enough to do sheet metal work, but I asked him to give me a trial, which he did, and the rest is history.

I found when I started I already knew quite a few of the girls. There were about 150 girls and lads, and some older men, and we all got on fine.  There was no modern machinery as there is today.  To cut the sheet metal we had a guillotine which consisted of 2 girls holding a sheet of metal and a lad opposite jumping on a step, and bringing the blade down and cutting it.

I was put on a spot welding machine, which tacked the metal together, prior to acetylene welding. We had to be very precise as the welders, to weld it. After we had bent it in a big folder, which was a manual machine with two heavy weights, we had to lift it up to bend it, so that it could be slotted in exactly, ready for the acetylene welders. Then we would have to file where the welding spat out. The sheet metal was covered in grease, and very messy. We had to supply our own overalls and gloves. We had a two-wheeled trolley, with which we had to fetch the sheet metal from the store further up the road. The girls liked that, because those that smoked could have a quick fag, while those who didn’t kept a look out.

Bligh Brothers was taken over during the war as a subsidiary for Vickers Armstrong in Southampton. We made parts for them, so nobody knew what we were really making. Before the war the garage made the famous Chitty Bang Bang car, and Herbie Webb was the wheelwright who made the wheels for that car. He continued to work there all during the war. One man, Bob Owen, worked on special material for aircraft, and I remember he took snuff and was always sneezing. During our dinner breaks we went over to the British Restaurant in the Cathedral Precincts and had a good meal for 10 pence in old money. The British Restaurant was on the first floor of the King’s School Library, but as the school was evacuated it was turned into the British Restaurant.

Some of the girls did fire-watching at the Cathedral. Some nights they would throw the incendiary bombs off the roof, and recently they had their names put on a memorial plaque in the Cathedral, after 60 years!

When the war ended a lot of girls left straight away, but a few of us stayed on to clear up the loose ends, as although the war had ended, the service men didn’t come home for a year, as there was a lot of clearing up to do in different countries. 

Percy came home a year after the war ended, 6 years to the day he had joined up in May 1940.  I left Bligh Brothers in the same month.  When Percy came home Pat wanted to know who ‘that man’ was - he was her Dad, of course!