Jo Tarran
Jo Tarran was 13 when war broke out. She was evacuated twice from her London home, to Bognor Regis and Cornwall, then started work as a GPO telephonist. She moved to Burwell to live with her daughter Rebecca after her husband John died. These are her memories of the war years …
| Time | Topics described |
| 00:00:40 | Clapham aged 13. Bomb demolished house. |
| 00:01:19 | Slept in Clapham Underground. |
| 00:01:47 | No school. |
| 00:01:53 | Evacuated Bognor Regis 1939. Not happy. |
| 00:03:30 | Unsympathetic Londoners to plight of those sleeping in the station. |
| 00:04:17 | Evacuated to St Austell. Happy. |
| 00:04:40 | War work for women. |
| 00:05:25 | GPO telephonist War Office |
| 00:06:05 | Worked for Americans underground behind Selfridges in a secret bunker. |
| 00:08:35 | War in Japan. Secret code messages. |
| 00:09:14 | Allegiance to the American flag. |
| 00:09:36 | July 1946 Americans left. |
| 00:09:48 | Eastbourne Grand Hotel. Ate whale meat. |
| 00:10:30 | London again. Worked M&S Head Office. |
| 00:11:16 | Advertising agency. |
| 00:11:39 | Remembers models being photographed in dresses. |
| 00:12:00 | Parachute silk. Sister made her cami-knickers. |
| 00:13:15 | Clothing coupons. |
| 00:13:45 | Stockings. |
| 00:14:20 | Make do and mend. |
| 00:14:44 | Black market. High prices. |
| 00:15:10 | Food. Fish not rationed. |
| 00:15:50 | ‘No offal’ at the butchers. |
| 00:16:22 | Tripe and onions. |
| 00:16:47 | American dances at Victoria Coach Station. Chocolate cake in the interval. Two American boyfriends. |
| 00:17:30 | GI brides. |
| 00:18:20 | Companionship and mutual help of neighbours. |
| 00:19:35 | War time food. Grey bread. |
| 00:20:40 | Grated suet. Marrowbone soup. |
| 00:21:45 | Starch for collars. |
| 00:22:15 | Copper for washing was kept in the bathroom. Water siphoned into copper on Sunday ready for Monday washday. |
| 00:23:20 | Washing lines on the ground below flats. Took turns with drying with neighbours. Sheets boiled. Cold meat and pickles and bubble and squeak. |
| 00:24:00 | Mustard pickle. |
| 00:24:45 | Table top mangle. |
| 00:25:10 | Mother was WW1 widow. Father died in India. Mother was 6 months pregnant but no money for baby from his pension. |
| 00:26:50 | She took 3 jobs to make ends meet and Grandmother looked after children. |
| 00:28:25 | Grandma was from East End. 14 children. |
| 00:29:14 | Granddad was a stevedore at St Catherine’s Dock on the Thames. |
| 00:29:40 | Battersea was ‘like another country’. |
| 00:30:11 | East End. |
| 00:31:15 | Jewish quarter. |
| 00:32:14 | Granny was a washerwoman. |
| 00:32:35 | Laundry classes. |
| 00:33:20 | Married John at 41. He lived in Canada. Corresponded. |
| 00:36:20 | Moves to Canada and marries John. One daughter Rebecca. |
| 00:37:00 | Back to England to Ixworth. John has stroke. |
| 00:37:25 | Came to live with her daughter in Burwell at Hythe Lane. Likes Burwell. |
| ADD | Remembers seeing docks on fire during WWII air raid. |