Betty Thornicroft

Betty sadly passed away this year, but will always be remembered for her stalwart contributions to all of the activities and events which the Society promoted, or were involved in. Back in 2005 she gave a brief account to the “People’s War” archive set up by the BBC. These were Betty’s responses to the questions…

I was seven when War broke out and the Wythall RAF Camp was only a couple of miles away. My father worked there in the boiler houses. He got to know all the guards there. They would often ask if there was anywhere they could bring their wives. They used to come and stay with us at Barkers Lane. They became good friends of ours. We got dive bombed once when I was eight or nine coming home from school. They sent a plane from the RAF to fetch that plane down! That was something to look at. I can’t describe how I felt about it because I was too young. At night time they brought the guns and you could read by the light of the guns. We used to have the evacuees come and stay with us as we were in the countryside. I remember once queuing for bananas and had never seen them before but after I tasted them I thought what is the fuss about! Also my father’s woodbine cigarettes were hard to get during the War. At school we were taught far better than the kids nowadays. We had to learn everything in our heads. I can add up far quicker than children today. I was lucky living in the countryside; we had chickens and grew our own vegetables. I remember one time they fetched a plane down at Fulford. We got our bikes down to watch it and came back with bits of shrapnel. We were excited.