Case study – Mabel Forsdicke

When we left school at 14, Mum registered our names with Hunt’s Domestic Agency in London. She wanted us to go into the larger households so that we only did one particular job – whereas in a smaller house there would be a general maid to do everything. Beatrice, Mary and Ruth were all housemaids, but I was a kitchen maid.

I went to work for Mrs Garrett in a big house called Green Heys. There was a cook, a parlour maid, and a housemaid, and I was the between-maid, which meant that I helped wherever needed. The lady was very nice and motherly. She was blind, but that did not stop her from training us. I remember we had a huge hall with a marble floor with various items of furniture around. One morning the lady was lying flat on her tummy feeling under a chest. She called, ‘Child, child, you haven’t dusted under here.’ We certainly learned to be thorough!

Case study – Joan Belk

My first job was in a fishing tackle shop, working in the back of the premises sorting out maggots. The van would deliver the maggots into a big empty bath and I would sort them out into smaller baths – big ones in the right, small ones in the left, and dead husks in the bin. Then I had to put them in clean bran so that they were ready – all of this for eight shillings (40p) per week … and I worked 52 hours!

My next job was cleaning in a bakery and grocery shop. Sometimes I had to dunk legs of ham and bacon, that hung from the ceiling in mutton cloth, into buckets of boiling water for a few seconds to drown the maggots on them – was I never going to get away from maggots! ‘Joan, give your notice in and look for another job,’ were my mother’s favourite words.

Case study – Ron Larkin

I think the only advice Dad gave me was to choose what he would have called ‘a safe and secure’ job, one which you could progress through to better yourself in the future. He saw banking, teaching or the civil service offering such ‘jobs for life’. Becoming a teacher would have meant going to university, or at least a teachers’ training college, which I certainly did not want – nor did I have the patience that teachers need. I never really considered banking as an option, and to gain entry into the Civil Service you had to sit an entrance exam, which I could not even contemplate. A similar option was a career in local government, so with my exam results in my pocket I went off for an interview at the Westminster Guildhall, where I was offered the position of Administrative Assistant in the Department of the Clerk of Middlesex County Council.

Case study – Stella Wills

My mother was totally against my going into nursing — she had decided that it was only right that I should work with her in the cafe. However, I applied to St Mary’s Hospital, where I was accepted as a cadet. Mum suspected what I had done and telephoned the matron to enquire if I was there. The answer she was given was that if a girl had chosen a nursing career against her mother’s wishes then that was the sort of girl they wished to train.

Case study – Ann Davies

When I left school 1 didn’t know what I wanted to do, but I did know that I didn’t want to work at Crosbie’s, the local jam factory, and I didn’t want to go to Overton Paper Mills; those were the two jobs where most girls went when leaving school. I wanted to be different … but that wasn’t to be. Needless to say, I was the same as the others and got the job I didn’t want in the jam factory.

(Ann also subsequently worked at the paper mill!)

Case study – Douglas Badham

I started my articles with the accountancy firm of Coats West Grimwoodin September 1932. Some firms paid a nominal wage to their articled clerks, others made no payment at all. Coats West Grim wood were in the latter category and, in addition, my father was required to pay a one-off fee of £250 to the partner to whom I was articled for five years.

Case study – Ken Baxter

I booked in and the landlord showed me to my room. What a lousy dive, I thought. It was dark and dingy, and the furniture was so old that it must have come out of the ark. I looked down at the skirting board … a rat hole. Being brought up in the country, I knew a rat hole when I saw one. What’s more, there was a little bit of freshly chewed wood by the side of the hole. I’m not frightened of rats, but there’s no way I’m going to share my bed with one.

I lay on top of the bed fully clothed. I didn’t unpack – in fact I didn’t even open my suitcase. I didn’t sleep all night – I may have catnapped, but I was conscious of every little sound.

Before work the following morning I had a look around town to see if there were any digs advertised in shop windows, but couldn’t find any. I arrived at the International just before 8.30. The manager welcomed me and asked, ‘Did you get fixed up

with digs?’

‘Yes,’ I replied,‘The Lord Nelson.’

‘Where? The Lord Nelson} You’re not stopping there. Go and get your case, we’ll find other lodgings for you somewhere.’ When I returned to the shop, I discovered, to my relief that the van driver had been sent out to find me some better accommodation.

Case study – Charles Durrett

At around 7.30 am, I found a barber’s shop for a shave so that I looked reasonably respectable when presenting myself at the Recruiting Office. Having requested a shave, I sat in the chair and away we went. I noticed that the price of a shave was one shilling and sixpence, which I thought was a bit steep compared with back home in Gloucester. Having completed shaving me, and without my permission, I was treated to hot towels, facial massage and other pleasant attentions which were pushing the price up as I could see from the price list prominently displayed above the mirror. It occurred to me that the fellow had summed me up as a country bumpkin on his first visit to the big city. How right he was. Alas, it did not occur to him that country bumpkins are not necessarily as green as they are cabbage-looking.

When all the unasked for functions had been completed, I was fed a line that I had in-growing facial hair and that I needed a one and sixpenny bottle of special lotion to rectify this condition; this I declined. The total bill amounted to ten shillings and sixpence, which he appeared sure would be forthcoming. I asked him what my request was when I entered his shop and he replied, A shave, Sir.’ I gave him one and sixpence, which was the price quoted on his list for the service, and pointed out that, as I had made no further requests, I was not indebted to him in any way. When he remonstrated over the balance, I politely pointed out that he must consider his loss the price of experience, which I hoped would dissuade him from trying to take advantage of the innocent in future. I have never since had a shave in a barber’s shop.

Case study – Ann Davies

There were several jobs that we all tried to avoid at the jam factory, the first of which was sorting apples from large barrels. They were preserved in a liquid acid that took my breath away; after working there all day I would end up with a chesty cough as it got right into my lungs. I hated that job.

Cleaning jam jars was another dreadful job. These would arrive by the lorry load and had to be washed and sorted into different sizes. They came on large wooden trays, and were dipped in a bath of warm water. Our job was to put our hands in the bath and wash the jars. Where they came from, I dread to think, but there was all sorts of filth in them — dirt, eggshells, cotton wool, etc. Many a time we would cut our hands on broken glass, but there was no health and safety, so we just had to get on with it. I would like to think that the jars were sterilised after we had them, but I never saw that being done.

There was also the old man who made the ginger beer in a large vat; his job was to stir it with a wooden paddle. This man forever seemed to have a cold as there was always a dew drop on the end of his nose … drip, drip, drip! Strangely enough, I have never drunk ginger beer since.

Case study – Sylvia Culverhouse

I left school soon after my 15th birthday at the end of the summer term in 1949. This was the first year that the school-leaving age had been raised to 15; up until this time children had left at 14.

Having passed an aptitude test, I was offered the position of clerk at the Co-operative General Office, at a weekly wage of 32s 6d. It was a 40-hour week, five and a half days, with one Saturday off in four. There was a week’s holiday with pay, with half a day off to attend continuation college.

Out of the 32s 6d, I gave Mum 30 shillings and was allowed to keep the 2s 6d. As I was not used to handling money and going out and about on my own, I did not think this unfair. Mum and Dad had paid out regularly for my secretarial classes, and Mum had always made my clothes, so what did I want extra money for?

(However, Sylvia’s contentedness did not last for long …)

It was in the February that I had my first rebellious argument with Mum. I was well aware by now of how the other girls in the office had much more spending money than me, and could go out and make their own choices about clothes and entertainment. I considered that 2/6 a week was not sufficient for my needs. Mum protested and said I wouldn’t manage, but after a while she gave in and I was allowed an extra 10 shillings a week, but was then expected to buy my own clothes. I felt quite rich, and used to save one shilling a week in a Post Office Savings account for rainy days.

Case study – Vanessa Long

Toni home perms were starting to come on the market, and my mother and I used them quite often. It was a whole afternoons job with innumerable curlers and lotions. Even then, our hair usually turned out frizzy and too tightly curled at first, but it settled down after a while.

Clothes were very limited and for my first ‘date’ all I had to wear was my best summer dress (nothing special bought for the occasion) and I worried and fretted that it might not be ‘right’. There was no fashion market for teenagers (or ‘teenagers’ for that matter) at that time and everyone wore the same type of clothing appropriate to the event, irrespective of age. No make up was worn by teenagers either, and I must have been at least l7 or 18 before I experimented with that.

Case study – Ron Larkin

Money was in short supply, but it was important that, even as a young lad, you found enough to have at least one suit, and that one had to be fashionable. Whilst we did not subscribe to the Teddy Boy fashion, there was a dress code almost bordering on the cult style which consisted of a ‘sharp’ suit – ‘sharp’ being the word to describe the accepted style in vogue at that time.

It consisted of a single-breasted jacket, usually with a one-piece back and a small single vent, no more than four inches in depth, and the lapels were fairly high-cut to facilitate the three or four buttons. The trousers, whilst not quite so narrow as drainpipes, would have turn-ups and the bottom of the leg measured no more than 18 inches wide. It was important that the shirt had a detached collar, which allowed us to wear cut-away stiff collars. These were always white and usually worn with white shirts, but sometimes they were teamed with shirts of a different solid colour or even stripes, being attached to the collar band at the back and front with metal studs. There was no better place to see a fine display of all this fashion than in the snooker hall above Burtons in Station Road, Harrow.

Case study – June Brandon

The next morning I was given a uniform to wear, after which I was shown around the huge kitchen. Nothing had prepared me for the shock in store when at 10 o’clock sharp we went through to the counter of the NAAFI canteen and the shutters were lifted up. In front of me was a mass of blue uniforms … I had never seen so many men in my life! I felt so nervous and wanted the ground to swallow me up. I was so shy, and went scarlet. ‘Hey, we’ve got a new girl,’ someone shouted, and I felt all eyes on me. My hands trembled as I poured tea into the endless rows of thick white cups. It was the longest day of my life!

Another cause of embarrassment for me was the nickname soon bestowed upon me by these men. I was called ‘bumpers’ … for obvious reasons!

Case study – Jean Dudley

I had just become interested in boys, but Mum often complained that I would never pass my school exams if I didn’t study more. My boyfriend was called Philip, and we would take long walks together holding hands, with just a goodnight kiss … and even then this was at the end of my road. He would solemnly take out of his pocket a quarter pound of Black Magic chocolates which he gave to me. Philip never came into my house, and when I got tired of his company and didn’t know how to tell him, my mother went to the corner of the road where he was waiting and broke the news to him.

Case study – Barbara Cox

As I was still living at home, 1 had to abide by my father’s rules, one of which was that I must travel home on the 9.50 pm bus and not the last bus at 10.30. Consequently, I always had to leave the cinema early – even though it meant that I never saw the end of the film! Years later when I was married and films were shown on TV, I saw the final scenes of all the films that I had missed.

One Saturday night I went to the cinema with Harold Snowdon, whom my father liked very much, but unfortunately we missed the bus … the only time I ever missed it. Although I was 24,1 was really worried about my fathers reaction. A neighbour was waiting for the later bus and she told me not to worry. However, when we got off the bus at the bottom of Moor Lane, my father was waiting for me. He told Harold, who was 27, ‘You … home … and never take my daughter out again!’ Needless to say, he didn’t.