Page 43 - link magazine

swindonlink.com • May 2008 43
Zeppelins and doodlebugs. Toothill senior shares

remarkable memories of two world wars
After Gladys Forsythe read in the January Link about Sheila Jarvis who goes into schools to give a fi rst hand Gladys Forsythe read in the January Link about Sheila Jarvis who goes into schools to give a fi rst hand
After
account of her wartime childhood, she called to tell her story.
Inspector. Their family was com-
Gladys, who lives in the Guiness Inspector. Their family was com-
Trust Housing scheme in Westmin- pleted with a daughter and Gladys
pleted with a daughter and Gladys
worked as a nurse for a few more
ster Road, celebrated her ninety- worked as a nurse for a few more
second birthday in April, but in years before running a nursery.
Her husband retrained as a social
1916 she was born in Kent. Her husband retrained as a social
As a two year old, one of her fi rst worker and his work took them to
worker and his work took them to
Fort William where the couple lived
memories is being woken by the Fort William where the couple lived
terrifying sound and sight of a huge for 11 years.
Zeppelin airship fl ying overhead in Later, Gladys moved to the Guin-
Later, Gladys moved to the Guin-
the last months of World War I. “My ness Trust home with her husband
ness Trust home with her husband
cousin and I slept in the same bed to join her brother and has happily
to join her brother and has happily
lived ther
and heard an awful noise at night; lived there for 24 years.e for 24 years.
lived there for 24 years.
it was huge as it went on to drop
bombs on London.”
On leaving school, Gladys was
apprenticed as a dressmaker,
earning six shillings a week (30p).
Unfortunately, she found herself
out of work when the shop owner Gladys Forsythe
lost everything through gambling.
She became a nanny’s helper and A scene etched in her memory
went on to train as a nurse in East from the early days of the war was
London. When she married, she had a trip to Wandsworth market, when
to leave nursing and took work in a Gladys came upon children who
factory but found it very dull. were about to be evacuated. “There
When the ban on married nurses were all these trains lined up and I
was lifted during World War II she saw the children and their mothers.
went to work in a geriatric hospital. I remember vividly how frightened
Her husband David was a police- they were. It was the saddest thing
man based at Bow Street until he I’d ever seen. I wondered how a
was called up to the Navy. Gladys woman could send a child away;
had a son, also David, and lived some were less than 4 years old. I
through the Blitz at their home in still can’t describe the scene without
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21-52 May Extreme.indd 43 18/4/08 11:04:46