Helen's Experience in Edinburgh During War
Creators: name: Project Team, Their Finest Hour
Publisher: name: University of Oxford
Year: 2024
Subjects: classificationCode: 430304
subject: British history
classificationCode: 430308
subject: European history (excl. British, classical Greek and Roman)
classificationCode: 430316
subject: International history

description: The contributor, Helen Harper, was thirteen when the War broke out. The contributor noted that the year before war broke out, she had to go to a school and get a gas mask; this was the first sign of trouble ahead. Helen spent one year at Boroughmuir High School before the war broke out. Helen remembered that two Jewish girls appeared in her class at Boroughmuir around 1938. There was a boy called Felix Mendelson, and one of the two girls was called Rebecca Segal. The teacher told the class to be kind to them as they'd had to come away from Germany without parents. Helen said that to her regret, she never spoke to them.When war began, aged thirteen years old, Helen's parents sent her to an uncle and aunt in a village in Aberdeenshire. The contributor's aunt and uncle had no family of their own, so they were quite strict; the contributor said that they were not happy living there! Helen was only with her aunt and uncle for three months, between summer and Christmas. Helen didn't stay in Aberdeenshire that long because it became clear Edinburgh wasn't going to be a bombing target. When Helen returned to Edinburgh, the education authorities wouldn't let her back to the school because they didn't have enough shelters. So, in January and February 1940, Helen was at home with no schooling. After that, the school admitted Helen. Children only spent half-days at school, because there weren't enough shelters. Helen's friends who she'd had in the first year of school had disappeared by the time she got back! Helen suggested that those friends might have been sent away - their fathers could have been called up to the army and their mothers could have been called back to other towns. During WW2, Helen's father joined the Home Guard. He worked in Leith. Helen remembers him coming home with a Sten gun! She doesn't think it had any ammunition! During blackouts, Helen recalled that they couldn't do anything. But otherwise, the cinemas were open, so they went to the cinema quite a lot. Helen noted that she acquired a boyfriend, whom she arranged to meet in the street. Helen only had a torch with a very small battery and the glass where the light came out was blacked off, so it up your feet and not much else! Helen's mother was in her 40s so, typical of women at that age, she was called up. Helen's mother was a part-time typist in the rubber mill in Fountainbridge. Helen said her mother was pleased to go, not because it was seen as contributing to the war effort, but for the joy of simply going to work! Suddenly, it wasn't just Helen's father bringing in money, but mother too! And then aged 16, Helen herself went to work in Colinton Road as a typist for NAAFI (Navy, Army, and Air Force Institutes), a government company that provided comforts for the armed forces. Helen said that she enjoyed going to work! Although Helen recalled that Edinburgh was hardly bombed, she saw a lot of German planes flying over to get to Glasgow, so there were some disturbed nights. Sometimes, at about 1 o'clock in the morning the sirens went off and you'd go down to the shelters. Helen did know of boys older than herself, but not much older, and their parents receiving a telegram that they were dead. Fortunately, nobody very close to Helen's family were killed. Helen had two cousins who were good footballers. One was called up but was put into a very safe job! One was signed up for Hibs and one for Hearts! Helen remembers going to Princes St Gardens with her mother to celebrate the end of the war, and a sailor picking them up to have a dance. Helen met her husband in 1949, and they married a year later. He had served in India.