Bus conducting in the Hull Blitz and a wartime wedding

Bus conducting in the Hull Blitz: My mother became a bus conductor in Hull, after the regal cinema where she worked as an ice cream girl closed. She told many stories about the Blitz. Bus crews were permitted to decide for themselves when they went into a shelter. My mother and her driver spent time in one shelter after the air raid warning was given, they came out later to find their bus full of people who had just left the pub. They drove further along the road only to meet a policeman who told them the road ahead had a bomb crater in it. They abandoned the bus and walked. The bus stayed in the street for weeks afterward. One air raid shelter was close to the gates of a cemetery the drivers joked with my mother, "Don't worry love, if there's a direct hit it'll save your mother the cost of a funeral." She was 18 at the time.

She always said her driver (who had served in the First World War) saved her life; he seemed to have second sight but probably knew the sounds to listen for. Walking home one night he pushed her into a doorway and flattened himself against the wall. The street was filled with light as bright sparks bounced off the roofs and down into the street. My mum said it was like a huge bonfire night. It was shrapnel from the anti-aircraft fire.

The shortage of buses and drivers in Hull was supplemented by drivers who came from Leeds. They refused to stay in the town overnight and drove out into the countryside and slept in their buses.

A Wartime Wedding: The day my mum and dad married in Hull, Yorkshire a mock invasion was declared. My dad had to cross from his army camp to the other side of the town where the church was. There were checkpoints looking for "German" invaders. Fortunately, my dad had his army paybook with him and he was allowed to pass through.

There was no organist at the wedding because he was in the Home Guard and involved in the mock invasion. The photographer was bombed the night before the wedding so couldn't attend. The only photos were taken on a box Brownie.