What My Parents Did During the Second World War

My father's identity card, registered in 1943. My father was profoundly deaf and wasn't called up. He was in the Home Guard and a fire watcher for the town of Strood in Kent. During the war, my father worked for Swains, the haulage company, as a driver. I've still got my father's medical card from 1948. He didn't talk about his time in the Home Guard or fire watching.

During the war, my mother worked for Short Brothers, the aeronautical engineers who built the flying boats and sea planes at their site on Rochester Esplanade. She worked in No. 14 Shop as a pot rivetter. I don't remember her talking about the work she did or life in the factory.