Post by Matt James on Apr 16, 2009 16:49:03 GMT
I was born in Bristol , both sides of my family were Bristolians. My Mother before her marriage had worked in the Post Office , in the days of Morse Code
My Father two uncles and a cousin were all employed in the Bristol Main Office. Although I was at grammar school in 1936 at the age of fifteen, my mother advised me to apply for a position in the Post Office.
In those days it was not easy to obtain a job I was made up to Telegraphist in 1936, I had by then reached 30 words a minute.
During the war we worked 12 hours a day seven days a week, with a Sunday off every two weeks.
I was in the building the night it was set on fire during an air raid , it was 1am and we had to run , on a November night , with water from the firemens hoses raining down upon us and bombs falling too near for comfort, to telephone avenue, where we were taken to the basement and given stretchers and a blanket and we all slept until morning.
We were, after that moved to another building and then to a very large underground room two hundred of us in the room. There was no air conditioning, we were allowed to go out and stand in the street for brief periods to obtain fresh air. Two of the girls developed T.B. and one of the men, after being called up, developed T.B. and died overseas
Part of my job at the time was to teach the teleprinter to girls of the three forces . We were restricted to a very few circuits mainly TS, BM,MR,GW,EX.
I was one of ten out of two hundred, selected to learn codes to enable us to go underground should Hitler invade, I am still able to remember the codes, even thought I now find it difficult to remember which day it is . Before the war there was a canteen on the sixth floor with a piano on which, a very talented girl named Margaret Dowell would entertain us with all the hit tunes of the times
Two of us were sent to Taunton to the counter school, I was not keen on counter work. Two of us were sent to Truro in Cornwall in 1944, as they were short of telegragphist.
I met my husband at that time a Cornishman we were married in 1944 and I went to live in Newquay. I had to retire from the Post Office and received £80 service pay, I later worked as a temp in the Newquay office but became pregnant and had to leave
We moved to Bristol in 1952 and after two years we moved to what was then a village called Nailsea, it is about eight miles south of Bristol
In 1962 during a winter of snow and ice I was asked to work at the local telephone exchange as a telephone operator as a temp.
When Nailsea went automatic, we were asked to work in Bristol. Then union negotiated pension rights for us at the age of 60 I retired and have drawn a pension ever since, I am now 87 (2008) the pension at present is £92.31 a month not a fortune but it helps
Sally Rundle
Sally is a name by which I am known but was christened Audrey
My Father two uncles and a cousin were all employed in the Bristol Main Office. Although I was at grammar school in 1936 at the age of fifteen, my mother advised me to apply for a position in the Post Office.
In those days it was not easy to obtain a job I was made up to Telegraphist in 1936, I had by then reached 30 words a minute.
During the war we worked 12 hours a day seven days a week, with a Sunday off every two weeks.
I was in the building the night it was set on fire during an air raid , it was 1am and we had to run , on a November night , with water from the firemens hoses raining down upon us and bombs falling too near for comfort, to telephone avenue, where we were taken to the basement and given stretchers and a blanket and we all slept until morning.
We were, after that moved to another building and then to a very large underground room two hundred of us in the room. There was no air conditioning, we were allowed to go out and stand in the street for brief periods to obtain fresh air. Two of the girls developed T.B. and one of the men, after being called up, developed T.B. and died overseas
Part of my job at the time was to teach the teleprinter to girls of the three forces . We were restricted to a very few circuits mainly TS, BM,MR,GW,EX.
I was one of ten out of two hundred, selected to learn codes to enable us to go underground should Hitler invade, I am still able to remember the codes, even thought I now find it difficult to remember which day it is . Before the war there was a canteen on the sixth floor with a piano on which, a very talented girl named Margaret Dowell would entertain us with all the hit tunes of the times
Two of us were sent to Taunton to the counter school, I was not keen on counter work. Two of us were sent to Truro in Cornwall in 1944, as they were short of telegragphist.
I met my husband at that time a Cornishman we were married in 1944 and I went to live in Newquay. I had to retire from the Post Office and received £80 service pay, I later worked as a temp in the Newquay office but became pregnant and had to leave
We moved to Bristol in 1952 and after two years we moved to what was then a village called Nailsea, it is about eight miles south of Bristol
In 1962 during a winter of snow and ice I was asked to work at the local telephone exchange as a telephone operator as a temp.
When Nailsea went automatic, we were asked to work in Bristol. Then union negotiated pension rights for us at the age of 60 I retired and have drawn a pension ever since, I am now 87 (2008) the pension at present is £92.31 a month not a fortune but it helps
Sally Rundle
Sally is a name by which I am known but was christened Audrey