“there was a crisis warning, we had gas masks, identity cards and rations.  Burrs of Tongue shop used to give My mother some treats from the traveling van: tins of plums and thin red wine biscuits.  We sold our eggs to Burrs to cover the bills and we had our own crowdie, butter, milk and eggs so we weren’t so badly off.  There were extra rations given at lambing time, depending on how many sheep you had and also we got extra sugar since we kept bees.  I remember that we all had to stop taking sugar in our tea or get any cakes or puddings. 

 

I remember hearing about the “Jericho” – a special services train taking troops to Thurso.  I was in Golspie High school at this time and coming home for holidays the train got stuck in the snow.  I had to share a bed in a guest house in Thurso with a WAF and I remember being very much in awe of her.  We had drills in the school time as well as being allocated gas masks.

 

My Dad went to Orkney to work on the aerodromes and brought home points for soap and sweets.  he had been in the first world war in the navy reserves.

 

There were evacuees from London coming to stay but mostly it was people with relatives in the area.  The evacuees were mostly older than me.  The school in Skerray did have kids who were evacuees, the relatives from London and places like that usually were there with their children.

 

The war had an effect on our ability to get new clothes.  I remember having to have a coat ‘made down’ because there wasn’t enough points to get a new one.  My mother knitted jerseys for us and we had Brora tweed skirts.  “Jack Brothers” came and took measurements for new clothes like lumber jackets for school. 

 

There were posters up in the school with phrases such as “ Every penny helps to make a pound”.

 

My older sister left school to work in the post office; it was becoming more usual for girls to leave school to work, especially as part of the war effort.

 

There was a local home guard and I knew all the ones here; they all used to laugh about them.  “It tended to be the older men in the home guard who had been in the first world war”.  But I remember the terrible threat of invasion - everyone sat round and listened to Churchill at 9.00 a.m and 1.00 p.m.

 

Older teachers who were left in the schools when others went off to war.  I remembers the science teachers giving them mercury balls to play with.

 

After school I went to the Royal infirmary to train as a nurse and I remember getting a round of butter for 2 rations coupons, which were still around after the war for a while. 

 

every time somebody came home from leave there would be a “do” on in the hall.  There was a few locals killed during the war.

 

When the war ended everyone went out - there wasn’t much food but everyone was overjoyed.  Everyone united when it came to the war effort and hearing about the constant danger of invasion.  They heard about the camps and Jews fleeing.  The paper had pictures saying “Every little helps” and “Mums the word”.  I recall the terrible loss of life and think that people just wouldn’t fight today.  There was nobody objecting and conscientious objectors was a dirty word.  A lot of men were called up but most had been in training already.  A lot of the local men were in the Lovat Scouts.  in a picture taken back then, “five rows from here were in the scouts”.  Volunteers came from abroad and food parcels were sent from relatives abroad.  One relative sent a wonderful cake from America.

 

I remember someone with local connections who had married out in India and was there with her two nieces.  She had two young kids and was pregnant and her husband arranged for them to sail home.  There was a hoax bomb on board the boat; they all took to the lifeboats and drowned – it is memories and stories like these which stick in the mind forever.”