Interview with female factory worker. Worked for a time on R101 airship at Cardington

  • Women's Voices and Life Writing
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Title
Interview with female factory worker. Worked for a time on R101 airship at Cardington
Interviewer
Semeraro, Carmela
Document Type
  • Oral history Recording
Date
11 Feb 2003
Interview Date
11 Feb 2003
Biography
The interviewee was born 19 June, 1910, in Kempston where her parents lived, with her three brothers and sister. Her father joined the Army when she was aged four and died two years into the war, 1916. Two of his brothers, her uncles, were also killed. Her mother used to do housework in the mornings for farmers in Bunyan Road, Kempston, to supplement her limited pension, and took in washing to do for 3 other families. She left school at thirteen and worked in a shoe factory, then at the Crown paint factory in Ampthill Road. Couldn't afford a bicycle. She would give all her earnings to her mother. Went to Cardington to work in airship production aged 19. After the airship crashed in France the workers were laid up and had to sign on at the Labour Exchange. After she was married, and had a little girl, her mother became ill and she took over her cleaning job at the farm for ten years. Didn't do paid work after this. Her husband came from Sunderland to work in the brickworks. She met him at a local dance. Husband died of a tumour on the brain, a year after retiring.
Length (minutes)
50
Copyright and Source Archive
Material sourced from Bedfordshire Archives and Records Service