"I was Mildred Cook then. We, me sister aged 5, me brother 7, and I was 14...we had to go up and stay with me mother's twin sisters in Queen Street, while me mother was away. We stayed in Queen Street, the next street to where the bomb was.
Put that bloody match out....
My mother and I didn't usually go to this shelter because we lived down Linskill Street. We just went there an odd time - just to see her sisters. My aunties had a strong shelter in their back yard but they used to go to Wilkinson's because it was an entertaining evening. They used to play bingo or cards. It was sort of like 3 bays in the shelter. There was a place where people went to smoke, a place for the young 'uns, a part for sing-alongs. There was a guy who used to play the accordion.
A friend of mine was called Frances Chatterton. We both went to school together. We used to play with the children. As I recall, I had just gone on top of a bunk - then all of a sudden it was dead silent and black. I had no warning. I couldn't tell what was going on outside. It just went...like putting the light out. Frances shouted 'Millie' and dragged me off the bunk and just then the bunk collapsed. She still jokes about it, 'Millie I saved your life'."
It was probably minutes before people began crying, yelling, screaming...it was awful. One bloke was striking matches and someone shouts 'Put that..b..match out!' They must have been frightened...maybe about gas. We had a little lad staying with us from Scarborough...an evacuee. He was blinded by the gas from the lemonade. A lot of people turned blue. He was John Herret, about 10 years old with his mother and Lilian his 4 year old sister. (Lilian Herret: Aged 4: MN 27) Everybody came out blue...with this gas. Their skin was coloured. John was blinded by it. He got over it, but it took a long time.
The next thing I knew was this air raid warden...Mrs Lee. I heard her voice from outside. 'Can anybody hear us?' she was yelling. I said 'Yes' and she asked, 'Can you see a light?' I saw the light of her torch through a tiny hole. She said, 'Can you try and show us where it is?' I must have climbed up somewhere. I don't know on what...but I climbed up and put my finger through this little hole where I could see the light. I can always remember her getting hold of my hand and making the hole bigger.
I was pushing these children out of the hole, maybe's two or whatever. And then I heard my brother, who was 7, shouting, 'Millie, Millie, Millie'. Then I felt all this blood on him. As I recall I was quite calm meself until I got hold of me brother. That seemed to click something in us and I got me brother out. He was shouting for me to go out so I went with him.
Me Auntie Nora had a fractured skull and concussion and had a silver plate put in her head. My Auntie Kathy Sutherst died. (Aged 32: MN 92) They had a sort of mortuary in an old wash-house. Her husband me uncle Bobby was sent home from the army. He was at the police station..all the time. That was where they used to put the names outside. Who was found and who wasn't found. He went to the Mortuary and there was a bag witha piece of my Auntie Kathy's coat..a gey, astrakhan coat...it had a piece of white heather in the lapel...and that was draped over the bag. Whether they found her or not we never knew. She was killed with Edith Philips: aged 14: MN 14, her niece.
I wasn't physically hurt, but mentally. I was going to join the Land Army, but the doctor exempted me. I was in a bad way. If it was thundering I would hide under the bed or in cupboards. I used to hang on to my mother all the time. I couldn't be left alone at all. I still suffer from claustrophobia."
[Mrs Matthews nee Cook: interviewed 2000)