The Devil’s Porridge Museum joined in the nation’s commemorations of the 75th anniversary of VE Day on Friday. This event (which we participated in digitally) has brought forward some more memories and photos which we wanted to share with you.
The photograph below shows Ettie Wilsenham celebrating VE Day on Friday at her home in Eastriggs (the windows have been covered with red, white and blue fabric in place of a British flag which they weren’t able to source during lockdown).
Ettie was working in Eastriggs depot when the War ended, she actually took the call from the Brigadier and did a great job going round all the magazines to break the news to everyone that the War was over.
Ettie has a lot of connections to the Museum: she was once one of our volunteers and she features in our display about the Eastriggs depot. The story of her marriage also featured in our ‘Love in Wartime’ exhibition as recounted below.
Ettie joined the war effort aged 16 when she secured a job in Eastriggs Depot in 1942. While she was there, she met Arthur who was a soldier in the Ordnance Corps, assigned to guard the Grade 4 stores.
“Every so often when I was working at those stores, Arthur would slip me a bar of chocolate. What with the rationing and chocolate being so scarce, I was won over! We married in 1945 [on June 7th] after the war with Germany was ended.”
Thanks so much to Ettie and Ann for sharing this account and to Dot for organising for it to be shared with the Museum.
If you would like to know more about World War Two in this region, the following book from our online shop may be of interest to you: