Early Childhood Memories
"Ambulance (Furniture Van) Lady Driver"
by Nicky (11) and Amos (10)

Nan is second from left

Nan's early childhood memory: Our interview has been done posthumously as the interviewee died more than 15 years ago, but the information was supplied by my father to whom this lady had spent many hours talking about her life. Her name was Miss Nan Duncan and she lived in Dundee. After the war she was the Assistant Matron of the Dundee Hostel for the Deaf, and a close friend of my father's family. 1) WERE YOU IN ANY SPECIAL FORCES? I was in London when the war broke out, I could drive so I volunteered as a civilian driver. I was given furniture van to drive as an ambulance! 2) WHAT RANK WERE YOU? As a civilian I did not have a rank, I was a driver second class which meant I could drive vans up to a certain weight. 3) WHAT WAS YOUR UNIFORM LIKE? I had a uniform of khaki, like a boiler suit, with a hat and an arm band with a red cross on it. 4) DID YOU EVER GET BOMBED? Well, I was driving round London in the Blitz and bombs were falling all the time, but we were usually called in after the bombing raids to take away the injured, often bombs fell near where we were working, but I was never actually bombed. 5) DID ANYTHING FUNNY EVER HAPPEN TO YOU? Yes several, but the one that sticks in my mind was the time we were called to house that had been bombed and the man was taking a bath when the house was hit. When we arrived the Wardens could not get him to come out of the remains of the house. It turned out that he had no clothes on and would not let me and my female partner near him. Eventually the Warden realised what was wrong and gave him his trench coat before he lead him out to the ambulance. 6) DID YOU HAVE TO CARRY A GAS MASK? Yes.Iit was a horrible thing with a large face mask and a rubber tube connecting it to the canister that you carried in a haversack. I once tried to drive with it on but it was impossible, you could not see where you were going. 7)WHAT WAS IT LIKE IN THE BLACK-OUT? As a driver we had to drive around in the black-out, we only had a small strip of the headlamps clear, the rest of the light was blacked out with tape. There were no street lights and it was very difficult to see where you were going. I often bumped the kerb at corners. Rear lights were also partly blacked out so you had to watch out for cars ahead of you. 8)WHAT DID YOU DO FOR FUN IN LONDON DURING THE WAR? Just like anywhere else I went to the pictures and to dances and out to pubs with my friends, but you always had to be on guard just in case of air-raids. You a way carried you gas mask and you always found out where the nearest shelter was before you went into a dance or the pictures. 9)WERE YOU EVER SCARED? Yes, when the V2 flying bombs started to come over. They were the worst, you would hear the engine, then it would cutout and you had to wait and pray that it was not coming for you.the silence was terrible you waited and waited and only when you heard the bomb blast were you sure that it had passed over you. 10)HOW RELIEVED WERE YOU WHEN THE WAR ENDED? Yes, everyone was, there were parties all over the country. In London the parties went on for days, it also meant that many of us who came from Scotland could go home again to our families.