1st World War

As told by Florence Eveline Jenner (1901-1994):

I can't remember much about the 1st World War. I was about 13, and we were living in Crumlin, Wales, at the time. I can remember this man that used to walk with a great big bear, used to treat it like a child. As it was so unusual to see a bear in those days, we'd wait for him to come across the big Viaduct Bridge - but were afraid of him because we didn't know whether he was Russian, a spy, or what. We were always thinking of spies because of the big Viaduct Bridge, Its been taken down since.

The only other thing I can remember is that our dad volunteered for the war - our mum was so mad then because he needn't have gone - he had a key job. A kid of 19 took his place - so he went to war, leaving six kids behind, and our mum never seen him for five years after that. He had more than he bargained for though - His job was to drive to the front lines with the ammunitions. When he came back it was "blinking" everything - Our mum would get so mad "Can't you stop blinking it" she would say. Like I used to say "blooming" and sometimes I would say, "blessed", and our Norman would say "Now why is it blooming", or "Why is it blesses". And I'd say "Cus that's me". I'd say "Oh that blessed thing", and old Norman would tick me off, like mum used to be always ticking our dad off about "blinking".