Kathleen Hill (92) was born on the May 30 1932 in her grandfather’s house on Plymouth Road in Totnes.

She remembers:

“I went to school in the Grove School and I went to the church school.

“It was on the church school that the Germans dropped their bombs in Priory Avenue.

“Had the siren gone off before they dropped the bombs we would have been running down Priory Avenue to go to the houses that had shelters in but they dropped the bombs before the siren went off so we were hiding underneath the desks.

“I passed the scholarship and went to Totnes County School and afterwards it was called Totnes High School.

“I think that is now combined with Totnes Grammar School and they call it KEVICC now I think.

She continued: “We had ration books.

“I've still got them my clothing coupon book and my identity card.

“You always had to remember your identity number, mine was WGJB 2183, and if you were challenged you had to report the number of your identity card.

In 1943 We had loads of Americans come to Totnes.

“They were in tents in the Borough Park and we lived in Parklands which was right next to the park and my mother used to say all those poor lads aged 17 and 18 away from their mothers.

“She said President Roosevelt said to them join up join the army go to England and fight the Germans.

“They didn't know where they were going and she used to welcome them into our house and said to the one of them ‘would you like a cup of tea?’ and he said ‘I don't know what that is as we only drink coffee’...

“One of the Americans came in and he said do you know where Plymouth is?

“So we said ‘yes of course we do’ and they said ‘well Glenn Miller is playing in the old Odeon Cinema in Plymouth.’ “

He managed to get tickets and Kathleen travelled to Plymouth in a Jeep saw Glen Miller despite her mother worrying about the danger of bombing.

Kathleen talked about her family: “My father Fred Baker was a first-class signalman in the train box in Totnes and he came from Somerset from a farming family.

“All the boys and girls used to work on the farm and he said, ‘no, I don't want to work on the farm, I want to work on the railway’ so aged 14 he rode his bike to Taunton Station and was taken on as a junior porter.

“He was called up for the First World War and went to France and Germany.

Kathleen said: “I’ve got lots of memorabilia which I will give to the Gloucester Regiment.

“I've got his two medals from the 1914-18 war the Battle of the Somme.

He went over with the second lot and he had a silver cigarette case in his top pocket given to him by his grandad.

“It had a dent in it and he received a bullet through his shoulder and the case had saved his life.”

To become a signalman he had to go down to Stavarton, near Totnes and he lodged with a family there.

My mother Nellie Baker was working in the booking office at Totnes Station and that's how they met.”