The Cenotaph service was beautiful. It was very moving to see the ranks of people, all looking proud as I'm sure they were.

I was in the war and should have died as our house had a direct hit and my mother died in her bed with the house on top of her.

I should have been sleeping with her but I was in the street firewatching.

I finally put the TV off at the end of the programme and then thought, where were the Women's Land Army in which I served for four years? We helped people to eat. It was very hard work.

Apart from being machine-gunned on the hay stacks, it was a pretty good life.

  • L Maddison, Hartington Road, Brighton