Wren's VE Day: 'The civilians had a better time'

"There was no food... it wasn't party, party."

A great-grandmother who served as a Wren during World War Two has described celebrations for VE Day as happy occasions that were limited by continuing rations.

Mabel Kidney, 99, from Portsmouth, Hampshire, was 13 when the war started and joined the Women's Royal Naval Service when she was 17.

She said there was a "little" party in the road where she lived when she returned home but that in the years following the war her family "hardly had anything".

Ms Kidney was based at HMS Daedalus in Lee-on-the-Solent, near her family home.

"I joined the Wrens to see the world and I ended up over there," she said.

She was in the barracks when the end of World War Two in Europe was announced but said it was "quiet because there was nobody about much and it was just an ordinary day to me".

"There were hooters going off and stuff but you were in a military area so you weren't able to have a knees-up.

"We weren't expecting it really but it was good news."

She added: "I was only with a couple of people on duty... you could hear noises and that in the distance but there wasn't a lot when I was in the barracks.

"I think the civilians had a better time really."

She said her mother spoke of her relief when the end of the war was declared.

"She used to say 'I never thought I would live through another one' because my mum was old," Ms Kidney explained.

When World War Two started, she said her mother and a neighbour cried together.

"They're making a fuss," Ms Kidney said she thought, adding: "We thought it was a bit of excitement, really."

Rations continued for three years after the war, said the former Wren.

"It was a long time... we only had the local boiled sweet manufacturer.

"As for fruit, you never got any, you couldn't get a banana. The only way you got a banana was if you were pregnant, for nutrition value."

Looking to the future on the 80th anniversary of VE Day, Ms Kidney said she was unsure if lessons from the war had been learnt.

She said: "It's no good saying it won't come again because all the things are different nowadays but I still don't think we get it."

Ms Kidney lives at Admiral Jellicoe House care home run by The Royal Naval Benevolent Trust. It will be throwing a garden party for residents on the anniversary.

Chief executive Debbie Dollner, said: "We're incredibly privileged to have Mabel as our resident and are in awe of the stories she shares."

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