A Whitley Bay resident remembers working as an apprentice tailor in the 1930s and 40s
I left school in 1936 when I was 14. My mother had seen this advert in the Evening Chronicle for an apprentice at the tailor’s and she sent me round.
He said, “Do you think you would like to be a tailoress?” I said “Yes”. And then after a week, I got my wages five shillings; it was two half-crowns. I ran all the way home with this money. I got a shilling pocket money. I was there for over 3 years but I never finished my apprenticeship because the owner died quite suddenly and it closed down.
I then got a job at a tailor’s on Jesmond Road in Newcastle, but I didn’t enjoy that as much. I worked there for about a year until I was called up to join the ATS in 1942.