This website uses cookies. By continuing to use this site you agree to accept cookies.
If you enjoy this siteplease consider making a donation.
Site Home
WW2 Home
Add Stories
WW2 Search
Library
Help & FAQs
WW2 Features
Airfields
Allied Army
Allied Air Forces
Allied Navy
Axis Forces
Home Front
Battles
Prisoners of War
Allied Ships
Women at War
Those Who Served
Day-by-Day
Library
The Great War
Submissions
Add Stories
Time Capsule
TWMP on Facebook
Childrens Bookshop
FAQ's
Help & FAQs
Glossary
Volunteering
Contact us
News
Bookshop
About
204637Pte. Louisa Mary "Molly" St.Quintin
Auxiliary Territorial Service
from:20 Regent Rd., Great Yarmouth
Mary St Quintin, Molly as she was known by everyone was my nanny. During the Second World War she was a member of the ATS working as a lorry driver and also in kitchens on several army bases. One time a bomb went off while she was driving down the road and her lorry got blown into a ditch. On a day off she decided to stay in bed when the air raid siren went off and almost got blown up again, coming through the ordeal with a face full of glass. The third lucky escape was when a bomb was dropped on an army barracks where her group was preparing food for soldiers. But being the tough lady that she was still looked back on those days with thoughts of camaraderie shared with friends who worked alongside her.The way the war changed my nanny's life most though was a chance meeting on a train. Molly was going home on leave packed into a busy train back to Yarmouth. American Staff Sergeant William James Richardson boarded the same train returning to his base from spending a few days in London. It just so happened that the only spare seat was next to Molly. They struck up a conversation and he wrote down his address on a copy of Life magazine. They kept in touch and arranged to meet whenever they could. In September 1944 they were married and I was lucky enough to call him Grandad. They moved back to America briefly before returning permanently to England, setting sail on the liner De Grasse from New York. Two very wonderful people who were the best Grandparents in the world.
Related Content:
Can you help us to add to our records?
The names and stories on this website have been submitted by their relatives and friends. If your relations are not listed please add their names so that others can read about them
Did you or your relatives live through the Second World War? Do you have any photos, newspaper clippings, postcards or letters from that period? Have you researched the names on your local or war memorial? Were you or your relative evacuated? Did an air raid affect your area?
If so please let us know.
Help us to build a database of information on those who served both at home and abroad so that future generations may learn of their sacrifice.
Celebrate your own Family History
Celebrate by honouring members of your family who served in the Secomd World War both in the forces and at home. We love to hear about the soldiers, but also remember the many who served in support roles, nurses, doctors, land army, muntions workers etc.
Please use our Family History resources to find out more about your relatives. Then please send in a short article, with a photo if possible, so that they can be remembered on these pages.
The free section of the Wartime Memories Project website is run by volunteers. We have been helping people find out more about their relatives wartime experiences since 1999 by recording and preserving recollections, documents, photographs and small items.
The website is paid for out of our own pockets, library subscriptions and from donations made by visitors. The popularity of the site means that it is far exceeding available resources and we currently have a huge backlog of submissions.
If you are enjoying the site, please consider making a donation, however small to help with the costs of keeping the site running.
Hosted by:
Copyright MCMXCIX - MMXXIV
- All Rights Reserved
We do not permit the use of any content from this website for the training of LLMs or for use in Generative AI, it also may not be scraped for the purpose of creating other websites.