Elva Lawrence (nee Maguire) interviewed by Alison Viney Houghton about her experiences as a young person during the Second World War

Elva Lawrence (nee Maguire) interviewed by Alison Viney Houghton for her "The Age of Innocence 1937-1947" oral history project. The interview covers topics related to her experiences as a young person in Walkerville, SA, during the Second World War, such as school and the conflicts between school and work; dressmaker training; learning typing; the 1938 polio scare; working in the family retail businesses; her brothers' joining the army; billeting troops and attending dances; the war being 'fun' for teenagers; making clothing out of found materials such as blankets, handkerchiefs and mosquito nets; social activities; dances at the Palladium; coupons and rationing; three week romances; availability of different foods; VJ Day celebrations and dancing in the streets; her view that the atomic bomb saved all the POWs' lives. The second half of the interview relates to the wartime experiences of Elva's husband SX800 Private Lindsay Palmer Lawrence, covering topics such as: his mental and physical health as a returned prisoner of war; the treatment of prisoners by the Germans; shovelling snow in bare feet as a POW; being taken prisoner in Crete; building flats for single mothers in Munich; being transported to Salonica on cattle trains amidst illness and death; suffering pneumonia while working in the salt mines in Silesia; and the benefits to former POW's of returning to those areas.