Woman tells of wartime in Weymouth ahead of 105th birthday

WHEN Freda Gadd was born, The First World War had recently finished and colour television was still nearly five decades away from being rolled out in the UK.

Freda was born in 1919, lived in Weymouth during the Second World War and sat at home worried whilst her husband left for France during D-Day.

The great-grandmother who still lives independently in Weymouth says she owes her long life to walking and being sociable.

Freda was the seventh of ten children born at home in Weymouth on March 22, 1919.

She has one daughter, two grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

She attended Holy Trinity School in Weymouth and later worked as a waitress around Weymouth and in factories including at Lanehouse.

She met her husband Charlie Gadd in 1940, and by 1941 the couple were married.

Freda and Charlie on their wedding day in 1941 (Image: Freda Gadd)

Charlie served in the army and was stationed in Weymouth and one day he asked Freda out on a date. 

Initially reluctant, Freda agreed to go and her decision saved her future husband's life as there was a German air raid on the town that night.

Freda said: "I went to a dance which is where I met Charlie and afterwards he asked if I would come to the pictures tomorrow night.

"I told him I didn't fancy it, so he said he would stay in and play cards with the family he was staying with on Franchise Street.

Freda in her younger days (Image: Freda Gadd)

"Before I left him I changed my mind and said 'I will come then'.

"When we came out of the picture house the next day- the Regent on St Thomas Street, there were flames everywhere.

"He said I must get home and see how my people are, and they all got killed.

"If he had stayed in and I hadn't gone out with him, he would have got killed. He was lucky I made my mind up."

Four years into their marriage, Charlie was shipped out to France from Southampton for D-Day.

Freda was pregnant at the time with the couple's first and only child Linda, who is now 79.

She said: "I went to see him the night before, he was stationed in Southampton. I thought when I left him on the station, there were loads of Americans all lined up.

"I thought something is going on here.

"When I got home I found out they had invaded and it was D-Day, of course my husband was not allowed to tell me, but the next morning I heard our men had reached Normandy."

Charlie spent the next year on the front line with the Royal Engineers, he was taken to hospital in Belgium after he wounded his arm, but after two weeks returned to action.

Then one day Freda received a telegram saying that her husband had been wounded and was being flown back to the UK.

She said: "He was on the front line, he was in the Royal Engineers, and they were building a Bailey bridge on the Meuse Canal. They all got wounded on the bridge when it collapsed.

"I had a telegram to say husband badly wounded and he was taken to hospital in Oxford. He was in hospital for two years being patched up.

"He had 22 operations on his leg, on his hips and loads of skin grafts. He was lucky to survive.

"He walked with a stick or used a wheelchair for the rest of his life."

Charlie passed away in 1959.

Charlie's photograph still remains on Freda's mantelpiece (Image: Freda Gadd)

Freda said: "It was a terrible war really, we never spent any good years together.

"My husband was told he wouldn't live long, we had one girl before he went away on D-Day.

"He said he would have liked more children but told me he wouldn't want me to have to bring up the children on my own in case he died."

On her birthday, Freda received a card from the Mayor of Weymouth Kate Wheller and will be celebrating with her family this weekend.