Pat's parents John and Sarah Ealey on their wedding day in 1928. John served in the Merchant Navy and was killed when his ship was torpedoed in 1942.

“Raymond Delo, who sat next to me, came from Birmingham. His uncle was the manager of the cinema, and he used to go every night and tell me all about the films. I didn’t go because of the cost. Anyway, I was too busy helping dad Rogers – you’ll notice that he had become ‘dad Rogers’ – and ‘mum Rogers’. I used to weigh sugar rations and cut butter, stack the shelves and go down the cellar for various things. We were well fed – after all, we were grocers’ children. It was great fun.

“The headmistress at St John’s was Miss Banham, who was a rigid, Irish, Roman Catholic teacher. I was left-handed and probably ‘caught it’ too much. Raymond would be telling me about the cinema and I would be listening open-mouthed. I ‘caught it’ and so was given two on each hand with a cane for talking.”

Ironically, having been evacuated to Bridgnorth because of the threat of bombing, Pat was in Bridgnorth when a lone raider dropped a string of bombs across the town, although she does not remember much about it.

In common with many evacuees, the Ealeys returned home at some stage in 1940 because the bombing had not materialised. However, soon afterwards they were bombed out in a raid during which they had huddled in the cellar. Their house was damaged by a land mine.

“Our furniture was stored in the Rotunda Theatre off Stanley Road. Two days later the theatre went up and everything was destroyed.”

The family went back to Bridgnorth and managed to get a condemned property which was being done up in Friar Street. It meant they put down permanent Bridgnorth roots – Mrs Barritt lives now on the outskirts of the town.

But there was tragedy too when her father John, who was in the Merchant Navy, died when the SS Nigerian was sunk by a U-boat.

Her mother Sarah received the dreaded telegram just before Christmas 1942.

“I remember that shriek when she received the telegram. It knocked her out completely. She was never the same again.”