Elsie Cronin
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Wedding of George Henry Cronin and Elsie Marie Finney, Congregational Church, Camberwell Green, 1940

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Getting married

"I was 21, and George 20 when we got married. It was in the December and Dunkirk was in May. He was wounded at Dunkirk, and he'd just gone back into the regiment when we got married.

My mum gave me the coupons to get the dress, because I'd spent all my coupons. We had very little money, and we bought the material in Jones and Higgins in Rye Lane in Peckham and it cost 2 shillings and 11 pence a yard. The headdress and veil I borrowed, and a long slip of my mum's, but it was too wide and I had to tie it round with tape.

The dress was made by my sister Anna, and she cut it wrong, and it was too tight across the shoulders. So I had to be very careful how I moved and not slouch. I wasn't cross with her though, I was lucky to have it really.

The wedding night, we stayed upstairs at my mum's, and there was a terrible air raid on December 8th 1940. Despite this, we stayed in bed, and this was my first time. We had been sweethearts since we were 15 and 16. I was very happy, very happy to be married. We didn't go on honeymoon, I think he only had seven days leave, after which he was off again, and it was a few months before I saw him again."

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