ONE of Edith Carter's earliest recollections is of Red Cross trains thundering through the St Helens Junction station on their way to Lime Street, Liverpool.

The bold red crosses painted on the sides of the carriages announced to a hushed outside world that the passengers aboard were wounded soldiers heading for the hospitals of Merseyside.

Edith, now 88 but still blessed with a pin-sharp memory, shares her first world war thoughts in a poignant little contribution to this page.

"My mother and I had once been visiting someone in Edge Hill and as we were making our way to the ladies-only waiting room on the railway station we were stopped from entering. This was because it was full of wounded soldiers lying on stretchers. It was a pitiful sight."

But there were happier echoes from those troubled times.

Edith, from Mill Lane, Sutton Heath, then lived near the main rail track and while out playing in Penlake Lane saw train-loads of smiling Australian troops going by.

"I think the war had just ended and we used to wave and cheer the Aussies as they looked out from the carriage doors and windows," recalls Edith.

"Some used to throw their pith helmets out to us in glee. These were big white helmets with a khaki outer cover and yellow badge."

The boys among the young onlookers were delighted by this gesture and scrambled to retrieve the helmets. Minutes later these were popped on to urchin heads as they joined in a game of soldiers.

Edith believes that the Aussies were bound for the Liverpool pierhead, there to board ocean-going liners for the happy journey home.

WHAT a splendid peep at those 1914-18 times! Many thanks, Miss Carter.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.