Mary Frances Dorothy Wood was born in London, England in January 1925. Her family moved to Dulwich [Annotator's Note: Dulwich neighborhood in London, England] after her birth. She is an only child and grew up in a privileged setting. Her father was a college lecturer in physics and mother was a housewife. She was aware that there were many people poorer than her. Her family was aware of what was going on in Germany and that the onset of war was looming over them during the 1930s. Throughout her childhood, she played with her cousins and other friends, went dancing, and went on holiday [Annotator's Note: British for "vacation"]. She learned how to swim at a young age. Due to the hostilities arising from Germany, in the fall of 1938, Wood had to practice evacuation. Her family created lists of items, clothes, and rations to bring with them. The following spring, the citizens were given gas masks. Even though she was young, she was very aware of the severity of war. Just before the war broke out, citizens had to prepare for black out. Some bought dark fabric to make curtains, while others made frames to fit into their window.

On 1 September 1939, Mary Frances Dorothy Wood and the students at her school were given noticed that they were leaving London [Annotator's Note: London, England] for the county. The whole school assembled in the playground area and the head teacher had a banner with the name of her school on it. Everyone filed behind her, marched to the railway station and boarded a train. Wood did not know where she was going but ended up in Kent [Annotator's Note: Kent, England]. Then she was bussed to a village in Charing Heath [Annotator's Note: Charing Heath in Ashford, England]. She waited in the village square as villagers came up and at random picked children to bring to their homes. She was chosen to go with three other girls, two 17-year-olds and a 14-year-old – same age as Wood, to a couple's bungalow house. The couple were very delightful people. All the girls shared a bedroom together. They stayed there for 12 days. It was a lovely part of the country with lots of orchards. Because all the students were scattered around the town, the school collected them and moved them to Ashford. She stayed with a woman who was very strict, read her letters, and often spied on Wood. One time she was reading Gone with the Wind [Annotator's Note: Gone with the Wind is a novel by American writer Margaret Mitchell, first published in 1936], and the lady thought the book was inappropriate and took it. Wood remained there for a few months and then decided to run away. She boarded a train set for London. The train set off late because of the snowy weather. When she disembarked from the train, she took a bus back to her house. She walked into the house and burst into tears as she fell into her aunt's arms. When her father returned home, he called Wood's foster mother and teacher to let them know that she had returned to London. After a few days, she received a letter from her school that they were assigned to another billet [Annotator's note: foster parent]. After she celebrated her 15th birthday, her father drove her to her new lodging. She stayed with a family that had a daughter Wood's age and another evacuee. Wood was much happier with this situation. In the spring of 1940, war was ramping up and soldiers began marching through the coastal towns. Wood and her foster mother prepared tea and handed cups of tea to soldiers as they marched pass their house. She would go to the coast and watch the soldiers board trains. Some of the cars were blacked out because they were ambulance cars. She felt proud for the soldiers that returned from Dunkirk [Annotator's Note: Battle of Dunkirk, 26 May to 4 June 1940 in Dunkirk, France] and the sacrifices they made. Soon, air raids started in Kent and her foster parents, being air raid wardens had to warn the community.

In June 1940, Mary Frances Dorothy Wood's school decided to evacuate from Kent, United Kingdom to Wales, United Kingdom, but she decided to not go with them. Instead, she remained with her mother and aunt who were teachers in Devon [Annotator's Note: Devon, England]. While sitting on the train in Paddington Station [Annotator's Note: also known as London Paddington in London, England], she saw her aunt running along the station shouting out the news that France had fallen [Annotator's Note: Battle for France in June 1940]. The British expected to be invaded. When Wood and her family arrived in Devon, they initially stayed in a little fishing town. The Germans began bombarding the harbor because there was a French ship hiding in Devon. The Germans bombarded during the day. Wood was with her father in a pub during one of the day raids. She her first alcoholic drink after hiding behind the bar. On another occasion, Wood was in London [Annotator's Note: London, England], on holiday from school, and as she was walking down the street, she heard drones coming in her direction. She ran down the street until she hit a gate to an entrance to a park when she heard the air raid warning signals go off. She ran to her house where she met her father and took shelter. That was the beginning of the Blitz [Annotator's Note: German bombing campaign against the United Kingdom 1940 to 1941]. Wood did not stay long in London, and therefore did not suffer from the Blitz any longer, but her father did. Wood returned to Devon and was relocated about 25 miles outside Plymouth [Annotator's Note: Plymouth, England]. At night she witnessed the Germans bomb Plymouth with flares, or what she called flaming onions. By spring of 1942, many of the students had decided to leave school and return to their homes, so Woods and her mother returned to home to London. The worse of the Blitz was over by this point, but sporadic raids continued. Behind Woods house, military had installed anti-aircraft guns on a golf course. The firing guns were very loud. Woods has great admiration for Churchill [Annotator's Note: Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill; Prime Minister, United Kingdom, 1940 to 1945]. His speeches were very uplifting. For fun, she often listened to Lord Haw-Haw [Annotator's Note: William Brooke Joyce, nicknamed Lord Haw-Haw, was an American-born fascist politician and Nazi propaganda broadcaster during the Second World War.] on the radio. In 1943, just before her 18th birthday, Wood was returning home from school when the air raid sirens went off. She managed to get home and found her grandfather lying in a ditch to protect himself. He was shaken up by the event. The nearby school was bombed during the raid and over 100 people died.

By 1943, Mary Frances Dorothy Wood attended college, but was evacuated to Devon [Annotator's Note: Devon, England]. Students were required to fire watch on shifts. They were given training on Saturdays on how to spot and extinguish them. Students tried to have as normal a college experience as possible and carried on with their work and studies. It was significant when the Americans arrived in a nearby town. She was told not to fraternize with the Americans but was soon her college was invited to a dance that sponsored by them. She had a wonderful time listening to the big band and eating the food and sweets. Not long after the dance, Wood looked out a window from her school building and saw hundreds of ships crossing the channel [Annotator's Note: the English Channel]. She thought something big was going on. She later found out it was D-Day [Annotator's Note: D-Day; the Allied invasion of Normandy, France on 6 June 1944]. Her future husband was on his way to Omaha Beach [Annotator's Note: Omaha Beach in Normandy, France]. [Annotator's Note: Video break 0:48:05.000.] Wood listened to the news intently about the invasion of D-Day. Shortly after, the Germans began to buzz bomb [Annotator's Note: V-1 pulse jet flying bomb, German name: Vengeance Weapon 1; Allied names: buzz bomb, doodlebug] London [Annotator's Note: London, England]. The worse part of the buzz bombs was when they stopped whistling because they were about to explode. Her family managed to get through this time. Every time a buzz bomb came through, it would blow her front door open. There was a close call when a buzz bomb landed right in front of her house. If her father had not taken shelter, he would have been seriously wounded. The V2 rockets [Annotator's Note: German Vergeltungswaffe 2, or Retribution Weapon 2, ballistic missile] were more powerful but not as scary.

Mary Frances Dorothy Wood was still in college and was delighted when the war ended in Europe. It was terrible to learn about the prisoners of war camps and concentration camps. She had mixed feeling about the atomic bombs [Annotator's Note: nuclear weapons dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, 6 and 9 August 1945]. She was so happy to hear that war concluded in Japan but felt horrible for the people that died from the bombs. Her cousin was a pilot that shuttled prisoners of war back to England. One day he radioed and said he would be landing in five minutes and have ambulances ready, but he never landed. To this day, Wood's family does not know what happen to him. Immediately after the war, everything was still hard because goods were stilled rationed, and all the production was exported. Wood hopes that one day wars will stop. She believes there should be institutions like the National WWII Museum [Annotator's Note: The National WWII Museum in New Orleans, Louisiana], and they should continue to teach World War 2 to future generations. She also believes it is important to teach World War 1 too.