Wartime In Bournemouth With The Post Office Service

A Memory of Bournemouth.

My mother,Margaret Newell was employed at the Mount Pleasant Post Office HQ, London.
In 1940 she was moved to Bournemouth where I believe the Forces Postal Service had been headquartered. Mail was sorted here for the Allied Forces serving around the world. She remembered seeing a Dog Fight over the sea and the large number of Empire and American troops. I read that on 23 May 1943, Bournemouth was bombed - I did not realise that 2,200 German bombs were dropped on Bournemouth during the war. Mother never mentioned it to us children. Bournemouth Municipal Orchestra was to play that night and be broadcast on the BBC.
My parents used to go and hear them during the war years. My brother was born nine months later. I can only assume that my father must have rushed from Dorking to Bournemouth after hearing of the bombing. Dad worked as a civilian and did not have a uniform. Dad died in the 1970's and my mother who was seventy at the time, remarried a former Australian Army Officer and had a photo of him in Officers uniform next to the bed. So she must have missed out all the romances during the war years as she was married in 1936.