The wakey-wakey woman

SIR: Following on from Olden Life: What Were the Knocker-uppers? (January issue), here’s a handsome answer: Mrs Mary Smith of Limehouse Fields shooting dried peas to wake up heavy sleepers for 6d a week in 1933. Personally I can remember knocker-uppers operating in Crewe in the Second World War to wake Rolls-royce and railway workers. Mary Griffiths, London W2.