Irene met Harry Leonard Bamforth in 1938 when she was aged 17 and worked at Woolworths in Huddersfield. They often had dates at the Ritz Cinema on monday evenings. She married Harry in Kirkheaton, Huddersfield, Yorks on 12 February 1940 and 3 weeks later he was called up to the army and joined the Seaforth Highlanders. Their son Phillip was born on 20 February 1941 and they lived with her parents in Quarry Lane, Kirkheaton. Irene worked at the Steelworks at Waterloo and was working there when one day in September 1944 her father Bertie arrived with a telegram informing her that her husband Harry had been killed in service a month earlier aged only 26. Phillip only saw his father 3 or 4 times when he was home on leave.