Introduction

As I start to write these chapters of my life, I have just passed my seventy-eighth birthday. For the past two years I’ve not had good health and had to content myself and pass away the hours, days and weeks as best I could. For a long time I could not see to read or write or even watch television. But at long last my patience is rewarded and now I can do all I wish to.

I used to love walking any distance, especially in the country where most of my family live. The greater part of my life I’ve lived in Clapham, South West London. The changes in life around these parts are unbelievable due to the state of the world, following world wars in the past, no one could foresee such changes occurring in a lifetime. But facts are facts. I am unable to walk very far, but enjoy a bus ride to the parks nearby, or to the shops and markets, when it is a nice warm day. Life is still very good and kind to me. I very much enjoy doing what daily chores come my way, and especially cooking.

But food is getting more and more expensive so we have to really cut out a lot of what we used to be able to afford. But, food is still plentiful and varied so we still have lots to choose from. My children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren visit me fairly often and I have a large number of relations, to keep in touch with.

Getting Muddy

As far back as I remember as a child of about 4 years old, I was playing with my brother Dick in the garden of a house where there were apple trees in the garden. He was chasing me with a stick and ended up with poking the stick down the outside drain to see how far it would go, and he kept splashing me and making me in a mess. When my mum came to the door and saw what he was doing, we both got into trouble. Soon afterwards we moved down the road from the house on the corner and this cottage was our home for many many years. I had one sister Nan, older than me, and Dick came between us. Soon after we moved, my sister Kit was born.

Getting Muddy (II)

As long as I can remember was when I was playing in our garden with my brother Dick. We lived in a country town, so we had apple and pear trees in our garden. We had been chasing around , and on this day I remember so well, we both got into trouble with our mum. Dick, tired after the chase, started a new game of poking a long stick down the outside drain, then splashing the mud, getting it all over my dress. Mum fetched us both indoors and my brother was punished and I had to be washed and fresh clothes put on.

That was only a temporary home and soon afterwards we moved to a new terraced house. I was nearly five years old then, and Dick was six. We had a sister Nan (Annie) who was eight and most likely went to school nearly every day. I was longing to be five years old so I could go to school every day and be grown up like my big sister and brother. Our house was only a few minutes from the one we first lived in and opposite the whole row of houses was a large green field. At the bottom of our road there were fields, one after another, but we were really never allowed to go further than the 3rd meadow. To get from one to another we had to climb over or under a wire fence. The first meadow had a pond in the corner and in the second one, a much larger one. All the children in the road, and there were generally a lot of us, played there most of the time. We sailed paper boats, fished for tadpoles, and caught butterflies and dragonflies.

Pre-war memories 1904-1914

So, at last I’ll try and tell the story of my life, starting at my childhood that was very happy till World War 1 broke out and everyone’s lives were thrown into chaos. Fathers and sons went to war. Mothers had to go to work, and friends and neighbours moved away, and life in my part of Surrey was never the same to me again. But still here I am and hope I’ll be able to get to the end of my story.

My mother and father lived in a small house in a row of twelve houses. Opposite was a large empty field where I and my sisters and brothers played. I had one sister and one brother older than me, and one baby sister younger than me, and that was about 1904-5, as far back as my memory takes me. Our house had three bedrooms, like the story of the three bears, a large room for mum and dad, a middle sized one for us three girls and a small sized one for my brother Dick. In the downstairs we had a front room, kitchen living room and a scullery with a larder built in. Quite a fair sized scullery, where most of the work was done by my mum.

I remember such happy times in the afternoons after the work was done. In the summer time if it was very hot, we carried our tea across the road to the field and sometimes my mum would dress us all and take us for a walk, with the baby in a malecart. Prams were not heard of in those days.

My dad worked for an army officer in a big house at Blackwater, near to Camberley where we lived. His name was Colonel James (an American Colonel).His wife, Mrs James, had three children, two girls and a boy. They had a pony and trap which my dad looked after, and took the James’ family for drives around the countryside. The colonel also used to go hunting and my dad looked after the pony and the horses. At the back of the James house, they had a wonderful garden, which was also my dad’s job. So he did not have much time to spend at home with us, only about an hour before it was our bedtime and even on Sundays he used to take them out for drives. The James family in return let my Dad take us out, when they did not want it on Sundays, and this was a great treat for us children.We just loved it and went miles into the country villages. We always got back in time for Sunday tea.

Outside our own back door we had a stone back yard, and quite a nice size garden where there were flowers and vegetables growing. My dad was a great gardener and things seem as real to me now as I look back, endless happy days.

My mum used to play with us, and tell us stories and we read aloud as soon as we were old enough to understand. We had nice families living in our road. We knew everyone and there were lots of children to play with. The streets were safe, only horses and carts occasionally came by. The milkman came every day, and the baker and the grocer would do up the groceries in a big parcel and deliver them by a boy on a bike. I think I was about six years old when I remember the great excitement of the first ice cream van coming round our way. Once a week we’d all be watching out for him for hours, and we all got a cornet for 1d or a wafer for 2d. He was an Italian. I suppose the first foreigner I ever knew. His horse and van were all decorated up with paintings and he did a wonderful trade.

Sometimes in the summer our field was taken over by a circus. They put up a big tent and lined up all the animals in their cages, and with the caravans and sideshows, took up most of the field. It only cost about 3d to go in, but they put up canvas all around the field to keep the children from getting in for nothing. But we flattened ourselves out and got underneath and once inside we were alright. The band used to play and they all paraded round the town, before the big show in the tent.

As we grew older, and became schoolchildren we still all enjoyed our lives, we joined clubs and classes where we learnt quite a lot. We were taught acting and singing and had concerts held in the drill hall next to our school, which was about quarter of an hours walk from our home. We used to go with our friends and all enjoyed ourselves. It was quite safe in those days to go out at night to our clubs and dancing classes etc. Well, so far so good, and no family could have been happier than my own or more contented.

School life

By now I was going to school every day and I had lots of school friends, boys and girls as both schools were only divided by a fence. All the children in our road went to the same school and church on Sundays.

So now we are all schoolgirls, my sister Nan a year older than me, was in a higher class, because we went up a standard each year. and my young sister Kitty was still in the infant school. My brother Dick in the big boys school adjoining ours, just this iron railing dividing the two schools.

When it was Empire day or on any royal visits to Camberley, (and there were many I remember quite well), both schools met together in the playgrounds and we sang together all the old traditional songs of the British Empire. I remember once, we all lined up outside the school gates, boys and girls and infants, we all had a rosette (red, white and blue) and a flag, of course the union jack. And the big flag was hoisted in the playground. King Edward VII came in his carriage wearing the uniform of a field marshall. He got out with one or two other officers and they shook hands with the headmaster and mistress and then we all sang ‘God save the King’ then after a short address to us all, they went on their way to the Staff College.

The Royal Military College

There was then, and still is today, the Royal Military College, nowadays called ‘Sandhurst Academy’ also the Staff College. They stand in lovely grounds and woodlands and the lakes were and still are beautiful. We used to always go to the college sports, one of the great events of the year. People came from everywhere to watch, and it was always a day to remember and always held on a Saturday.

In the summer evenings we used to be allowed to go and watch the cadets from the college playing water polo, it used to be so exciting. Crowds of people all scrambling for the best place to watch the game. There was always plenty of sports at what we used to call the old college grounds.

Brother Frank is born

Soon after my sister Kitty was big enough to join Nan and myself in the big girl’s school, my mum had another baby boy. His name was Herbert Francis. From the time he was born till we were all grown up we just called him ‘Sonny’. I was old enough by then to be allowed to push him in the malecart around the houses, I was very proud of being allowed to look after him by myself, and my sister Nan being a little older, had to help mum do some of the work. As we got older we all had our jobs to do as best we could. With five children now there was a lot of washing and ironing to do.

Mum

My mum also spent hours and hours making clothes for us three girls and we were generally dressed alike. And mum also made clothes for other people, and was glad to get a little extra money.Wages were very low when I was a child. I remember what a shock I got, when my mother explained to me who the landlord was, when he came every Monday for the rent. I thought we all lived free in our houses till then. And eight shillings rent didn’t leave much out of my dad’s pay of twenty-eight shillings a week. The James family were very good to us all, they passed on some lovely toys and clothes for us all and wonderful hats for my mum. I remember one hat had a full size bird on it, but mum loved it and only wore it for best.

Sunday School

We used to go to Sunday school mornings and afternoons, and sometimes even go to church in the evening with mum as well. I loved Sunday school best of all and we used to have a summer treat, and a winter treat. The children who had attended regularly and worked hard got a nice book for a prize, so we all did our very best to get one.

As I and my sisters began to grow up, we went to Sunday school as well as weekdays. My mum used to make us pretty coats and hats to match for Sundays and every Whitsun, we had a lovely new dress for Sundays, when we didn’t need to wear a coat, as it was getting near summer. I used to love Sunday school. We used to have the classes in our weekday school but the desks were all arranged differently, more friendly and cosy and our teacher sat in front, in the centre of us. After about an hour, we all lined up and marched to the church.

The Sunday school children, boys and girls all sat at the back of the church behind the font. When the vicar came to his sermon we were all allowed to slip out quietly while the congregation sang a hymn. I loved going to church, and while waiting for the service to commence, I used to look at the ladies arriving in their long dresses, with their gentlemen escorting them, all dressed immaculately. It was almost like a fashion parade in those days. But I liked it when the service started, and the choir and clergy sometimes walked all around the church, with the vicar last. I liked the vicar, his name was Mr Storrs and he lived near by the church in a lovely old house. He used to come to nearly every place where we children were, sometimes day school and evening social events and sports up at the recreation ground.

Generally we children had a fine time. There used to be a fair and roundabouts and swings, and we were given a ticket for one free ride on each. Then we all sat round in squares, planks on bricks, in our classes and had tea, which was given to us by our teacher. Our Sunday school treat was much the same as our weekday treat, which was usually held on Empire day, 24th May, and it was nearly always lovely weather. I never remember it being wet on these special occasions.

In the winter, we got up plays, and we used to love to go to rehearsal in the church hall. Then we had all learnt our special parts. Our mothers made us the fancy clothes to suit the parts we had to take. Then, when we had the winter Sunday school treat, our mothers and fathers and friends came to see our plays and usually the drill hall nearly was crammed full of people every single corner and it was always a lovely evening. We used to look forward to going all through the year. The boys had their parts as well as the girls, and when I was little there were two brothers and three sisters, so my mum had a busy time firing us all up.

Dad

My dad loved horses and used to work with them. Sundays, after church, he used to bring a pony and trap and take mum and two or three of us, for a lovely drive and we used to go for miles around the countryside. Often he rode one home, and popped in to see us all and we would give the horse a lump of sugar. Dad would take one of us children and put us on its back to take a ride to the top of the road and back. I remember well wishing my legs were long enough to ride properly, like grown ups did.

Tradesmen

We had lots of trades people call on us most days. The milkman (in a horse and cart) brought a big can of milk to the door and called out ‘Milk-O’, One of us children would get a jug and run to the door and he would ladle out of the big can, as much as we wanted. The baker also called in his cart, a different cart to the milkman’s, more of a covered-in van. He would load up a big basket and bring it to the door, with all kinds of bread, for us to choose, and sometimes some lovely cakes as well. But we did not often buy cakes. My mum used to bake a large cake for tea on Sundays and sometimes some buns in the weeks. There were carriages for people to ride about in, who could afford one.

Birthdays and Christmas

Eventually, I was five years old. I remember the day I was five. No one seemed to know it was my birthday. Then when I got home from school, mum called me upstairs and gave me a stocking filled up with little toys. I remember thinking, how silly! To have a stocking on my birthday, it was only really a white sock and we should only have stockings or socks for Christmas. Then we would have one each filled with an apple, nuts, orange, sweets and a toy. What a time we had. We woke at the crack of dawn, and I slept in the middle room with my sisters, Nan and Kit, my brother Dick slept in the little back bedroom, and mum and dad in the front one overlooking the road and there was a big meadow across the road, and sometimes a circus would come and all the wild animals in cages lined up in our road till they made room in the field by the big tent. And they put canvas all round the field to stop us looking in.

Alexandra Avenue

In our street, it was Alexandra Avenue. My mum didn’t like streets, she liked to be posh! We used to know everyone who lived in our row of houses and there were twelve when I was very young. Later on, as I got older, they started to build houses on the other side of the road, and blocked out our lovely playing field. My dad called them ‘Rabbit Hutches’ and he did carry on about them. Then they started at the other end of the road, and came right down to join onto the end of our row, we felt blocked in, and had to go to the top of the road and across the road at the top to get to the nearest meadow. It was never the same again to me. I loved the meadows in spring and we used to hunt for the first wild spring flowers that came out. I would take them home to mum. She put them in jam jars on the scullery windowsill outside. Dad nearly always had his geraniums in the pots on the kitchen windowsill and in the front of the house.

My dad always had window boxes, he was about the only one down our avenue that had them and they were always full of lovely geraniums and lovely flowers to mix with them. I remember especially that we liked wallflowers. We had a yard with a coal shed and next to it the loo. We didn’t have a bathroom, mum used to light up the copper fire and boil the water for us all to have our bath in front of the kitchen fire. An old black range, but it shone, you could see your face in it. At the end of the yard we had a nice long garden, a small part was divided off for flowers and we had a long pathway to the gate, and flowers growing all alongside of the fence, that divided us from next door.

But my dad was a good gardener and he used to grow lots of lovely vegetables for my mum to use, and always runner beans at the end. We children used to like to help him sometimes, but I suppose we were more of a hindrance than help and I can hear him saying now ‘Go inside and find your mother’, so we left him alone to get on with his work.

Mum was always busy too, dressmaking for people, who never used to pay her for her hard work. They used to complain, any old excuse to put off paying her for her hard work. She really did make nice clothes, and all of us children, we took it in turn to take the things back when finished, and hoped to get the pittance she charged.

Nan

My sister Nan and I were getting old enough to help mother more in the house. Weekdays when we went to school we didn’t do much, but Saturdays we did quite a lot upstairs, while mother did downstairs, and cooked the dinner. Kitty was old enough by now to help look after Francis, ‘Sonny’.

Concerts

Sometimes we had concerts. We all used our old dressing up clothes, built tents to change in, and all did what we called ‘our piece’. It was all great fun. In those days it seemed that we had endless summers. On my sisters’ birthdays we used to have strawberries in a big basket, and have picnics in the meadow opposite where we lived.All great fun as I remember.

Brother Dick

Well now, I’m growing up a big girl, and the time will soon be here for me to leave school. The world seems to be getting all upside-down, and aeroplanes are being built nearby at Farnborough. My brother Dick liked drawing aeroplanes, and had got a job at the aerodrome as soon as he was old enough. But he had to walk the five miles there and back, as there was no buses in those days. But he did get on well, and before long moved away to other places, and before he was 21, he was helping to design the planes that helped to win the war, that eventually had to break out in 1914, and it lasted four years. Life was never the same again.

Dick gets to know the famous Colonel Cody

For the next few years life went on quietly and peacefully. As a family we did not change our way of life, we got no richer, and we got no poorer. My brother Dick got very involved with drawing and making wooden models of aeroplanes, which were really good. He seemed to spend all his free time doing these. In the summer months, he used to go to Farnborough. He had to walk, there were no buses in those days. On Farnborough common land called ‘Lathams Plain’, He got friendly with Colonel Cody and his two sons, who were balloonists and they got to know each other well.

I suppose Dick was about twelve years old by now, and they had a shed where they worked and talked. About this time, other people were visiting Farnborough and soon a few scrappy buildings were going up. Small aircraft began appearing outside the sheds and people began to get very interested in the machines and anxious to see them flying. I went with my brother one Saturday, and I remember when the airman tried to start the propeller, the wind from it nearly blew me away. Well in time of course, when Dick was old enough to leave day school it was only natural for him to start work at the aircraft factory as it was called. My mum went with him and walked the five miles there and back and they had to carry his drawings and a few models, small ones. He got a job there for 5 shillings a week (old money) and he was very happy doing what he always wanted to do.

World War 1 Declared

There seems so much that I have left out that happened in my growing up years. I always wanted to be grown up and older than I was. But time does not stand still. One day I was out with my dad for a drive and we saw boys carrying posters and papers yelling ‘War Declared’. I was thrilled with excitement as I saw it then, tired of reading about old wars in years gone and wanted a real one of our own.

My dad said to me it was very serious, and not to be worked up about. He said when it starts who knows when it will end. But everyone spoke lightly about it and said the Kaiser would be beaten in about six weeks, but those six weeks dragged on into four long years and the war took many of our soldiers to other countries in Europe. Aeroplanes took to the skies and were developing into fighter planes and the Germans were building big Zeppelin airships to come over the channel and bomb London and kill many people.

Large forces of troops came across to England to help fight the war. In England a new command was formed called the Royal Air Force and soon it grew and grew, and there were air force stations being set up all over the country. Also, the war was on the sea. The Germans had a lot of submarines and they were sinking our ships that was bringing food to our country from abroad. It got worse and worse. The chief leader was Lord Kitchener whose picture was on all the posters around the recruiting offices saying ‘your king and country need you’. He was a great man, but he drowned at sea. We all thought without him we would lose the war. But no one is indispensable and there were plenty of high ranking officers to carry on. It was a great struggle, food was short and we had to go on rations. And everyone in the land had a ration book, so everything was shared equally. Eventually, my dad had to join up as all the others did in our road and not many were left at home.

At first, there was great excitement. Everyone was rushing about. Posters being plastered up everywhere with a picture of Kitchener pointing at you, and the words underneath, your King and country need you. And gradually it sunk in and one by one the local men left their wives and families and went to the recruiting office to join up. My Dad belonged to the “Queens Royal West Surrey Regiment” and he was on the reserve. So, it wasn’t long before we had to hug him, and say goodbye – so-long. They sent him, not to fight the Germans in France, but to the Dardanelles, where it was a dreadful climate and a lot of soldiers got ill and had to come back home, as eventually my poor dad did. When he came back to us he was as thin as a rake and he had no proper clothes or uniform on. But we were all mighty glad he was back with us and we children climbed up all over him in our warm loving reunion. Mum was upset because we had such poor rations, and no extra food to build up his strength, but eventually he got better, then they sent him to France next time and I think he was luckier than a lot of our friends and neighbours, for when eventually the war did end, my dad came back to us once more. I’ve rambled on and on. I missed out a hell of a lot in between, when the war started.

Camberley, our home town, was near to Aldershot, where all the military units get organised and the soldiers given their training before being sent overseas. They used to march around the countryside and pass the end of our road. Thousands at a time. Men from all over the world, who came to join forces with the British soldiers and they all had their different uniforms and played bands to march along to. Especially I liked the Scottish regiment, to see the highlanders in their swinging kilts and playing the bagpipes. Then along would follow them, ambulances, guns and wagons etc.

Sometimes us children would stand an hour at a time watching them go past. But as the weary years dragged on, my poor mum found it hard to feed us all. She tried hard to make her money go round. But it was not enough by a long way. The ladies of the churches organised local wives and mothers to start making shirts for our soldiers at the front. And they had to be made absolutely perfect, for the sum of 9½d.

I remember well my mum taking the babies’ pram and loading it up with as many as she thought she could make in a week. She often stayed up half the night, to get them done in time to get the money for them and get another lot on Thursdays at the drill hall. My eldest sister Nan and me used to help her sew on the name tags. We used to put little messages on the back of the paper to the soldiers who received the shirts.

World War 1 Declared (II)

About two years later in 1914, it was a very hot summer’s day in early August. We children were on our month-long summer holiday and I remember well my dad taking me out one morning for a long drive in the trap. He was not his usual happy self. He was quiet, so I asked him what was wrong. He said, ‘Chris, I am really worried, I am afraid there is going to be war’. I remember getting quite excited and rattled on about other wars in history books I’d read in school, that were so boring. Now a real war all our own was likely and I was feeling thrilled at the thought of it. Dad soon quietened me down, he said probably many of the men in our road would have to join the army or navy and go away to the war, even himself in time. The worry of the men leaving their jobs and their families alone with very little money from army pay was a great load on his mind.

Lo and behold, war was declared almost immediately after that morning’s outing in the trap. My dad did not have to go at first, but soon his words came true enough. The town, usually so quiet and peaceful, was alive with soldiers, hundreds of them marching, training to go to war. Food began to get short in the shops and clothes as well. My mother began to make soldiers’ flannel shirts, she must have made a hundred or more of them for only 9½ d each one. I was old enough to sew on the buttons to help and my sister Nan wrote the labels and sewed them on and my mother said we were doing our bit to win the war. Everyone was saying it would be over before Christmas. But there was no sign of it being over and soon the day came when dad was called up to join the army and go away and leave us all. He was sent to the Dardenelles where a lot of fighting was going on.

Everyone thought, and it was said, that the war would not last more than a month, but how wrong we were. My Dad did his training and was sent to the Dardenelles. The second front they called it. It was a very hot climate there and most unsuitable for the British soldiers and a lot of them were taken ill and had to go to hospital and the worst cases sent back home. Eventually this happened to my dad and we all got excited about his return, but he looked so thin and ill at first we hardly knew him. All the time he had been at the war, my mum was trying to earn a little extra money as her allowance was so small from the army. She got soldiers’ shirts ready already cut out. They had to be made perfectly for 9½ d (old money) 240 d to the pound in those days. She used to sit and stitch away hour by hour, often by candlelight if she had not a penny to put in the gas meter. It was a very monotonous job but she never gave up. She must have made hundreds by the end of the war. Then Nan was old enough to help she made the buttonholes and I sewed on the buttons. As time went by Nan left school and got a job to deliver greengroceries. She had to use a bike and in two days my brother Dick helped her to learn. My, what hard work it was for both of them. Nan mastered it and rode as if she had been riding all her life and delivered goods round the district to the big houses. Poor classes bought their goods from a cart going direct to the shops.

The men were having to give up their jobs and join the forces and so the women had to take over. Then they actually took away the farmers. So in their place they called up young women and trained them as farmers and eventually they got a uniform and were called the Women’s Land Army. They were sent to any farm in the country to help keep up the supplies of food. Landlords let out their land in plots for people to grow what they could on these allotments. They did very well indeed.

Going into Service

As time slipped by I had to leave school and look for a little job to help at home. I would have loved to have trained as a nurse, but at 14 I was too young. I had to go to a big house and learn how to do work properly. I had to sleep at this place and was only allowed to go home one half day a week, and every other Sunday. I was very lonely and miserable and the other girls who worked there were all so much older than I was. They paid me £1 a month, and my food. I had to get up at 6.30 and often did not go to bed till 11pm. I hated the new life and one day I threw my bag of clothes from my bedroom window, then quietly got outside the house unnoticed, got over the garden wall and ran nearly all the way back to my home. It wasn’t long before there was a knock at the door and the lady had come to see why I’d run away. She tried hard to persuade me to go back, but my mum refused to let me go, she said she did not like me being unhappy and I was too young, so I helped mum look after the younger children and did a bit of housework now that I had had some training.

Going into Service (II)

Well, time came round for me to leave school. I was fourteen and longing to earn money, put my hair up, and wear long dresses, to make me feel grown up. A lady called to see my mum. She said my name had been given to her by the school authorities as being of suitable age to take a job in service.

I took this job. It was to help out in a big house in Camberley. I had to sleep there and was given one afternoon a week out to go home and see my mum and alternate Sunday afternoons, for the amount of £1 per month and my keep. There were several young girls working there, but the hours were very long and I used to get very tired by 10.30 p.m. (sometimes it was 11p.m. before I could go to bed). I got dreadfully homesick and one day I stayed at home and wouldn’t go back after my afternoon off. The next day the lady came to see why I didn’t return and made me promise to go back. She told my mother how well I was doing and got round her to send me back. So I did go back, but it got harder work for me and no more money for the extra work I did.

Redcliffe Square

But this did not last long. An Aunt of mine wanted me to go up to London and help her to keep house for a lady and gentlemen. I had never been to London in my life and was very excited. Mum bought me a little tin trunk and specially prepared some new clothes for me to wear at my new job. And I was to get £12 a year. I’ll never forget my first sight of London, to me it was the biggest disappointment of my life. My aunt met the train at Waterloo and took me down the ‘tube’ at Earls Court Station, which was near Redcliffe square where I was going to live. All the big houses looked the same, tall plain and ugly. We had to go down some steps to the rooms below the street pavement , where the servants living quarters were. I felt disgusted and again wanted to run away home. But my aunt was a good cook and fed me nice meals and my uncle Bernard was also at the front in France and she kept saying, ‘Your mother has enough to do, looking after the younger children and only war rations to make do on. No, you must stay here and get used to earning your own living’, So it seems I had no choice.

Redcliffe Square (II)

It’s some time since I got on with my story so I’ll make another attempt to get on with it. My father’s brother Bernard was also in France fighting, nearly all the eligible young men had to give up their jobs and join up. My Aunt Eva, his wife, wrote to my mum asking if one of us girls would like a job in London working with her in a lady’s house. Of course, it had to be me. I’d just left school and there was nothing suitable locally for me. So we bought a little brown tin trunk and packed all my clothes in it and off I went to London on my own. Mum saw me off at the station and my aunt met the train on arrival at Waterloo. It was a very disappointed little girl, on seeing London in wartime for the first time in my life. It was not one little bit like the picture I’d always had conjured up in my mind. My aunt met me and soon we were on the underground railway on our way to Earls Court Station and we were going to a house in Redcliffe Square in Chelsea.

It was just one of many such houses, street after street looked the same. I was very disillusioned pretty quickly. I had to share a room at the very top of the house, about six floors up. It was barely furnished, not a bit homely. There was also an old woman who worked as parlour maid who also shared the bedroom. I was told I had to help her do the work of the house in the morning, then help my aunt (who did the cooking) in the kitchen when I’d finished. In between I had to lay the meals for the gentry and wait on them at table, me, a little girl of fourteen, coming up fifteen, they made me wear long print dresses in the morning and a cap and change into all black in the afternoons. I was so homesick, I used to cry for my mum, one day I was so unhappy, I was thinking of running back home. I looked out the window and down on the pavement and there was my mum! I could not believe my eyes. I rushed downstairs to meet her, it seemed like a hundred stairs I flew down and was breathless. But how wonderful it was. My mum had come on the spur of the moment to see me and see if I was happy, which of course I wasn’t. But after a lot of chat, my aunt got her own way and I had to stay there in the job. She forced me to see that I was one less in the family for my mother to worry about and feed in wartime. So I had to grin and bear it. The lady of the house was talking about leaving London, so I hoped I would go back home soon.

Redcliffe Square (III)

So I got myself another job with my aunty in London. I was no better off as I was further from my mum. My aunt Eva was cook at a big house kept by one lady and her brother. She was a lovely lady and really kind to me. I really was happy there until the air raids started. Zeppelin raids and I was really scared to death at night when the sirens went off. I ran down those six flights of stairs to the basement nearly having a heart attack, shaking all over with fright and shock.

Zeppelin air raids

I did not like living in London at all. I was frightened by the ‘Maroons’ and guns firing in the parks, when they thought there would be an air raid. Zeppelins, the Germans were building now, to send over and bomb London and the sky was a network at night-time of searchlights. Policemen running round the streets shouting ‘take cover’ and life was horrid. I often cried at night and was lonely and afraid. One night I woke up and there was a raid on already. I looked out the window and saw an airship on fire falling to the ground. I ran down all those flights of stairs. How I ever got to the basement I’ll never know. It’s a wonder I didn’t die of a heart attack, it shook my whole body. But no more sleeping at the top of the house for me. After that I had a folding bed and slept in the pantry in the basement.

Zeppelins Raids (II)

Now the war was still going on, it had been on two years or more. Air raids were often over London, German Zeppelins and the guns used to frighten me terribly when a raid was on. I used to feel as if my heart would burst out of my body. But we had to get used to it.

Home Leave For Dad

I did not get home very often, but I met my dad at Waterloo. When he came home on leave I went home with him and stayed with them all till it was time for him to go back to the war again and I would go back to London with him. I’ve never forgotten those journeys, the men, and the crying wives at the stations and hustle and bustle. Once he got back to London, I had to say goodbye to my dad.

Uncle Bernard

Before the end of the war came in 1918 my uncle had been sent home, as he lost his hearing and so was demobbed. So he lived with us downstairs and he dug up the garden and planted it.

Sloane Street

By the time I was nearly 18 years old, the lady of the house wanted to leave London and go to the country. She got me another job nearby in a bigger household and my aunt and uncle went to the country to live. So, I became an under-housemaid in Sloane Street. I stayed there till the war was over. We all packed up during the summer months and went away to St Brides in South Wales then returned each winter to London. But I was fed up with the life I lived. I wanted to go back and live near my family, now my dad was back home safe and sound and the war was over and people getting settled down to making a new life for themselves.

Nan in Chiswick

Soon after this my eldest sister came up to London to work. She got a job at a baker’s shop and she lived in Chiswick. When she was settled in and had a half day off every Wednesday. I too asked for a half day so I could meet her and we could have a nice time out together and we did!, This made me much happier and contented to stay in London. When the job eventually packed up in Redcliffe Square, I got another nearby.

By this time my uncle Bernard had been invalided out of the army because he had been deafened by the guns in France. I went home in between jobs and spent 2 weeks with my mum and family. But times were really hard. Every penny was counted out, the food was scarce and I realised I was better off away form home and now I had my sister Nan up there with me, it wasn’t so lonely. My aunt was hard and not easy and loving to live with and I worked hard from morning till night. All the time I stayed there, nearly two years.

St Brides

My new job was with a titled lady, (Lady Kensington), whose husband was at the war also. She was a real lovely lady and she had four young sons. Three away at boarding school and the youngest at home with her. There were lots of servants in this house and I was about the youngest. I liked most of the girls employed there, but not the older ones. Once again, I was under a tartar who had me up at the crack of dawn every day and worked me till I nearly dropped. I was always hungry. I could never get enough to eat at the table, I was the last one served and there was precious little left for me. But I soldiered on and getting quite grown up in my own way. In this job we left London during the summer months and all went to Wales to a lovely castle in a place called St. Brides right by the sea. No special sea side resort, just the little beach unspoilt except for a little boathouse. Sometimes we girls used it as a bathing hut and we went in for a swim when we could manage some time off work, which was not very often. There was a tiny church belonging to the castle where all the former lords and ladies in the family had been buried in the tiny churchyard. We were allowed to go to church in turns and I liked it so very much and it was so peaceful down there. No signs of war whatsoever. There were plenty of fresh vegetables and fruit trees. Somehow it all kept going with the odd man here and there. Anyhow, although I felt miles from home and often wanted for a letter, I was happy in myself when we were in Wales. We returned in the autumn to London and to air raids again.

St Brides II

In time they got so bad, the people packed up and left London. Before they left they got me another job with a lady whose husband was away at the war and she spent most of her time with her young family and servants in South Wales. I was glad to go to Wales with her, but I did feel a long way from my home and missed my mum so terribly. But she had a hard time of it, with only a very poor allowance to feed the rest of the family at home. She made shirts for the soldiers at the front for 9 pence a time. Anyway, I did save enough from my £1 a month salary to go home once a year for 2 weeks holiday. I liked it in Wales, the girls who I worked with were nice and jolly. There were no raids; it was beautiful and peaceful and hard to believe there was a war just across the channel and we had plenty of food and freedom. There were lovely gardens there and a small village, about 3 miles along the coast called Marlow. I lived at the big castle of St Brides. Lots of rooms in the place were closed. There was not enough visitors to keep them all open because of the war. The family’s children went to school most of the time in England and just returned for holidays.

St Brides (III)

The next job was with a titled lady. I did not think I would be there long. I went as a housemaid. There were a lot of servants for one lady. Her husband was Lord Kensington and he was in the Welsh Guards, serving in the Far East. Although I was in this situation for four years, I never once saw him. I used to see his letters arrive in the post for his wife, Lady Kensington, who was one of the nicest ladies I ever knew. She had four sons, 3 away at boarding school and one living at home. He was too young and had a nanny. The other three, Edward, Owen and David, came home for the school holidays, all nice boys. We went to their home in Wales, ‘St Brides’ for the summer months. It was a very isolated place on the coast. A big old castle, half of it closed down, because of the war and short staff. It was the clearest air I ever remember breathing and the daffodils from the gate up the drive to the house was something to see at Easter time. I would have been very happy, but the head housemaid spoilt it all for me. She made me work like a slave. But the other girls were nice to me and there were about twelve altogether. On occasions we got down to the private beach to bathe. We used the boathouse to dress and undress and when the family were out we played games on the lawns. Also, we used to go and get fruit from the gardens. The place had its own farm and so there was no shortage of food and you would not know there was a war on. I didn’t get many letters from home. My sisters wrote to me sometimes, but I was always lonely for my mum.

She was busy making shirts for the soldiers and she did not realise sometimes that weeks had gone by and she hadn’t written to me. I thought I must get back near her and to civilisation once more. My youth was passing away. I was 18 by now and had never had a chance to meet any boyfriends. So my mind made up, I left this place (which has always remained in my mind ever since), so full of memories. I’ve even gone back there 50 years later just to recall those years and see the place once more. It’s a hospital now I’m told.

Spreading Our Wings

My sister (Nan) was not living in Chiswick any more, she had gone to Arundel Castle to work, so I missed her very much and by this time my little sister Kitty had also left home in Camberley and gone to work as a children’s nanny.Way down in the country. So mum only had my baby sister Nelly and the boys at home. Soon my eldest brother was getting on very well as a draftsman in the aeroplane factory got a better job away with a much bigger firm, so we had, most of us, spread our wings by now. My young brother Frank started working at the international stores at home, and he stayed there for years and years, then he also came to London eventually, many years later though. That’s another story

Nearly 18

Now I was nearly eighteen and I really felt I must go back and be near my mum again. The war was nearly over. Soon my dad would be back home. So I looked for a small job so I could go home often. I was lucky and I got one only a quarter of an hour’s walk away. It seemed funny working again in Camberley after London and in a place where they only had 2 maids after being with a dozen or so. But it was peaceful and quiet and I determined I would stay put.

World War 1 Is Over

When at last the war was finally over, I left this place and wanted to go back home and be near my mum and dad, now he was back home safely from the war in the Dardenelles. He was invalided out of the army at the end of the war. I went home and had a shock to see how thin my dad got while he had been away so long. I stayed at home until I got a job near my home, so I could see my mum and family.

Working as a Cook

I changed my job from being a housemaid to being a cook. I had learnt a lot about cooking when I was in Wales and knew that cooks earnt more money. I could always get hold of something to eat and never get hungry like poor housemaids do. I stayed in this job as a cook for about two years. It was quite a small house only three in the family, a nurse, a housemaid and myself. I got home 2 or 3 times a week and I only lived about half a mile away. I did not move away from Camberley, I had been away from home so much, I intended to remain put. But I changed jobs several times, always trying to get a little more money each time I changed.

Working as a Cook (II)

I got a few weeks holiday and went home. By now there were two more children at home, my sister Nell, who was ten years younger than me, and a young baby brother, Jackie. Then I got a job only ten minutes walk from my home, so I could pop home every day for a precious few minutes with my mum. The war was over, my dad was back at home and worked at the Royal military college.
This was only a small house where I worked, with another girl, we did everything between us, cooking and cleaning, and we shared a bedroom. I was happy and used to go home and go out with my mum on my day off. I eventually left this place and got another job still in Camberley. I changed my work and learnt to cook, as cooks got more money than housemaids. The cook taught me very well, how to do things in this job, so that when I left there, I was in a position myself to take a cook’s job.

Working at the Clock House

I got a job with an army general (at the Clock house Farnborough), his wife had just got a new car. So the general got his army servant to go to London and train to be a driver of this car. When he had passed his test, he came to live in the general’s house, so he could be always handy to take his wife out during the day in the car.
His name was Charles (Alfred Charles Jebbitt) and he spent a lot of time in my kitchen, when he wasn’t out working on the car. He was a lot older than I was and treated me like a child at first. But he helped me a lot and I got very fond of him as time went by. The general’s wife did not like it, when we had time off and he went home with me to visit my mum and dad. The general gave him the sack and he had him posted overseas.

The Clock House (II)

I was recommended to a general’s wife in Farnborough. So off I went and got the job. It was at the Clock house in Farnborough Hants. I did the cooking and there was a housemaid as well and the general had a Chauffeur-Batman, he lived in as well and helped out, doing the garden and waiting at table. He was also in the army, R.A.M.C. (Royal Army Medical Corps) like the general who was D.D.M.S. in Aldershot. Well we all got along pretty well and it was pleasant having a man around, after such a dull life and only girls for company. His name was ‘Charlie’ (Alfred Charles Jebbitt). He was a lot older than me but he helped me out a lot and sometimes I helped him out in the garden and of course, eventually we starting to go out together, much to the mistress’s annoyance.

Typhoid Fever

I was taken ill and was in hospital for 3 months. When I got better, I stayed at home with my mum a long time. I got letters from Germany from Charles and of course we fell in love. In about a year after he came home and we got married, I went back to Germany with him.

Typhoid Fever (II)

Then I fell ill. I was 19 years old now and I lay in that house desperately ill. Charlie was so kind and he was so worried, he asked the general to see me, which he did. He was shocked to find me so ill and weak and I was taken to the army isolation hospital, as I had Typhoid fever. I was in a little hut all by myself. The nurses visited me regular ad kept a fire going all the time. Also, some of the head doctors of the medical corps visited me. I really thought it was the end of my days. I wasn’t allowed visitors. I got letters and flowers from Charlie but I was really starving. I was not allowed any solid food, not a crumb. Well, this went on for 3 months and I was just a shadow. But I did recover and am here to tell the tale. Meanwhile my place had been taken over by another cook and I had to have a long convalescence at home and my Charlie still visited me when I got home from hospital.

Courting

I was not at all happy. The general’s wife was angry with him for courting me, she was jealous, as he used to drive her everywhere in the car. She wanted him to break it off with me and led him such a life, that he asked the general to release him and send him back to the army again. He was still near me at Aldershot and was quite happy. But not for long. They had him sent overseas to Germany (B.A.O.R. – British Army of the Rhine) still trying to break it up between us. I’ll never forget the night we said goodbye at Farnborough station.

Engagement

Anyway, I recovered enough to get another job with a captain and his wife and they had two small children and a nanny. They were kindness itself to me and very understanding. My Charlie was writing regular and my hopes were high. He wanted to get engaged, when he came home on leave and I was very happy once again. We got a lovely ring together and planned to get married next time he got leave to come home to England.

Wedding

So I had just six months from getting engaged till we married in June. I felt I was marrying no one but myself. It was planned by myself and my family. But the happy day arrived and he was actually here for me to marry and all went well. We had a lovely wedding then went to London to get arrangements made for me to return to Germany with him. My family were upset at the thought of my leaving home. But I was so happy and looked forward to my new life and being mistress of my own home at last.

Travelling to Germany

My mum and sisters were there at Waterloo station to see and my husband Charlie off on the boat train to Dover. They were all upset and cried a lot. But I could not feel upset, I was so excited and happy. Everything had gone so well for us, and we had a lovely week getting our packing down and passports ready etc. Eventually the train moved out and I could wave no more as we got out of sight. It was a lovely morning and a good calm sea. When we got to Dover, we boarded the boat. It was the first time ever for me and it began to feel strange. Was it me leaving England? Leaving everyone I knew and loved behind me and going to Germany where I only knew one person – my husband! Well it was too late now, it was my whole life behind me and the new exciting life just beginning. When we got to France, the boat train was waiting for us. We had no time to spare. There seemed to be endless shouting of porters and sailors and soldiers everywhere on the station. My Charlie got out the train to make sure my trunk was aboard the train and we had 2 new suitcases (real leather) they smelt so lovely. But were so heavy even empty. Now they were crammed full of lovely new clothes for us and so heavy I could not lift mine off the ground. Anyway, I remember as I waited there in the French train, I suddenly got a lump in my throat and I felt, oh so homesick! For my own people.
We travelled all that day and all through the night, through France and Belgium. When we got to the frontier of Germany and the Germans took over the train, I felt so nervous and frightened. I felt like hiding under the seat, when the carriage door was pushed open and a real German guard and ticket inspector came in, in their grey uniforms and high crowned hats. My Charlie reassured me and said, ‘Don’t worry, the war is over now, they are ordinary people now, doing their everyday jobs’ ‘We must get used to them and their ways and try to pick up a bit of their language’

The Journey to Langenfeld

I didn’t find the train from Aachen at all comfortable. No cushions, just hard cane seats. I was very pleased to reach Cologne, our destination at last. But we had a further thirty miles to go on a different line to a place called Langenfeld, where the military hospital was and where my Charlie was stationed. There was no train, he was told, till early morning, so we had to spend the rest of the night in a huge café place, underneath Cologne Station, the Banhof they called it. We found a couple of seats at the table and had a drink and something to eat. The place was full of chattering German travellers and the air was blue with cigar smoke. It nearly choked me and I could not get comfortable and rest anywhere. I was so tired out with the long journey, which was not over yet! Eventually it was daylight and we got out that place and found where to get our train. My Charlie, loaded with luggage, was tired out too. He said not to worry, I’d soon be in my won home, and then into bed and sleep and sleep as long as I wanted. So I put all my hopes and dreams of this wonderful picture in my mind and was very patient on the journey to Langenfeld.

Arrival at Langenfeld

On arrival there, my Charlie had arranged for us to be met with transport to take us to our married quarters and sure enough it was there with two of Charlie’s mates to help him with the luggage. When we’d been introduced, this Sergeant Bert, told us he was taking us to his home. His wife would give us breakfast and then a good sleep in their house. It turned out that the quarters that had been set aside for us had been taken away, and given to another sergeant who had arrived from England before us and had a family. Oh, I was too weary to worry about it. I was welcomed by this Mrs Bert. Everything was looking lovely in her house. I just ate breakfast and fell into bed. My Charlie came in and kissed me, and said ‘When you wake up Chris, I’ll have found a home for you’ so my mind at rest, I slept and slept. It was evening when I woke up and Charlie was there. He was so tired by now, he didn’t know how to stand up any longer. He seemed depressed. So I said ‘What’s going on, where are we going to live?’ Oh! He said. ‘There is no more vacancies in the compound, we will have to go and live outside’.

The first flat in Germany

They commandeered a flat for us in a German house (upstairs). I nearly died on the spot. To live in a house alone with a real German family. I trembled and was sick at the thought. But Charlie told me it would only be for a little while. Very soon there would be a vacant married quarter and I would be living with English wives and families. He took me to this German house. The family were all lined up to meet us. They took us into their own apartment and gave us coffee and tried to make us welcome. It was quite comical really not knowing each other’s language. But we did our best and had a good laugh at the efforts made to understand each other. We were then taken upstairs and shown our flat. But it looked like a furniture store. The army had been and delivered everything for us to make a home and left it at that. I was really astonished to find so much had been provided for us, even a mustard pot and spoon. And it was all very nice and quite new. But single beds! However we tried to make them up as a double bed, it just couldn’t be done, single sheets and blankets etc.
So we gave it up as hopeless and made do. By the time we had everything in its proper place it all looked very nice and I was quite pleased. The only drawback was, it was half an hour’s journey from the hospital and I was left to my own company all day and every day while Charlie was at work. I did my shopping by pointing to what I wanted and I cooked our meals in the only kitchen there was. We shared a cooker, the German mother and myself. She had two children and her husband to cook for. We used to make fun trying to understand the different ways of each other, but we were always treated well and stayed six months, before we got a vacant quarter.

The Married Quarters

We got a vacant quarter, it was a massive place. We had a huge garden. It was really a villa for hospital patients. The rooms were huge and our furniture looked lost. I could hold a dance in the sitting room for all the married people who were stationed there.

Life in Germany

I’ve not really told you anything about my life in Germany. It really was a delightful summer, very hot and dry. Most days I spent doing the housework and shopping and cooking. I had great fun doing my shopping. I learnt a few words in German and their figures. Really I was never stuck, except in the Drapers, where I only wanted a darning needle and they had showed me half the contents of the shop! I gave up trying but I must say, the assistants were patient and tried to help me. On most evenings, there was entertainment for everyone at the hospital. Cinema shows that were English films flown out from home. We had dances and whist drives and concert parties. There was never a dull moment really. Weekends there were trips organised to places of interest, Cologne Cathedral and boat trips down the river Rhine to Koblenz or the Drakenfell Mountains, which I liked very much. It meant getting up very early in the morning and getting a train from Langenfeld to Cologne. We had a lovely breakfast when we got on the boat and the scenery was really beautiful all the way, with lots of boats of all sorts going different places.

There was a beautiful opera house in Cologne. My Charlie loved taking me there after we first arrived in Germany. They had a different opera every month and we had programmes written in English to help us follow the story. In the interval we had time to go downstairs to a large restaurant and have a lovely meal. They rang a warning bell to give us time to return to our seats, which were the best obtainable. The shops were also very lovely in Cologne. They always made everything look so attractive. Germany was a very clean country, no rubbish in the streets, everywhere was spotless. I found life very enjoyable and made the most of these happy carefree days.

Charles is born

Soon I found out after moving there (into the married quarters). I discovered I was going to have a child. I did so look forward to this, so I’d have someone of my very own to look after. I had to go to the Military hospital in Cologne for the birth of the baby. He was so lovely when he arrived, we were glad it was a son and we called him Charles after his father. While I was away in the hospital, my big Charlie as he got called, arranged for my mum to come out to Germany and visit us so it was lovely to have her with me at this time to help and advise me with my new baby. We had a lovely time together and she stayed with us for six weeks and helped me so much.

Visit to England

When it was time for her (my mum) to go back to England. I wanted to go with her to show off my son to my sisters and brothers. So it was arranged for us to back to Camberley with mum and have a good holiday. Somehow, at the back of my mind I wasn’t happy leaving my big Charlie behind, and could not wait patiently enough for the holiday to end and return to him. Everyone seemed to treat me differently now I was married and been away for two years.

Nan and Kit visit Germany

My two sisters, Nan and Kit, wanted to come back to Germany with me, so they came, one with me and one to come after the other one returned. Neither of them were married yet, although they were courting. Nan came first and she enjoyed her stay very much. I think she stayed with us about 3 months. Then all at once she wanted to go back home quickly. I think her boyfriend was getting fed up without her and on her return they quickly made plans for their wedding. So Kit had to delay her visit to me till after Nan’s wedding, which I was sorry to miss, but having had my long leave, I could not go again, not that I really wanted to. Somehow after my return from England, it seemed a long time to me, before we got round to togetherness again. There was an awkward strain and it took time and patience to put right. Anyway, Kit duly arrived for her stay. But, bless me, the same thing happened, as in Nans case, her boyfriend wanted her to return so they could get married. So I missed both their weddings. But I’d had them both to myself out there in Germany for a nice long time. So I had to be content. I knew it would not be long before we had to return to England.

David is born

Now to get back to my own life for a while. My little Charlie was about six months old when I found out I was to be a mother again for the second time. I wasn’t very pleased. I was quite satisfied having one child and did not know how I’d cope with two to look after. At this time, they moved us out of the home we’d made and moved us into another block. It was not a bit suitable, too large rooms, or too small. No happy mediums. Fortunately they promised us a real married quarters, a bungalow. By the time my second baby was due, they kept their word and we had a real home at last. My second child was another son. We called him David. He was so lovely and got on so well, which is just as well as things turned out. More about which I’ll tell later on.

Moving to Wiezbaden

We knew that it wasn’t going to last forever. There was a lot of talk about moving the Rhine army to Wiezbaden. Lots of the wives in the married quarters did not want to make the move and applied to return to England if possible. I had some very good friends among them and it made me sad to think they were not coming with us and that we might possibly never meet again. My Charlie was one of the last to leave the hospital at Langenfeld and he had a lot of responsibility with all the unit travelling to this place at Wiezbaden. It was an all night journey. He put me into a carriage with a lot of Germans. I had two cases with me and two babies. Some Germans helped me and gave me some of their milk for them, but they needed more than milk. It was dark by now and I was wondering what on earth would happen to us when we arrived at this place in the early morning. Lo and behold, the train slowed down and we were going to stop in some station and pick up some more travellers. There was a lot of noise and shouting going on. When the train came to a halt we were nearly shook out of our seats. People started to leave the train and more were getting on. When all was like hell let loose who should come dashing into our carriage but my Charlie. What a relief it was to see him. He’d been on the train all the time at the back. It was not a corridor train and until it stopped he had no chance to run along the platform to find me. This ended our first two years in Germany and a journey I’ll never forget. From Cologne to Weizbaden on my own.

The New Flat at Weizbaden

When the unit all collected together and given transport to their new barracks, the officer in charge came up to me. (I was so tired out and weary and it had been a dreadful all night journey, nothing but the thought of a new home with a nice hot bath where we could just throw ourselves in and forget about that upset journey until we were all rested and have a proper meal). Instead, once again we were told there were no vacant quarters allotted to us and we would have to live out again. They gave us an address and hoping for the best we made our way to it. The house was occupied by a very old German woman. She was as deaf as a doorpost and could not speak one word of English. She had a long ear trumpet, a horrible thing and it did not help matters. She gave us a key to a flat, recently vacated by the free French. It was on the third floor and absolutely filthy. There was no place fit enough to lay my babies down. We found a bedroom and decided we would just clean up and use this one room. It would do to rest in until we had time to think what was best for us to do. With the 3 flights of stairs, it would not be possible to stay there. I could not go out by myself to the shops. My Charlie was very angry at the reception we had. He straight away asked to be returned to England, but he was told we must stay until a relief could be found. This took six weeks. I spent most of the time cleaning up the mess the French had left behind them, so I saw little of this ‘wonderful Wiezbaden’ and wished I’d gone home from Langenfeld like most of the other wives had. When it was all cleared up the flat was not so bad, but it was enormous and not a bit homely.

Return to England

The weeks there eventually passed and we packed up again and this time our destination was England, and to Aldershot we went. This time we had quarters waiting for us. They were old and dilapidated, but it was home for us from the minute we opened the door. Aldershot was so near to my own home at Camberley. My Charlie had almost completed his twenty one years in the R.A.M.C. by now and so we were not too fussy. We knew we would soon be out in Civvy Street (as Civilians) and the whole world opening up new to us. My eldest boy could now walk and talk. (David was only about six months by now) We liked living in Aldershot very much and such a relief to talk my own language again.

Kit and Nan

Funnily enough, my sisters married into the services as well. Nan’s husband was in the Royal Air Force and Kit’s was in the south Devonshire regiment. Soon after Kit was married there were rumours that the regiment had to go to India. It seemed a dreadful long way to take her from us all. However, it turned out they had a year’s delay, during which time Kit had a baby daughter. She was prematurely born and they never thought she would survive. Kit and Jim lived with my mum and dad. Jim’s barracks were not far away, at Deepcut so he was able to live out. Anyway, the baby, called Frances, did live and she got along splendid, having both Mother and Grandmother to look after her. But always looming in the background was the journey to India still very much on the cards. Nan had moved to R.A.F. quarters in Uxbridge to be with her Charlie. She also had a lovely little girl called Phyllis and they were very happy together.

Back in ‘Civvy Street’

We started looking out for a house to live in when we were to leave the army quarters. I wanted to go near my parents, having been away from them so long. We could not find anywhere vacant. Only an old furnished house in the next road to my mums. It just had to do temporarily. Then I had the job of looking for work which was very hard to come by. We only had the army pension to live on by now and dole money, which was very little in those days. The months passed and nothing came along. His brothers in London, Tom and Jack, were on the look out for something suitable for him. So in the end he decided to go to London and stay at his mothers, so he was handy if a job cropped up. Charlie came home to us at weekends and how we hated it when he had to leave again and go back. Eventually his eldest brother Tom, got him a job as his firm, where he was a printer. The job was in London near Euston station. The princely sum of £3 a week was the wages offered for a doorman. He had to wear a uniform, tails and brass buttons, white top hat and white gloves. It was at the British Medical Association, Tavistock Square. Well there was nothing in Camberley or Aldershot going for that sort of money. So he took the job and stayed up in London looking for somewhere for us to live. He was turned away from most flats. No one wanted to know when he said he had two children. The only way we were ever to get together again was to buy a house. After being out of work and on the dole, fares to pay, back and forth to Camberley, what had we to buy a house with? With 25 shillings a week army pension. My Charlie was told that he could commute half his pension and have it in a lump sum to put down on a property if we could find one.

Uncle Jack helps out

His brother Jack lived in Clapham Junction. On his way by car to Chelsea, where he worked as a chauffeur, he passed this corner house with a sign saying ‘vacant for sale’. He got in touch with Charlie, who contacted me to meet at this house and see if we liked it. My mum looked after the boys for me, while I was away. I was so fed up living apart, I agreed to the deal, but when I got back to Camberley, I wrote by return of post to try and stop the sale. But too late, Charlie’s brother Jack had been to the agents and paid the deposit, so we owed it to him.

The House in London

It was not at all the house of my dreams, especially when I was told I could only have the lower part. The flat above must be rented out to help pay the mortgage and rates. The bathroom was upstairs so what were we supposed to use? We would boil water in a ‘copper’ in the scullery and use a long tin bath. We had to make the best of things and at least we had a place of our own. Antiquated as it was. But we had endless bad luck ahead. My eldest boy developed a bad cold and he had a cough that never got better. He was always ill and needed great care and attention, night and day. I was always tired. The roof was always leaking and the kitchen range would not work, the oven would not get hot. So we had the stove taken away and an open fire put in instead. It made the kitchen nicer. We also had the old copper taken out and a gas cooker put in. For all this expense I sold out my insurance policies. When all this work and worry was over, fresh troubles began. The ceilings began to crash down, first in one room, then another. The noise was deafening and I was frightened out of my wits to go and see what had happened. Everywhere was covered in lumps of plaster and inches of dust. The furniture was scratched and ornaments broken. What a life we had. The people upstairs who had the upstairs flat were not very nice. They had two children, plenty of money, and were so wasteful, it made my blood boil. We had to count every penny, repairs and doctors bills, left little money for the necessities and it was an hour’s journey for Charlie to get to work and back. I used to get up at 6.30 am to cut his sandwiches and see him off to work. He had to be there by 8 am. Life went on like this, day in day out, until the boys were old enough to go to school, which was just around the corner. Then we got to know a few people who also had young children and who also had a hard time trying to solve their problems.
Things never improved, we never got a rise in wages. Fortunately things were cheap at this time and somehow we just managed to get along.

The Boys

By now my two boys were at school. Charles, the eldest, was still very chesty. My doctor advised me to take him to hospital for an operation in his tonsils. He said ‘take a chance, it may be the making of him’. In the following months we found out it was. He went to Broadstairs for convalescence and stayed six weeks. He was so brown (tanned) and well when he returned, I couldn’t be thankful enough. He could now go out to play with his brother David. Really there was a wonderful improvement. I was so pleased and delighted and I could really get some sleep at last. David also had a nasty accident and nearly lost an eye. He was in the eye hospital for one week. They did a remarkable repair job on him and in a few weeks the scar was hardly noticeable. He was such a good little boy, always happy and contented. He had to be, because all my time was taken up looking after Charles. I hardly ever got away to see my own folks. Occasionally my mum, or a sister would call in and see us, but we had no money to pay for train fares in those days. It took all we had to pay the mortgage off and it never seemed to get less.

Brenda is Born

When Charlie was about seven years old and David six, I was surprised out of my life to find out another baby was on the way. Well after I got used to the idea and I did hope very much I would have a baby girl. I had a new interest to prepare the clothes and to save what I could towards a cot and a pram. When at last I was rewarded with a beautiful little girl. We called her Brenda Margaret, and as our name is Jebbitt, it turned out to be B.M.J. (British Medical Journal) so I was invited to the place and received by the secretary who gave Brenda a £5 note and a lovely knitted outfit. My Charlie was as proud of his baby daughter, and she really was a picture. I counted my blessings and was overjoyed. I felt years younger and was overflowing with happiness at last. Life was sweet again. My friend down the bottom of the road also had a baby girl and we went out nearly every day together. It seemed too good to be true. After all the squalid years, Brenda was a lovely little girl, always well and happy and the boys loved her so much. My husband dug up the garden at the back of the house and laid down concrete so it would be cleaner and nicer for the children to play outside.

Molly is Born

When Brenda was three years old, she had a baby sister come along. Another big Surprise! But it levelled things out properly, two boys and two girls. We called our baby Molly Elizabeth this time. She was a lovely cuddly little girl and was healthy and strong. So now I really had my hands full. It was often midnight before I’d done everything and was ready for bed. My Charlie always cleaned the boys’ boots ready for school next day. Often he had to repair them first and he did his own and mine as well. We could not afford to pay to send them to the shop. So life went on and on till my Molly was five years old and Brenda was eight, the boys thirteen and fourteen by now.

Brenda and Molly

We named our baby Brenda Margaret, she was so lovely like a beautiful china doll. I was so proud of her and her two brothers loved her so much. She was very fair with lovely curly hair and to me she seemed the joy of my life, always happy and contented. She would always pretend she had a friend after she caught sight of herself in the mirror. Well in time she had a real friend, three years later my second baby girl was born, and we called her Molly Elizabeth. So now we had two boys and two girls and I was very pleased things had evened up, and it wasn’t going to be all boys talk in the home. There was an awful lot to do. Shopping, cooking. Washing and Ironing and bathing the children

Bedtime

My big Charlie always gave me a helping hand on bath night. He would dry the children, one by one and put on their night-clothes. Then he would always trim their nails. We would try and get them settled down in bed by nine o’clock so we could have an hour to ourselves, listening to the wireless.

World War II

The news on the wireless (the Radio) was getting very disturbing and it seemed as if a Second World War was likely to break out sooner or later. They began to build air raid shelters in the streets and on Clapham Common they built underground shelters. There were calls for volunteer workers for people, men and women, who were too old or too young to join the forces. My Charlie was not on the reserve. He had completed his twenty-one years’ service and had been twice taken prisoner of war during 1914-1918. All the big buildings and works arranged to have their staff on call for preparation fire watching. Charlie had to stay late at work at the British Medical Association where he worked, one or two nights a week. It was not wasted, as before very long London was well and truly in the front line. Everyone had to do their bit. They called up men and women to join the A.R.P. and very brave people they had to be. The raids came day and night and they had to help people to the air raid shelters, put up in the streets and on the commons. One night they came by very close to our house. We were all in the shelter and every minute we thought would be our last. When that winter came, it was too damp and cold to sleep out, so my husband and I decided I should take the girls to the country to my mother’s, till we could live in peace once more. My mum was already full up. Everyone who could was leaving London and the other big cities. Fortunately a house became vacant next door to my mums and I was very lucky to be able to move in there. My Charlie came down at weekends when he wasn’t on fire duty at his work. Eventually we were able to get some furniture down to us and we settled down pretty well. There were occasionally raid warnings at Camberley, but never on a large scale like London. We lived pretty well on the whole in Camberley. I was near my two boys at Aldershot, who were both training in the Medical Corps. Little did we dream the war would still be on when their turn would come to go overseas and fight. My David got attached to the Red Berets who got airborne to Arnhem in Holland. There was a big battle and David was taken prisoner of war and sent to a German prison camp.My Charlie (eldest son) went over on D-Day to France and he went forward into Germany as the troops advanced. He seldom got leave, but he kept in touch by letter.

Laurie is Born

I was very surprised myself, but I discovered I was going to have another child myself. I was 43 then (1942) and it was very difficult to get the necessary clothes and things for the new baby. Anyway, when he was born we were overjoyed, Laurence Alfred we called him. He was the loveliest baby, we were all proud of him, especially Molly and Brenda. We got a pram for him. It was made to look nice, but made of wood and it was constantly falling apart. But no one minded these things in wartime. To me it had its compensations. I was back where I belonged and loved being near to my dear Mum and dad and my sisters were all around.

My Brothers

My eldest brother Dick worked at Handley Page now. A very big aircraft concern. He was now a designer and had his own office. He was married by now and had a wife and two daughters and a son. My other brother, Frank, was called up and serving abroad in Kenya. So we didn’t see him until the war ended.

The Second World War Draws to A Close

My girls went to school in Camberley. It was only part time as there wasn’t any teachers. It helped them keep up with their studies. My Husband got a rail pass and was able to come and live with us. He had to go to London daily, but at least some nights he got a good sleep. It was very tiring for him and began to play on his health. But he kept in good spirits. We worried a lot about David, as no mail came from him at all. Well at long last, it all came to an end. In 1945, five long weary years of Blackouts, Bombing, and food shortages, had taken its toll on a lot of people. Thousands had died, for what? There seemed no sense in having had this war. Every country suffered and at the end nobody won. But there was peace when the air raids sirens stopped. People could once more go to bed undisturbed.It takes years to cause all the havoc and many more to try and restore life back to normal.

After the war

After the war was over, we moved back to London, because my Charlie was feeling the strain of the long journey backwards and forwards to London and his health was not good. We found another house, not far from the old one, but the council had put bombed out tenants in ours. We had another battle with the council to get the 2nd house. No sooner had we paid the deposit on it, the