大象传媒

The following is an excerpt from an interview with Joan Holloway
recorded by Rob Illingworth of the Folkestone Heritage Team on
27/08/03. It is added to the site with her permission. The interviewee fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

Joan Holloway served in the Folkestone Report And Control centre underneath the Town Hall (now Waterstones) where the response to air raids, bombings, shellings and other incidents was co-ordinated. In 1942 she joined the army and eventually became a cartographer working on the photographs taken by allied planes to create maps for the advancing troops. She remembers the mapping of Arnhem as a particularly demanding task. During this latter phase of her career she encountered Eisenhower with whom she was less than impressed!

I went into the control room just after Dunkirk鈥� The troop trains came more or less straight through they did go slowly through Central station, they didn鈥檛 stop at the Junction and they didn鈥檛 stop at Shorncliffe. They slowed down at Central station long enough for people to hand sandwiches and things through to them. Because the WVS did that and they were also down on the harbour. I did a stint on the harbour for a while. I didn鈥檛 enjoy it very much but I did it. The worst thing was鈥� you could hear the guns coming up through France and you could see them because it鈥檚 so flat, the country behind the coast there. Dunkirk, I think, really did tell us that there was something really nasty happening鈥�

鈥he population went down from 30,000 to 10,000 virtually over a weekend. At the West end of Folkestone they skipped out very quickly, they even left their animals鈥� I went round with the Police on one or two occasions where constables had reported animals in distress and we found birds, goldfish, cats, dogs鈥�

The control room was under the old town hall. Is it still there? There鈥檚 a little alleyway between the town hall and what used to be the old gas company showrooms which is the corner of Rendezvous st. If you go down there, there鈥檚 a doorway and that was the entrance to the police station. And then you go in there. There鈥檚 the charge room鈥hen the other side, (actually it was part of the cells that had been shored up, concreted and lord knows what,) which was the control room a big control room with a telephone room just off it鈥The personnel included] Rescue, First Aid, Fire, Police, the Controller (who was either the Chief Constable or [Mr] Butcher who was鈥� a chief inspector,) a Civilian Controller, a Plotter a couple of Runners and then in the telephone section there was 6 of us鈥� We would sit at our telephones and either knit, sew, read, listen to the radio. As soon as your telephone rang, you鈥檇 answer it and you鈥檇 have a pad and all your questions were on it which you to fill in. It was in triplicate! Why in triplicate, I never will know. And you had a Runner, stood or sat in the middle of the room and he or she would pick it up, and take it into the control room where it would be dealt with鈥�
鈥n the Control room proper we had a map of the district. Our district finished at Seabrook at the old courthouse, (where the Little Chef is.)鈥� [The map] showed every house, every garden shed. It was an ordnance map which filled that [points to 10鈥� X 10鈥� wall] Because, to get to the top of it, Johnny Johnson had to stand on steps. As things happened you put pins in. You had your pins for your Rescue people and your First Aid people (though we were all trained in First Aid as well [along with] most of the Rescue people.) And the representatives of those, once the thing was sorted, they took over and handled all their side of things.

Our Controller was an ex-Indian Army character, Captain Keary, who was an absolute Poppit and our second in command was Walter Bateman, the baritone, great fun. A happy bunch. [ Joan鈥檚 colleagues also included other members of the Folkestone Operatic Society and a former Miss Folkestone.]
Between times it was a bit boring. They used to play cards, do jigsaw puzzles and do all sorts of things.

If you were living inland you had a sort of warning when something was going to blow up. Well here [on the East Kent coast] you got a cloud like that and some nice little friendly pilot would say, 鈥淥h that鈥檚 nice,鈥� swoop over, drop a few bombs and swoop back again and we didn鈥檛 have time to sound a siren. So we had to work on our own initiative which didn鈥檛 please Maidstone one little bit鈥� Everything was controlled from Maidstone which is a heck of a long way away鈥� When it was drilled home, eventually they realised that we鈥檇 got to sound a siren.

When it came to shelling it was a different kettle of fish because you didn鈥檛 see the darn thing coming. We [did] have the Royal Observer Corps. Mind you, we had one observer corps member who was an absolute hoot, love his heart, he really was dead keen. I was on the telephone one dusk and got this very excited voice on the end. He was supposed to give his name and give his report instead of which there was this excited voice:
鈥淭hey鈥檙e coming and there鈥檚 droves of them!鈥� So I sort of tried to keep calm. There was a bit of giggling. And said:
鈥淒roves of what?鈥�
鈥淲ell, them!鈥�
Them were a flight of ducks. Because, on the next phone, we had the other Observer Corps man from the East Cliff鈥� who was listening in on his line to put us right. But, actually, [the Duck observer] was quite good, he was on the ball, but he used to get a bit overexcited鈥� The time when they dropped the parachute mines [landing on] Beach St鈥� he rang through and said there was something coming down, he didn鈥檛 know what, but it was hanging from something- How would you make that out? It was a parachute mine, but he hadn鈥檛 seen one before, love his heart. But we were able to do something about it, to the extent we got things ready and by George didn鈥檛 we need them. Everybody that was in Control heard what was going on and when we knew what the exact thing was, then they could deploy their troops. There were Rescue sections in various places in the town. I had two uncles up in the one in St Saviour鈥檚 church 鈥he town was divided into sections and it was efficient. It jolly well had to be鈥� The Controller and one or two of us went down [to the Beach St site] the next morning to sort of have a look around and it was horrific. That was old Folkestone and a lot of those houses were built cheek by jowl. You鈥檝e got East st, North st, Beach st, South st. South st was was on the other side of the road behind the London and Paris [hotel] and that went under the Bayle. It went from High st to the Pavilion hotel. And there were little shops along there. A lovely little fish shop. We always used to go there for shellfish. It was a Norwegian family and they were wiped out鈥� They were old buildings鈥� You go into the bottom part of the town and you go into a yard [say] Valentine鈥檚 yard鈥� and there鈥檇 be about a dozen or so houses round it. They didn鈥檛 stand a chance鈥�

鈥ut on the whole we were efficient, simply because we鈥檇 been well drilled. And it stood us in good stead because there was so little time between there [France] and here [Folkestone.]

We worked a shift, 8 till 8, but that was actually the whole Relief. That Relief was broken down into 2 shifts so you were on call for half of it. So you virtually worked for 12 hours but you were on call for part of it. But if you were out and you went into a cinema or you went to a dance or something like that, on the side of the cinema screen were a series of lights鈥� They didn鈥檛 interrupt the programme unless it was really bad鈥� It would have been disastrous to send all those people out into the street, would have been absolutely stupid鈥�

鈥ou felt you were really doing something鈥� I had friends in the town who were working. I had one friend whose boss managed to get her deferred every time her call up papers came. And all she did was work all day in the shop and go out dancing or what have you every night. I think she did a bit of firewatching if and when but, to me, she wasn鈥檛 helping anybody. And there was a little group of them, that was what they did.

Our job didn鈥檛 always finish [at Report And Control.] They had a spate, at one time, of handbag thefts at the Leas Cliff Hall. It was a little difficult because they had no policewoman. So one of the constables and I were detailed to go to some of the dances at the Leas Cliff Hall and see if we could get a line on it. Naturally, all the detectives were known in the town鈥� So just a constable and his girlfriend at a dance, would it matter? We did eventually find out what it was, who was doing it鈥�

鈥ne lovely sunny morning Captain Keary the controller and I decided we鈥檇 go for a walk on the Leas. We were on call and we knew we wouldn鈥檛 go far. We鈥檇 just go up to the bandstand or the Leas Cliff Hall and back. Just as we passed the Old Bristol Hotel鈥� [we heard] a very nice rumba played by Xavier Cugat. And Captain Keary looked at me and said 鈥淢ay I have the pleasure?鈥�
Well, being a soldier of the old school, they all had to learn to dance. So there on the Leas were two people, not a sole in sight, dancing a rumba. And we danced the rumba and we suddenly looked and there was a whole line of troops. I got into terrible trouble because they happened to be members of the battalion that my boyfriend was in. But we enjoyed our rumba鈥� Dancing on the Leas, tut, tut! It got back to him that his young lady was dancing on the Leas with an old man. He was old enough to be my father but a very good dancer!

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