大象传媒

In 1938 I was appointed as Secretary to the Horncastle District War Agricultural Committee, first on a temporary basis and then permanently - Mr A.E. Durham was the Chairman - Messrs Bernard Porter, E. Scholey, E. Harrison, Bell, Gaunt, Needham and Motley were some of the early members, later joined by some others. We had to put agriculture on a wartime footing as England could have been starved of food since so many ships were sunk crossing the Atlantic.
I remember the drama of Dunkirk: we listened to every news bulletin and heard of the small ships going to the rescue of the stranded Army. It was a terrible period. My father was issued with his Home Guard battledress. On June 10th Italy declared war on Britain and France and on June 19th bombs were dropped at Swaby, Edlington, Horsington and Wispington.
On June 21st the Army arrived and seemed everywhere around Horncastle; masses of people had army personnel billeted on them. Mr. Dowse rang up from Halstead and said that about 50 had arrived and on the 22nd we heard that we all had to have our photos taken for identity purposes. On June 23rd the French-German Armistice was signed. On June 26th two army vans stopped at the Lodge and a Major Dolman called and said that we would have to billet 300 men and perhaps eight officers including a Medical Officer and a Padre. Next day when I returned from the office a Lieut. Bryden called and then a Major arrived with plans that the men would be under canvas in the woods round Holbeck, the officers to take over part of the house and cottages. I returned for lunch on the 28th to find the Dining Room full of officers of the 1st Battalion- the Loyal Regiment, a Lancastrian. I was introduced to Lt. Col. John G. Sandie, Major Guy Gibson, Capt, R.S. Doll, Lieut. W. Anderson, 2nd Lieut. Makay and Rev. H.T. Towey. They were all very friendly and were to be in the main part of Holbeck which had a chapel, medical room, laundry and the dairies.
Mother sat at the kitchen table and gave out blankets etc. since they were unable to bring much with them from Dunkirk. They signed for everything and it was all returned. I looked out for books for the men who eventually wrote home to their wives. When they were telling us stories some of them wept when they had to burn their vehicles. The regiment stayed with us until October 21st when they moved into their winter quarters.
During that time I had a very lively life. I would go into one or two of the officers' mess for drinks and went out, often into Horncastle where entertainments including dances at the Drill Hall had been organised for the troops. At that time the Gordons had been billeted in Horncastle, followed by the Duke of Wellingtons and then the Warwicks.
Some events do stick in my mind - once I went on a 'carrier' which was a small tank, on an exercise wearing an army greatcoat and beret. A general was staying at Holbeck to review the troops on an exercise which saw the carrier rearing up and over hedges! I remember well the threat of invasion- the Army told us what we should do and how we should behave under German occupation- one of the things we did was to hide our valuables under the floorboards.
One event that I shall never forget- We were all expecting the invasion but on the evening that the password came through the colonel, John Sandie, had taken me out to dinner at the Petwood- I had driven him there in my old car. During dinner he received a phone call and when he came back saying " We must return at once, the balloon has gone up !' I drove rapidly back- there had been a fatal accident at Greetham crossroads involving a man on a motorbike and an army vehicle. We continued down to Holbeck and that evening before we went to bed we said goodbye and good luck to all the officers. Mother made some sandwiches for Father as he had to march to the coast if necessary! It was a very emotional evening.
The next morning when it was declared a false alarm we all felt rather foolish but the rumour was that the bodies of some German soldiers had been washed ashore and certainly the Germans were amassing landing craft at the ports. For three months we lived in an Army camp and so I had a very good social life! My 'adopted' brother Roy Morant came down under his Spitfire near Scunthorpe and was in hospital with a broken back; the Army supplied us with petrol so that we could visit him and I'm pleased to say that he did survive the war.
London was constantly being bombed. My mother had to go by ambulance to University College hospital and I remember going to visit her, staying with a cousin at Kingston-on-Thames. To get there I took a bus from London and as it began to get dark the air raid siren wailed - everyone had to get out of the bus but I did not know how to get to the house in Coombe Lane. Then a male voice said that he could take me across the common even though we only had a little torch. Anyhow he delivered me and in the light I was surprised to see that he looked like a 16 year old! Next day I returned to London and walked through streets of rubble where houses where all flattened and dust everywhere- it got in your eyes and ears and made the air like a thick fog, however I did manage to reach U.C.H. which was still standing, to see my mother and then return home by train , later to discover that my underclothes were thick with grey dust!
But in spite of the horrors we laughed a lot and made the best of things. I remember some comic incidents in the war with my work.One time we had to allocate farm machinery which came over on the Lease Lend arrangement and also Fordson tractors from Dagenham. Mr. Dunham and I dealt with applications and our decisions were confirmed at committee meetings. One farmer at Wragby kept applying but did not qualify and later came into my office to complain - then he said " Actually, I can get as many tractors as I like - I put a dead pig in the car, take my tractor driver down to the factory and then he drives one all the way back!'
Another job was to ask farmers to put an obstacle in any field over 20 acres to stop enemy aircraft from landing.When I went to inspect that this had been carried out I found that on some occasions the obstacle was an old farm cart or a piece of rusty machinery not as high as the wheels of an aeroplane! We dispossessed 400 really bad farmers - one man on a small farm at Little London, Tetford could not cope and attacked his neighbour, ending up in Lincoln jail. We took over the farm and when he came out of prison he camped outside my office leaving me with no other option but to ask the police to remove him.It was the third farm his father had bought him to keep him out of the army! We dealt with all cases of retention of farm workers where there was a query.
I got married in November 1942. My husband was a captain in the Warwicks. and I had my daughter in Grimsby during the Invasion of France. After the Loyals left my parents joined the Lady Ryder's scheme for giving hospitality to Dominion boys, mainly from the airforce, coming from Australia, New Zealand and Canada- it was like running a hotel. They were lovely boys and one year we had over 80 visits- they loved the farm, riding, cutting down trees etc.- many kept in touch with us after the war. Sadly, some of these lads were killed and when we counted the bombers going out and returning we felt that the war was very near to us.
Mother and I were being taken to the cinema in Boston in an old car powered by aviation fuel and driven by an airgunner called "Proc" when his clutch lever came away and we had to coast along the "straight" until he could get it back!

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