大象传媒

Gwen Jones celebrated her eighth birthday on the ship taking her parents and elder sister Phyllis to Salisbury [now Harare], Southern Rhodesia, in June 1938. They were emigrating from their home at 47 Thicketford Road, Tong Moor, Bolton, where her mother, Eva Jones, had a furniture shop, because her father was to start a three year contract as an electrical engineer. Due to the war, however, they stayed for ten years. In 1948, Eva, Phyllis and Gwen returned to Bolton, living at 72 Chorley Old Road.
We knew there was a war on, but we never had any shortages or rations in Salisbury. There were English exports in the shops but the cars and buildings were American. The teacher at my new school mocked my Bolton accent, so I decided to get rid of it as quickly as possible. I went to elocution lessons and was teaching the other children myself by the age of nine.

We always referred to England as 鈥渉ome鈥� and we were very patriotic. I remember Field Marshall Montgomery coming to the Drill Hall near us which housed soldiers from the South African Corps. The whole community went to hear him. The parade ground covered an acre and we heard him address the troops and imbue them with enthusiasm for El Alamein. He was absolutely riveting and I was so impressed that I changed my cat鈥檚 name from Stripey to Monty, in his honour.
We lived at 29 Fife Avenue 鈥� all the streets there were named after famous explorers 鈥� just near Cecil Square, where the Parliament was. There were only 29 people in the Parliament and Mother used to take me to political meetings, even though I was only ten, so I got to know them all. At one of the meetings, in 1940, Sir Godfrey Huggins, the Prime Minister, sat me on his knee.
The cinema was our main form of recreation, and I was a regular filmgoer. I recall one particular occasion, when I was 14. Noel Coward was doing a cinema tour of South Africa and he came over to Southern Rhodesia to the Palace Theatre cinema. It was all very grand and I wore a long dress for the first time. I remember him singing Mad Dogs and Englishmen Go Out in the Midday Sun which seemed very fitting at the time.

漏 Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.