大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War site by Graham on behalf of Barbara Hornbrook and has been added to the site with her permission. Barbara fully understands the site鈥檚 terms and conditions.

It was a very long journey from Jerusalem to Port Suez where the ship would be leaving from, and it was most memorable. We travelled by train with everything we possessed packed in boxes and suitcases made for us in Jerusalem. One of the boxes we had in the compartment and used as a table. Every so often the train, which didn鈥檛 move very fast, had to stop while soldiers walked ahead to look for mines and blow them up if they found any. Alongside the track Bedouin Arabs had set up their black tents, while other Arabs were selling all sorts of things. Once when the train stopped for a mine my mum got off the train and bought some delicious chapattis dripping with honey or syrup. We had a small meths burner that my mum boiled a small kettle on to make hot drinks. Although it was very hot in the train in the day it got very cold after sunset. We made a stop at a station called El Cantara where the army had prepared a hot meal of sausage and mash and a drink of cocoa for us on tables set out on the platform. It was very dark and there were rats running around our feet picking up scraps, so we were glad we didn鈥檛 have to sleep like the Arabs did in tents. The train was stationary for a few hours so that most people could get some sleep but in any case it would have been rather difficult to look for mines after dark .As soon as it got light the train started to move off .My sister and I often talk about the sunrise we saw that morning .It was like a big golden ball sitting on the horizon, and walking across the desert was a camel train close by us. The line was still being checked for mines, so by the time we reached Port Suez it was dark again. There were lots of soldiers to meet us and take our boxes etc. off the train, and my father was also there to meet us. I think he may have been in charge because he didn鈥檛 do much lifting of boxes. I can鈥檛 remember if we had a meal that night but there was nowhere for us to sleep except the backs of army trucks. Some of us children managed to get comfortable on huge coils of rope, and I remember how cold it was because the wind kept blowing the flap open at the back of the truck. There was a lot of noise coming from somewhere like a party. I think it was a farewell party for the grownups, after all they had nowhere to sleep. Next morning I think we had breakfast in a big shed on the dockside. It worried me how close we were to the edge of the dock without knowing it the night before.

We could see our ship anchored out at sea and we waited for what seemed like hours for our transport to arrive, and when it did it was in the shape of a coal barge. To get on to it we had to walk along a kind of plank and then down a ladder, and it wasn鈥檛 long before we were all covered in coal dust. It must have been about 6 or 8 feet deep, and about 20 foot square. There seemed to be hundreds of people in there, and it was so noisy I couldn鈥檛 hear what my father was saying properly as he crouched down to talk to us .I did hear him say that he had arranged for someone to take him out to the ship the next day before we set sail. He said to me that I must take care of my mum and my sister while we were so far away from him .I can remember how hot it was in there and there was no cover to keep out the sun, or even the rain. At last the barge started to move and my father disappeared from sight .It seemed to take a long time to reach the ship but the first thing I saw was a flimsy step ladder going up the side of the ship. To get out of the barge we had to climb back up a ladder and step from the rocking barge on to a swaying platform at the bottom of the steps, with only a rope for a banister. I was really worried that my mum and little sister would fall in the water. My fathers visit to the ship the next day didn鈥檛 happen because early that morning a plane flew over the convoy dropping bombs and narrowly missed some of the ships. The convoy was ordered to sail immediately, and by the time we were having breakfast we were well out to sea.

The convoy consisted of a troop ship, a hospital ship ours and three others, two of which left the convoy later on. The ship we were on was the Athlone Castle and this would be the last time she sailed as a passenger ship. She was on the way to pick up wounded soldiers and airmen who had been sent to the military hospital near Durban, where we were headed, and take them back to England, and then to be refitted as a troopship until the war finished. Our table was next to the captains. He was a very kind man to us during the journey. He often walked around the dining room after the evening meal to have a few words with the mothers and children. He organised lots of entertainment for the children such as a fancy dress party, swimming competitions, deck games and competitions, and film and stage shows. We even had a Crossing the LINE ceremony, with what seemed like a real Neptune in full dress dunking us in a paddling pool, and then presenting us with a certificate to prove we had crossed the equator. There was a proper little shopping arcade on board and my mum, being a bit of a needlewoman, had plenty of work cut out making outfits for some of the other children as well as us .All the extras such as walking sticks, wands and clogs were made by the very obliging ships carpenter. We children were having the time of our lives, which helped us forget we had left our fathers in the war zone. I think the voyage took about four weeks .I seem to remember we had to transfer someone onto the hospital ship while we were still moving. Fortunately it was quite calm at the time. There were lots of sharks following the hospital ship for most of the journey, but we also saw porpoises and flying fish jumping out of the water .My sister had a birthday on the ship and we both had sailor dolls bought for us which we both still have. All over the ship there were posters advertising holidays saying 鈥渃ome to sunny South Africa鈥�, but I think we must have arrived in the rainy season.

At last we sighted land and kept it in sight for hours, or so it seemed, before we got close to actually see buildings and we could also see how green the land was, especially after living in the desert for nearly three years. Durban was quite a large city and appeared to be full of skyscrapers, but they weren鈥檛 that high when we got close, just very white, compared to what we were used to. I think the hospital ship and the troop ship disembarked first, and we had to wait till our boxes and trunks were taken off, but I think it was some time before we finally got off the ship. I don鈥檛 remember how we travelled to our destination but I think it must have been by road, arriving at a hotel called Highclear, in a village called Doonside, about 20 miles down the coast from Durban. This was to be our home for at least a few months. The first meal we had was the evening meal and we got into the habit of dressing for it each night. There was a children鈥檚 dining room but my mum insisted on having us at her table. This didn鈥檛 go down too well with some of the other women but my mum was married to an officer in the army serving in the Middle East, so the land lady told them as she introduced us that evening. It was a very eventful stay. The first thing that happened was my sister contracted scarlet fever and had to go to the isolation hospital at Congella for about three weeks.

My mum went with her to the hospital while I was herded to a room at the back of the hotel and locked in while our room was fumigated. I think they forgot me because there was only a tiny window and no light in there, and I had no food until my mum came back and found me crying on my own. We had to sleep in this room for about two days, and have our meals brought to us by one of the natives. And then my sister got diphtheria and had to stay in for a few more weeks. I think it worked out to a couple of months in the end. After she came out my mum was told by the hospital that she must be kept quiet as the two diseases had put a strain on her heart. While my sister was in hospital I managed to get dysentery, and a mild form of malaria, or so the doctor said. I think some of the other children in the hotel also had the dysentery. After a while my mum decided she had had enough of hotel meals and got permission to move to a house, but the rule was we had to share with another family for security. We moved into Cremone Cottage with a lady and her adopted son. I didn鈥檛 really like her very much; she didn鈥檛 smile much and always seemed angry with her little boy. He was never allowed to play with us and he was only a year or so younger than my sister. It was very creepy living in the cottage. It was considered to be one of the richest in the village because it had four huge water tanks on the premises, and they were always kept locked, as water was very precious. It was piped into the house from the tanks so there was no need to undo the padlocks. One night, while my mum was sitting talking with the other lady in her rooms we heard a noise outside the window, and thinking it was a wild animal we peeped through the curtain only to see a black face looking back at us. Naturally we screamed and my mum came running but of course she didn鈥檛 go outside. Next day we saw that the padlock had been broken off the tap and water had been spilled everywhere, obviously by the thief. We knew it was the natives who lived somewhere in the trees at the back of our house. Anyway my mum felt sorry for them having to steal water so she didn鈥檛 report it and left it unlocked. There was an old native who tidied the garden now and then, and he always lit a bonfire to burn the rubbish. One day while we were talking to some friends over the fence my sister lost her balance and fell backwards into the remains of a fire and burned her hands very badly. She had to go to the hospital in Durban for treatment 20 miles away about once a week until they were healed. It was while we lived at the cottage my uncle was able to visit us from the military hospital before he was sent back to England. He had been taken ill while fighting in North Africa. He was my mother鈥檚 older brother; her younger brother was also in the army but still in England. I believe he had been serving in Ireland for a while with his unit.

We stayed in South Africa until 1944 and while we were there Pearl Harbour was bombed and the Japanese invaded Singapore. The people who managed to get away joined us as evacuees. There was a real fear that the Japanese would try to invade South Africa so once again we had to learn what to do in the event of an attack. There was no air raid siren along the coast and the only warning we would get would be on the radio in the day or a power cut at night. We had a few night practices but it was all a bit chaotic and we didn鈥檛 know half the time whether it was real or not. At school we were asked to take an air tight tin containing dried fruit, biscuits and chocolate, and the tins were kept in a metal cupboard to be used only if for any reason the school was cut off or bombed. There was no shelter, except under our desks, and we had to keep away from the windows. We had lots of fire practices on how and when to evacuate the class room etc. The mums listened to the 大象传媒 a lot, and we heard about the bombing of Birmingham and Coventry and Plymouth. We also heard about the London Blitz and the bombing of Buckingham Palace. When we heard Churchill鈥檚 speech about 鈥渇ighting on the beaches and in the streets鈥� we thought England was done for. It wasn鈥檛 long before my mum and the other lady decided they would feel safer in a hotel with several other people. It was the only house on that stretch of the road, and the only neighbours were two shops, which closed early afternoon. There was no street lighting in the village at all and unless you had a car or a crowd of people to go with there was no social life. They found a self-catering hotel called Beachdene, which suited us all perfectly. They had a communal kitchen and dining room, and a lounge to share. There was a game room where you could play table tennis and darts among other things, and it was right next to the beach.
My sister and I were very happy in this new place. I had my 11th and 12th birthdays while we were here, but it was a sad time for my mum. In 1942 we were expecting my father to visit us because a lot of the men in his regiment were getting leave to visit their families, but he had been commissioned and was attached to the intelligence corps under the command of Field Marshall Montgomery, and all leave was cancelled. And all men on leave had to return to North Africa. There was a lot of bad news from England at the same time. My mother鈥檚 sister wrote to say that their younger brother had died in a military hospital in England after an operation for stomach ulcers. About the same time we heard about the bombing of Birmingham, and not long after we had another letter from my aunt telling us that my Gran's house had been bombed. It had been damaged one night when an incendiary bomb had fallen in the street .She was still in the house at the time, and as she left by the back door she fell over the body of the local policeman, who had been blown over the top of the house into the back yard. The next night the house took a direct hit while she was in the shelter. It was the first time she had gone down the shelter. This was all such a shock to her and she decided to go and stay with her sister 鈥攊n 鈥攍aw on the other side of Birmingham. The transport was badly disrupted so she walked. By the time she got there she was thoroughly exhausted, and died a few days later as a result of her angina.

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