大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War site by Jan Broderick of the County Heritage Team on behalf of Muriel Gardner and has been added to the site with her permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

Both husband and I were in the Ministry of Labour. And in December 1943 transferred to London. He was in HQ (which he hated) and I was in the Ministry in Edgeware Road. It was a most interesting assignment. I was at the Hyde Park end of Edgeware Road. At that end there is the homes of all the rich in Bayswater and Park Lane and so on. The Posh end with the celebrates. A quarter of a mile to the right you have the sleazy Demi-monde end of Paddington. So you have on your doorstep both extremes of society.

During the war everyone was expected to register for employment. You were on the register then for either war work or transferred into the services. So we were dealing with both ends of society. From the very first week I was down there I was introduced to the wicked ways of the city. And me so innocent from the North.

I had a grimy soul who came before me and I had to take her record of employment. So I asked 鈥淲here were you last employed?鈥� She responded 鈥淭hree and One.鈥� So I wrote down 鈥楾hree and One鈥�, thinking it was some sort of dry-cleaners or something. So I said 鈥渁nd what鈥檚 their address?鈥� She looked at me like she鈥檇 never had such a low IQ to deal with before. She said 鈥淭hree and One鈥�. So I said 鈥淵es, and what is their address?鈥� She said 鈥淭hree and One! Three months and one off for good conduct!鈥� 鈥淎h, prison鈥� I replied 鈥淲hich prison were you in?鈥� She looked with some scorn and said 鈥淲hat do you mean 鈥榳hat prison?鈥� There鈥檚 only one for laydies and that鈥檚 鈥極lloway!鈥�

I got quite fond of her in the end. She would always get back to Holloway for Christmas. She wouldn鈥檛 want to miss it. So come December she would throw a brick through a window or hit a policeman 鈥� anything to get back to prison for Christmas.

As I said, everyone had to register. And this included the prostitutes of Paddington. Well the ministry had no category for prostitute, so we didn鈥檛 know what to put them under. Temporarily, until the powers that be decided, we put them under 174. Which is 鈥楲ight Entertainment鈥�!

They were hopeless as you couldn鈥檛 do anything with them. The services wouldn鈥檛 take them and so you had to put them into war work. Well as soon as you sent a prostitute to a factory, none of the girls would eat with them or use the same facilities. Within these factories you had girls from upper-class and even aristocratic families. So the mothers were all writing in to complain that their daughters were forced to consort with prostitutes.

It soon became known in Paddington, that if you registered as a prostitute, the ministry of labour couldn鈥檛 do anything with you. It became the most desirable business to be in. Later on we had to clamp down. It was decided that unless you could produce a receipt from the police, you can鈥檛 be registered as a prostitute. The receipt would be for the fines for being a prostitute. They didn鈥檛 mind this and regarded it as paying their income tax.

Towards the end of my period in London I was given an interesting job as clerk to an appeals panel for the ministry. If an employer wanted to keep an employee who was scheduled for other war work or the services, he had right of appeal to this panel. Dealing with the aristocracy (the other end of the social scale) was very difficult. You never knew who was who, or who was related to whom. We had one Lady who wanted to keep her maid and appealed. She was called to this panel. And I received a letter from the Isle of Man from a Countess who said she was this Lady鈥檚 mother. She and her husband were going to be in London and could she attend the panel in place of her daughter. I replied that, yes it would be in order. She appeared, was very nice, and seemed very eager to help the panel. During the course of the panel it came out that her daughter was also under 24 and eligible for war work. So why wasn鈥檛 she in the services? The Countess said she was probably covered by medical notes, but she would get her to call in and sort it out. When she went out, one of the panel said they thought she might be related to royalty. We looked it up, and it turned out she was the Queen鈥檚 elder sister. But I thought it was great that she expected no special treatment, nor did she use her connection in any way.

We had all sorts of people in from of us - including Ben Lyon and Baby Daniels, who were great stage and screen personalities. We wanted to take the Baby Daniels鈥� maid, and she appealed against it. Lyon came, and he was a Lieutenant-Colonel in the American Army. He turned up looking very handsome in his uniform. While he was sitting in the corridor waiting to go in, I expect every clerk in the building found cause to come down that corridor. He must have thought it a very busy place. When he came in and they were asking him about this maid, one of the panel asked 鈥淲hat鈥檚 the matter with your wife? Can鈥檛 she cook?鈥� He drew himself up and replied 鈥淵ou should see Baby cook. She cooks chicken like she came from the south!鈥�

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