大象传媒

BY THE BARRACK GATES
Hilary (Selfridge) McClean

I was born and brought up in the Waterside. My father was well known as he owned and ran two shops opposite Ebrington Barracks. One shop was a confectioner and tobacconist and the other was a caf茅 鈥� 鈥淭he Classic鈥�.

My father was well known for his delicious home-made ice cream. He was up at 6 a .m. organising the 6 ice cream hand-carts and also the pony and van 鈥� he inspected the nails and hands of all the employees. He also made sure they were kitted out in spotless white coats. If hair was untidy he sent them off to the barber, Mr. Thompson nearby.

My father was a perfectionist and nothing got past his eagle eye. He even made me re-do my homework for Ebrington School 鈥� even if I鈥檇 made one little mistake! 鈥淒o it over again 鈥� there鈥檚 only one way to do a thing 鈥� that鈥檚 the right way鈥� was his maxim.

During the 2nd World War I was just a child but I have vivid memories of some of the famous people who came into our caf茅. Donald Campbell (of Bluebird fame) a naval officer was one; also Tommy Weston, the famous jockey. I had begun to learn the piano at 6years, when my father brought a young navy man up to try out my new piano. He turned out to be an understudy to Ivor Novello, the famous actor and musician. He began to play and I was spellbound! I thought if only some day I could play like him.

During the war years, accommodation for the Services was very scarce so if you had spare rooms you were required to keep the families of Service people. As we had 5 bedrooms my mother turned the top storey into a self contained flat. We were to meet many different service people who stayed with us during the war. Major power and his lovely wife arrived with McTavish, a huge collie dog, in tow. The major had to have a telephone installed so when he was posted overseas, we inherited the phone, a real luxury in the 1940鈥檚.

Joe Halliwell and his Australian wife of 3 months came after. Sadly Joe, who was a pilot crashed in Lough Foyle. His body was washed up 2 weeks later at Moville. He is buried in Eglinton Church of Ireland cemetery. I still visit his grave which is amongst dozens of other servicemen who lost their lives while in Londonderry.

Then there were happier times. Lieutenant Small and his new wife were married from our house. My mother and father were guests at the wedding on board one of the many destroyer ships anchored in the River Foyle. The river was jam-packed with ships then. To get to the centre ship you had to walk across 3 or 4 ships like a bridge.

Then there were the E.N.S.A. concerts for service people who took guests along. My sister and I often went with our friends and saw some famous actors who came to L鈥橠erry, though we were really too young to appreciate them all. Tommy Weston (the jockey) was captain of one of the corvette ships and he took us for a very fast ride down the Foyle. We even got steering for a while! It was like a speedboat, throwing up a huge wash behind. We were thrilled at this experience.

Then the first American Technicians came to Ebrington Barracks 鈥� this was before America was officially in the war. They wore civilian clothing though they really were working for the U.S.A. services. 鈥淥le Henry鈥� as we called him, stayed with us. He came from USA and owned a Beech wagon (wooden slats on the sides). We were impressed by his accent and also his car as cars and petrol were scarce in those days. Henry gave us 鈥淗ershey Chocolate鈥� bars and brought us white bread (our local bread was brown and coarse). I thought it was just like cotton wool, so white and soft.

We had a Polish serviceman to stay, whose name was unpronounceable so we called him Mr. Courtney for short. He fell in love with my mother鈥檚 hairdresser Rose: they married and went to live in Alaska after the war. He actually sent my mother a gold nugget as he worked in the gold mines.

Another lovely couple were Lieutenant and Mrs. Tribeck. She helped out at the British/American Red Cross in Bishop Street when her husband was at sea. I remember her dressing up in lovely long dresses for the dances they held at the Club.

Many romances flourished in our caf茅 as sweethearts used to meet their dates there 鈥� it was so handy to their barracks. Ebrington Barracks was buzzing then. The big gates were wide open but guarded by two armed sentries. Each side of the gate were the sentry boxes surrounded by a small flower garden. When the 鈥淪outh Wales Border鈥� regiment was stationed there, they had S.W.B. planted out in flowers, either side.

Every Sunday morning my sister and I would watch out our 2nd storey window opposite to see the regimental bands parade to church. We once saw Prince Philip from our window 鈥� he was being presented to the W.R.E.N. officers inside the Barrack Gate (we could see over the wall from our vantage point). He was not married at the time 鈥� he was just a Lieutenant in the navy. Other events we watched were the Fox Hunt, when the officers rode out in their 鈥淧ink鈥� coats to hunt foxes at Caw; believe it or not Caw was considered the well wooded countryside then!

Belfast had just been flattened one night by German bombers so my father 鈥渆vacuated鈥� us two girls to Castlerock where we stayed for two and a half years. My father thought Londonderry would be the next place to be bombed as we were living next to Ebrington Barracks and the Foyle, full of ships; we were indeed a likely target. My parents stayed on of course at their business.

One day when my aunt was serving in the shops a very famous person walked in, though she was unaware of him until later as she was very busy at the time. He was none other than Gordon Selfridge (a famous Oxford Street Shop in London) who had been visiting officially at Ebrington Barracks and when he came out of the gate and saw the name 鈥淪elfridge鈥� above the 2 shops, he was intrigued so he crossed over and introduced himself. My aunt did not ay much attention and the poor man went off without any more information. I often wonder if we were related!!..?

I could go on forever but I will finish here hoping some folk will remember our caf茅 鈥� and 鈥淏ob鈥� my dear father.

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