大象传媒

It was October 1942 and I was just eight years old when my mother came home from a WI meeting with the momentous news that they were to be visited by Mrs Eleanor Roosevelt and Mrs Clementine Churchill. The Roosevelts were in England and Eleanor had a wish to see bombing damage and a typical W.I. of which she had heard of their achievements for the war effort.
So on Friday 30th our small village of Barham was invaded by soldiers and police. A large crowd of villagers waited outside to greet the ladies, including me, and my memory of Mrs Roosevelt was a tall rather severe lady dressed in the then fashionable fox furs, complete with head, glass eyes, brush and paws that hung down either side.

Many national and county W.I. dignitaries were waiting to be introduced and they then passed through an honour guard of land girls, guides and brownies and members of the civil defence and Red Cross. In the porch, they were greeted by Mrs Murphy, Barham W.I. President, who was also landlady of the Woodman鈥檚 Arms Pub and at the entrance to the hall, the choir sang the Star Bangled Banner and the National Anthem. Champion knitter, eighty one year old Mrs Eliza Robinson, who had been persuaded to leave her home for the first time in ten years for the occasion, was presented. Although only having three fingers on one hand she had knitted twenty three sweaters, twenty three Balaclava helmets and seven scarves for servicemen.

An intensive tour of the stalls followed; items made for adopted prisoners of war, produce grown from seed donated by the U.S.A., the Pig Club where Mrs Willis, the wife of the village policeman displayed one of the pigs appropriately named Franklin. The visitors also saw two hens named Stars and Stripes, a Belgian hare called Eleanor and blankets and garments made from sheep鈥檚 wool, which was spun from the tufts which we children were sent to collect from hedgerows.

The visitors were finally given a tremendous send off and went on to visit Dover.

This story was submitted to the People's War website by Helena Noifeld and has been added to the website on behalf of J.W.Colthup with his permission. He fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

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