大象传媒

Prior to the outbreak of World War 2 I was working as Secretary to one of the Partners of The Cornhill Insurance Company Ltd at their Head Office at 32 Cornhill, London, E.C.2.

Two years earlier, in 1937, some of the Head Office staff had been evacuated to the firm's evacuation address, a large manor house, known as Shalford House, near Guildford, Surrey which had been taken on lease for the duration but, not wanting to leave my mother alone at home at the mercy of what the war might bring, I opted to stay at Head Office and commute daily from our home in Anerley. Within a short while I ws told that was to be closed, and I was persuaded to follow the rest of the staff to Shalford. With a view to getting my mother to Surrey after I had settled there, I moved.

On arrival I found that the House was set in entensive grounds, beside Shalford Church, with a stream running through the grounds.

The firm's offices and a staff Common Room were on the ground floor, male staff occupied rooms on the first floor, and the female staff rooms were on the second floor. Meals were served in a separate building, a canteen a short distance from the main building, a gong being sounded for meal-times.

On arriving there I noticed a bomb-crater in the back of the grounds, presumably made by an unwanted bomb discharged from a bomber on its way back from a raid on London.

In the early days of our occupation there, the basement was used by all the staff whenever an Air Raid siren announced planes overhead, all staff returning to their respective offices where work resumed after the All Clear sounded. Later, I seem to remember that Air Raid overground shelters were built in the grounds to which all staff went at the sound of the siren, but I am not sure about this, as, for the rest of my time there I do not recall many raid alarms.

Initially staff were prohibited from leaving the building to travel to Guildford for the evening shopping or entertainment, but this was later lifted owing to the bad feeling it engendered among staff who felt they were being treated as children, especially as, for the rest of the time I was at Shalford, we rarely heard Air Raid sirens again.

Staff worked alternate Saturdays, and weekends with Saturdays off were the times staff chose to return home, leaving Friday nights and returning Sunday nights.

A senior lady member of staff, Mrs. Williams, was selected by the Company to patrol the corridor where the female bedrooms were situated to check, for the sake of safety, that all staff were in their rooms by ten o'clock. In my room there were four of us, one of whom, a teenager named Peggy, tempted by the shops and entertainment in town, and more particularly by the fact that Canadian Soldiers were billeted in Guildford, was determined to spend her evenings there. From Peggy's point of view, Mrs. Willims was the Big Bad Wolf and, those of us in our room were hard put to keep Mrs. W at bay when she came on her nightly check.

One night in particular, when Peggy had been invited to an all-night party, we put a bolster in Peggy's bed to simulate her body, with one of her wigs just visible above the pillow. The three of us were in bed feigning sleep when Mrs. W put her head round the door, and we got away with it. Apparently Peggy had bribed one of the men to let her in the main door downstairs, (which was similarly locked and barred at ten o'clock) when she arrived back in the early hours. Needless to say she was a very pretty girl with a smile that would have melted an iceberg, so she always won through.

After about a year there, I had a call one day from my aunt to say that a bomb had fallen a couple of doors away from my home, where all the doors had been blown off their hinges, the windows shattered and that mother was a nervous wreck, would I please come home.

Our General Manager was very sympathetic and let me go, asking only that I would phone him from home, let him know the circumstances and get back as soon as possible. When I rang him at the end of the week, saying that I had had to find alternative accommodation for mother and myself, on the outskirts of Croydon, and would it be possible for him to transfer me to the firm's Croydon Branch, he said he would see what he could do.

In the event he wasn't able to get me a transfer to Croydon, but he did offer me a post as Motor Renewal Secretary at the firm's West End office in Pall Mall, replacing one of the male staff who had been called up. So from then I commuted to London daily, by rail from E. Croydon Station to Fenchurch Street and thence by tube to the West End. Although office hours were, I seem to remember, 9 a.m. to 5.30 p.m., owing to overnight raids often aimed at railway lines and transport, I arrived at work late sometimes, as and when the raids permitted.

By now, hospitals were crying out for additional staff in view of the raid casualties they were having to deal with so I volunteered for Nursing Duty at Mayday Hospital, Croydon and, after three week's training, was taken on as a Nursing Auxiliary for a specific fifteen hours per week. I went there for duty straight from the office, starting work there at 7 p.m. and continuing until 10 p.m., arriving home some time between 10.30 and 11 pm. It was understood that if ever I was unable to get to Mayday for evening work, I would do a full Saturday on duty there to make up the hours.

I enjoyed the work immensely. Some of the patients were from the battlefield and some local casualties from the surrounding area. There were some terrible injuries. Towards the end of the war, Hitler's new weapon, which we later came to call "the Doodlebug" an unmanned plane built to carry firebombs directed towards specific targets did immense damage. In the early days of this new weapon I remember one fine summer evening standing beside my Father on Gravel Hill, not far from Addington, watching these things (we didn't then know what they were) but saw the great flames leaping into the sky and smoke billowing around way distant in the direction of London, and I went home wondering what sight might greet me when I arrived for work next morning !

After our home was damaged I approached our Landlord but he said no way could we expect repairs until after the war, so I set about seeking alternative accommodation for mother and myself. At the time a new housing estate was being built at New Addington, some five miles from Croydon, to house people made homeless by bombing, and there I found a two-bedroomed house to rent at a price I could afford. Once settled, in I contacted "Cornhill", and it was then that my General Manager had found a place for me at their West End branch in Pall Mall. So, for the remainder of the war I commuted to London. Trains travelled slowly and stopped during raids. Once on arriving at E. Croydon Station there was a heavy raid in progress, and together with other passengers, I made straight for the nearest public Air Raid Shelter, venturing no further until the raid was over and the All Clear sounded.

On another occasion the train I was travelling on had stopped a few times. All trains had blackout curtains up so it wasn't possible to see if it had reached a station. I got up from my seat and put my head out of the window to see where we were, and my hat was blown away by the rush of a passing train.

Meanwhile, like so many others, I had a boyfriend serving with the Army overseas: I had little idea where he was despite receiving postcards and letters from him as all place names were effectively deleted by the censor. Once I received a box of Turkish Delight from him - a great treat for Mother and I, and I clearly remember how we carefully extracted all the sugar from that box, saved to supplement our meagre sugar ration.

Talking of rations, I well remembver how we females went about wearing much-laddered stockings (no nylons in those days) rayon stockings needed mending, and were mended ad infinitum, clothing coupons were too precious to waste constantly on stockings.

While working at Pall Mall, staff were amazed when one day, one of our colleagues arrived in a brand new coat, something which would have taken a great many clothing coupons. As we all gazed, astounded our colleague confessed that she had made it herself from a blanket, because she hadn't sufficient coupons to purchase a new coat and badly needed one for the winter. It was beautifully made, and we were all aghast, we hadn't realised what an excellent needlewoman she was.

I continued my fifteen hours per week at Mayday Hospital right until the war ended and, when it did, I was invited to work there full time but, much as I loved the work, nurses' wages in those days were so low, that, with my Mother dependent on me, no way could I consider it, and I continued my employment with the "Cornhill", until my fiancee was demobilised in 1945, when we married. During his war service overseas he had been wounded many times but he lived on until 1985, though for the last nine years as an invalid, owing to wartime injuries.

THE END

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