大象传媒

Transcript of an interview with Pat Fielder who was born in 1920 (aged 85).

I only have memories of the First World War through my father. I realised what happened to those who came back and who had had bad experiences - it stayed with him all his life. Pieces of shrapnel which today would have been removed- but it meant that he had to have several weeks at home convalescing from time to time. But he didn鈥檛 harp on about the war. I only learnt these things out gradually. He had a great sense of humour. But it was like a breakdown when he was poorly.

Before the war, I had trained for nursery work and when I left I wanted to go into children鈥檚 nursing, but I wasn鈥檛 old enough. So I did nursery in Hyde Park Gardens which was very nice. We were there when the Crystal Palace burnt down - we were on the fourth floor I think and the sky was absolutely red. We didn鈥檛 know what it was until we turned on the radio. In summer we went to the country home which was on the River Hamble. I was there when the Queen Mary returned from her maiden voyage. There were flags flying and a band was playing. These were landmarks and I was there at the time and I do look back with treasured memories.

When we were in Hamble it was a short bus ride to Southampton and I used to love going there on my half day off because you could freely walk around the docks and all the notorious liners were berthed there, the names of which escape me, but they included German ones. We got back about 10 o鈥檆lock.

Hamble was a lovely little village. I was friendly with a girl in the village. When we could we would go swimming in the river but we had to keep out of the way of the lobster nets. The village had their own fire engine - I鈥檓 not sure whether it was horse drawn or hand-drawn. There was more or less a shed that they kept it in though I never saw it out.

As for World War Two, in August 1939 life changed completely for us. I was nursing at Parkwood which was a hospital convalescent home in Swanley village with its own grounds. It was endowed and left by Peter Reed, who was well known at the time. He was a brewer - Reed stout was well known then. We had about 60 women and 50 children there. They came for long-term convalescing in the very early stages of their convalescence. Today, they wouldn鈥檛 even be in hospital for as long. We had a resident doctor and 12 - 15 nurses. It was a beautiful place, not from the exterior, but when you stepped inside, there was a beautiful polished floor? Doors? Flowers everywhere. It really was lovely. Twice a week they used to bring in freshly cut flowers from the estate and home grown vegetables. Beautiful flower beds and a very lovely chapel. It was endowed to Westminster Hospital but used by all the London hospitals and once a week the early convalescents were transported down to us. Every ward was named after a saint. They were 4-bedded and 12-bedded wards and the children in the other half. For a short time they had babies. The specialist would come down from London every day. The Head gardener had his house in the grounds and the other gardeners came in daily and of course we had a lovely big kitchen. Beautiful food. The local bakers supplied the bread and they had a contract with a wholesalers (from Maidstone I think) who supplied all the hardware and other groceries.

In the woods at Parkwood, the daffodils grew wild. The parents of the children were allowed to visit once a month and adults could have a weekly visit on a Sunday. They mostly came from the East End of London and had never seen anything like it, so the daffodils were stripped as were the bluebells later. But nobody seemed to mind, they came through the next year just the same.

In August 1939 my father came to ask Matron if I could be permitted to go home because mother was ill and she was quite ill. They had already booked to move to Holyport a village near Maidenhead. Matron granted permission for me to leave so the next day I packed up and left. Life changed from then on.

All large transport had been commandeered by the government and although they were already booked to move, we couldn鈥檛 have the removal van. Father managed to get hold of somebody who would transport us in two small vans. They weren鈥檛 furniture removers so everything was just piled in and we had to sort it out at the other end. Mother was taken to my sister in Surrey and we did the moving. One of the most joyful sounds we ever heard was when we were partway through the unpacking, very tired and hungry, and we heard a bell. We just had to be nosey and see what it was. It was fish and chips that had just arrived. It was the best meal I鈥檇 ever had! It did smell good.

Mother came home eventually. Of course we had put all the furniture in all the wrong places and had to move it all over again, but I stayed with them, she needed me. She went into hospital soon after.

I was friendly with the engineer at Parkwood - he came to see me and in fact we were married in the November, so I went back to Parkwood and it had been handed over to the Red Cross for convalescent servicemen of all braches, mostly the army. Whilst we were there we had two visits, one from Princess Marina, Princess of Kent and the Duchess of Gloucester came to view the troops. All their blue uniforms had creases pressed in them - the laundry were delighted! On each occasion it was a beautiful sunny day.

My husband was a widower and he had two children. As the war progressed he went to the turret at Parkwood - apparently it used to shake like anything with gunfire - he was fire-watching. As we had no air raid shelter (we had a house in the grounds) we had a mattress on the floor of a cupboard under the stairs where I would take the children. In the morning they were off to school as usual without any grumbles, no matter how much sleep they鈥檇 lost. We took it for granted then, but looking back on it, they were fantastic.

We had ration books for our food which meant one meatless day each week. We were very very fortunate to have vegetables from the estate and garden. There were wartime recipes - powdered milk, powdered egg. There were times when there was just one egg from the grocer for the children so we started our own chicken, so we could supply other people with eggs and of course a chicken meal. We also kept rabbits - couldn鈥檛 do it now but it was wonderful then.

If you saw a queue, you joined it. It might have been for one tomato but that was a treat. We never saw bananas. There were British Kitchens. I went to one once when I was visiting my parents in Holyport. I went into Maidenhead and it was one shilling for a dinner - a really nice Irish stew and a dessert.

People dug up their front lawns - 鈥淒ig for Victory鈥� was the great slogan - they grew vegetables even though they may never have gardened before. Some also kept chickens and rabbits like us.

Clothing - the slogan was 鈥淢ake Do and Mend鈥�. You cut down your husband鈥檚 trousers to make short ones for your sons and probably cut up two old dresses to make into one. Everything was darned of course. It was difficult but I made clothes for the children. I had a boy and a girl. You had clothing coupons with which we could buy material. Gingham and flowered materials were 6d a yard. While they were small a yard would make a little dress and matching knickers, which they thought were wonderful. They were quite happy with cut-down of yours or whatever it was.

It was quite fun. We were busy all day long, sat up late at night then up early again in the morning. Sometimes you got a night鈥檚 sleep, sometimes you didn鈥檛. Quite often the bombs from enemy aircraft were jettisoned over Swanley because of the heavy anti-aircraft fire. But then they did get through and the railway bridge was bombed a few times in Swanley village. We had a landmine dropped by a smaller railway bridge about 150 yards from where we lived. Fortunately it didn鈥檛 go off so that had to be dealt with by the Army. We were just told to shut all our windows and doors. I cannot remember it making a lot of noise, but the railway line was disrupted several times because it was the main line to London.

Once or twice we had Molotov baskets at the bottom of our garden - fortunately it was a big garden. They were lots of small bombs in one container. Next morning the children loved to go out and collect shrapnel. We didn鈥檛 keep any as keepsakes, but at the time every room had shrapnel and it was who had got the biggest piece.

Whilst the troops were there we had ENSA come and entertained at lunchtime a few times. We also held whist drives but the highlight was the Vickers band. Vickers was an armaments/weapons manufacturer? That had a factory in Wilmington near Dartford. They were a most beautiful band.

We also put on pantomimes at Christmas. One very funny incident was during a time when we a number of troops who had their legs and heels in plaster when they were fired on parachuting into Arnhem. There was this one very big man with a great big plaster on his leg and he came on to do his turn dressed as a fairy. Just as he started to tell a tale and said 鈥渁nd then there was an air raid鈥�, the sirens went off, but we just carried on!

On VE Day my son was ill, so I had to watch the celebrations from the window, but the troops had a really big bonfire.

When the war was over, quite often on a Saturday afternoon, I鈥檇 take the youngest, the boy, to Bromley by train. Rationing was still on but you could go to Joe Lyons and buy a swiss roll for 6d. We had some facilities to make things at home, but it didn鈥檛 go as far as that. There was a shop called Kennedy鈥檚, which was noted for their sausages, so there was some extra meat. Another little shop further down the road sold mushroom stalks and you could make delicious mushroom soup from them. I鈥檝e never seen them sold anywhere else.

Next to Bromley Station was a little caf茅 where you could get excellent homemade scones, so we鈥檇 have a cup of tea and scones. It was a great treat. It was over a mile鈥檚 walk to the station at Swanley.

I was at Parkwood for 25 years as a resident and as a non-resident. Parkwood was 103 - 105 years old. It was handed over to the Fire Brigade as a training centre and I thought of all those beautiful polished floors.

After the war, I moved to West Malling and did some nursing for a doctor鈥檚 practice there. My husband鈥檚 health deteriorated, so did mother鈥檚 so we moved to West Malling so she could live with us. She went to Australia by sea aged 84 and six months after she returned she had a stroke and died. I took up a resident post in Shorne. Then another post outside Gravesend - Valley Lodge area, but I wasn鈥檛 terribly happy there and eventually I took up a post on a new warden complex for sheltered housing - I did that until I had to retire at 63 because of health reasons. I then went to live in Meopham which was delightful.

I鈥檝e been back to Swanley village and it hasn鈥檛 changed a great deal which is nice.

漏 Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.