大象传媒

In 1938 my parents opened Nansidwell, South Cornwall as an hotel, despite the many difficulties of the times. It was Sunday morning a year later and we were in St. Mary鈥檚 Catholic Church, Falmouth when Father John Fanning, parish priest, announced that we were at war with Germany. Although expected, few could have known what incredible and permanent changes lay ahead for us all, young and old. Mass continued to the end and we went home to decide what had to be done and how to do it. Even more orders of all sorts came from various Government departments, which my father carried out to the letter 鈥� including re-using old envelopes with special sticky 鈥楨conomy Labels鈥�. First and foremost was the need for efficient blackout in so many areas, including road vehicles. Before various 鈥榓dd on鈥� designs were approved and manufactured we were to paint headlamp reflectors matt black. This reduced the poor lights of those days to near useless! Vehicles had to be immobilized when left unattended and this was generally achieved by removing the distributor rotor arm. Most signposts were removed after Dunkirk and the few that were left in Cornwall often pointed the wrong way! One of the first visible signs of war in the country were the large number of green pastures ploughed up and everywhere looking brown. Our agreement with tenant farmer, Helier Tremaine, stated that no fields in sight of the house were to be ploughed. Government orders soon swept all such restrictions away.

I was 13 at the outbreak of war and a weekly boarder at Belmont School, Wood Lane, Falmouth. First thing on our return the headmaster, Major Holt, had us all digging zigzag trenches in the school gardens. At the end of that term I moved on to Downside School, Nr. Bath. There were many air raid warnings and disturbed nights as we all went down stairs to take shelter. The following term Dayrooms became dormitories and vice a versa. With massive sandbagging all around the ground floor we never had disturbed nights again. I say sandbags, but in fact they were mainly filled with earth dug by the boys! As the threat diminished and we had two other schools evacuated to us, sleeping arrangements reversed. I was unaware of any bombs dropping near the school, despite The Abbey Tower being such a fine landmark, especially from the air. It proved impossible to black out the Abbey Church, so it was agreed that suitably shaded lights would suffice. Sadly one of our own planes crashed onto the playing field during a major cricket match, killing 9 of my contempories. The 50th and 60th anniversaries were marked at the school and I attended both. Very few were able to attend the last one. Downside were almost totally self-sufficient, they made their own electricity, had a large farm, slaughter house and huge kitchen gardens. They even had their own coal mine and gas-works. Those not playing games were required to do 鈥淕anging鈥�. This involved working on the land in some way. One of our most notable days was a visit by Her Royal Highness Queen Mary, who came to present the Cornwell Scout Badge to a pupil from Worth, who were evacuated to Downside from Crawley. This badge is often known as 鈥淭he Scouts VC鈥�. The Oratory were also evacuated to Downside a little later on.

Never an 鈥榓cademic鈥� I loved Science, especially electricity. You were expected to join the newly named Junior Training Corps. Later the Air Training Corps was added. Up until 1940 it had all been The Officer鈥檚 Training Corps - which was what my cap badge said. After passing my Cert 鈥楢鈥� I became a corporal in the signals section. All we had to start with were huge WS No. 1 sets. These were well out of date by then, took hours to set up, needed vast amounts of battery power and when working at their best only had a range of about 2 miles! Soon after we were given several WS No. 18鈥檚 and some small WS 38's, chest worn 鈥榩ortable鈥� sets. The 18鈥檚 were carried on your back, so needed someone else to set them up. Once 鈥榥etted鈥� on frequency and using throat microphones - which we had - they could be used by just one. These sets needed large battery packs, one of 150 volts. Our radio procedure had to be 'textbook', including the phonetic alphabet of the time - Able, Baker, Charlie, Dog, Easy, Fox . . .. We had a switchboard with several field telephones and set them up for exercise, but it took too long for use on "Field Days". On those occasions it was simpler and more effective to rig up 'phone to 'phone connections, which required no operator. I always took a keen interest in the 大象传媒 engineers when they came to broadcast from the Abbey Church, usually live, but sometimes onto records! Being also mechanically minded I spent a lot of time in the armory and could strip and re-build a Bren Gun, Lee Enfield .303 rifle and latterly the Sten Gun. We were very lucky to have so much equipment, which the Home Guard thought they ought to have! The army took great interest in our training, especially on 鈥楩ield Days鈥�. Only when the army came were we allowed live rounds to fire on the rifle range, although we did have some .303鈥檚 adapted to fire .22's.

Throughout the war I was the only pupil coming from Cornwall by GWR and always missed the school bus. Passenger trains often spent long periods in sidings to make way for more urgent military traffic. There was one other Cornish pupil of my age, Bob Byrne, from Bude but he went via Southern Railway. At Bristol I had to take a taxi, but as petrol became ever more scarce it was impossible to find one willing to go that far, which meant taking another train to Bath. It was so sad to see the massive bomb damage as the train wound its way slowly around Plymouth. I saw damage in many areas, but nowhere, including Bristol, was as bad as Plymouth. Briefly the school were denied fuel to mow the playing fields so it was done by horses with special boots, towing the gang mowers! Whitehall soon realized the importance of maintaining school playing fields and re-instated the fuel ration. Despite strict petrol rationing, it was always made available to those who lived a distance from their place of worship and had no other means of attending, after the withdrawal of the monthly 200 mile Basic ration. A petrol ration was issued for express essential purposes and where possible for specific destinations. If off the designated route, or using it for other purposes, you were guilty of, 鈥淢isuse of Petrol鈥�. Few of our suppliers had either the petrol or manpower to deliver to us so far out of town. For heavy loads like collecting rail wagon full of anthracite from Falmouth goods yard we used Charlie Eddy, who had one of the few tipping lorries. Fortunately we had a long standing contract with a pit in South Wales.

When war was declared many of our staff were called up into the services or had to do work of national importance. The first to go was our chauffeur, Brian Osborne followed by father鈥檚 secretary, Miss Lancaster. This was a big blow to him. My father, being used to a fully staffed office, was unable to make a telephone call! To the end of his life he would always ask someone to get the person he wanted on the line for him! Although only a one finger man, from then on he typed all the letters on his old and trusted 鈥榯riple shift鈥� Corona portable. Today it is a museum piece owned by his grandson Simon, who鈥檚 father, Vincent Evans, was the first war correspondent to enter Belsen after it鈥檚 liberation. Our porter/handyman, Frank Rowe, was a stalwart all through the war. He was a local man retired from the Metropolitan Police, who joined the Home Guard and soon got promoted to Lieutenant. Our regular guests, used to an high level of service, found food and staff shortages difficult to cope with. My mother did manage to get some older retired staff, including the father of our headwaiter, a very stately 鈥� and slow 鈥� butler! Lady Worthington called him over one day to say she could not eat her meal as there were too many bones in it. He returned it to chef and said:- 鈥淗er Ladyship likes her oxtail filleted鈥�! My sister Elaine got involved in the hotel, until she, like my dear late wife Val, joined the WRENS. Our chef of many years was Swiss, so never got called up. We did take on the 鈥楳ad Parson鈥�, a murderer who had escaped from Broadmoor 鈥� but that was 1947 and another story! While at school I was sent to Bristol for a medical to decide if I would be fit for the services. I never found out why, but they classed me as C3 鈥� totally unfit! On leaving school I had to do work of national importance and went to work for 鈥淭he Cornwall Electric Power Company鈥�, then owned by Edmondson鈥檚. This meant a daily 5 mile cycle ride to and from Penryn. For the most part I went out as a mate to work on farms, many of which were getting electricity for the first time. Even in this essential service war shortages were evident. Before the advent of plastic most house wiring cable was covered in lead or rubber, both in very short supply. What we often had to use was called 鈥榃ar emergency Cable鈥� and covered in a red fabric. The individual wires were still insulated in rubber as no alternative was found.

The period prior to D-day was particularly difficult as in theory at least the whole south coast was a banned area, unless you had special reason to be there. This prevented our normal guests from visiting, but we still had many military personnel. The Helford River filled up with huge strange structures which we later found were to become parts of Mulberry Harbour. Sadly some of them washed up on the shore close to the river mouth. New machines called 鈥淏ulldozers鈥� arrived to push all the Cornish hedges back along the roads leading from Truro to the Helford River, closely followed by troops, lorries and tanks. Few of them could have fitted down our original narrow lanes. They all parked in pre-prepared areas among the trees along the road from Durgan turn to a newly cut road leading off Ferry Boat hill to Trebah beach - then a concrete hard with pier. All this was a great culture shock for an otherwise quiet country area. There were many air raids on Falmouth, mainly to lay mines in the Bay. We would see these blown up regularly by our mine sweepers as the hotel overlooked the Bay. The mines did sink an oil tanker and this resulted in miles of totally black shoreline and beaches. There was no anti pollution in those days and we were told it would take years for the oil to disperse 鈥� if ever. Nature did the work unaided in a matter of weeks! The nearest bomb to us was half a mile away at Carwinion. It blew our back door in and also badly damaged the house of spinster, Miss Eland. Bomb damage in excess of 拢100.00 required a special permit but she managed to get the work done within that figure! Such was the pace of life in Cornwall in those days that this retired teacher, who did not go out much, used Mr. Banfil鈥檚 bus to go to 鈥淏oot鈥檚 Book Lovers Library鈥� for her book and do her Falmouth shopping. When she wanted him to stop she put up the Union Flag at her gate! One of the first bombs to be dropped in the war was on sleepy Gweek. The Helford River was made to resemble the Fal and a German bomber being chased up it dropped his bombs to get away.

Horticulture was not officially allowed during the war, unless it was coupled with prolific vegetable production. Our garden鈥檚 central feature was a group of four huge square flowerbeds around an ornamental pond. Much to the dismay of Mr. Taysom, head gardener at Nansidwell for many years, my father removed all of these and turfed the area. Despite reverting to a private house, it remains that way to this day. Cutting the lawns was a double handed job, one pushing and one pulling 鈥� usually me! We had no motorised aids until after the war. By the beach we had the Teak deck house of HMS Lion, which my father prepared for the LDV (Local Defence Volunteers) later called the Home Guard, to use. With the Dutch Naval College in exile at nearby Enys, we had many Dutch sailors to visit or stay. One night the Home Guard on duty pounced on Lieutenant Jerry Platerink, from the Royal Dutch Navy, convinced they had caught a German parachutist. As there were only two of them they were not willing to go up to the hotel to check, so held him there till morning! Jerry died some years ago, but his widow and family still keep in touch and visit on occasions. Jerry and Henny鈥檚 last visit here together was with all the family to celebrate their Golden Wedding anniversary in October 1988. Sadly they were separated through most of the war. Jerry was sent out to Cura莽ao to join HNMS 鈥淜itsbergen" in February, 1940. Later he was promoted to Rear Admiral. Henny, left with one very small child, suffered badly in Holland during the war at one stage reduced to eating their valuable Tulip bulbs.

Having been inducted into the WRENS at Mill Hill my sister Elaine was sent back to Cornwall to act as 鈥榳riter鈥� to the Admiral, who鈥檚 offices were in what is today Trago Mills. She was billeted in the Carthian Hotel on Falmouth鈥檚 sea front. This was badly damaged by a bomb in May 1944 and is no more. Luckily my sister was not in residence at the time. Perhaps the most significant bomb damage to Falmouth during the war was the night the oil tanks at Swanvale were hit. The blaze could be seen for miles around. Night after night we could see the glow in the sky from the many air attacks on Plymouth, which I saw the devastating effects of from the train on my regular journeys from Falmouth to Bristol and back. When the Americans arrived in large numbers their Commander, Lawrence Snell, took over total responsibility for the base at Falmouth, both on land and sea. My sister was then put in charge of the base supply office. The day after issuing the Americans with their first week鈥檚 rations she got an urgent request for more butter. 鈥淚 have already sent you your weeks supply鈥�, she said. 鈥淕ee, we used that to fry the eggs this morning鈥� was the reply. Only someone who lived through the war would fully understand this! All cooking fats and oils were in very short supply. Fish and Chips were available at odd times but always drew a queue too long to satisfy.

Harry Pilgrim, Falmouth.

harry@meudon.co.uk

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