大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People's War site by Jackie Fay of Cumbria Libraries on behalf of Margaret (Pritchard) Challinger and has been added to the site with her permission.
I left school in July 1939 and worked as a temporary clerical assistant for the City Council on the plans for evacuation of children if the Government decided it was necessary. I had been training as a dancer in ballet but not wishing to go into munitions I got a job in the Civil service and carried on dancing with the Manchester Ballet Club. I spent most evenings and weekends working in a freezing studio on Oxford Road. In my district of Wilbraham Road, Fallowfield we formed a fire watching group and I took my turn wearing a tin hat and, for the first time, trousers. Trousers were not common for females before the war. We were given instruction in operating a stirrup pump. One person, lying on their stomach directing a hose onto an incendiary device while the other pumped like mad from a large bucket. In Manchester there were numerous small raids as well as the Manchester Blitz of Christmas 1940. My next door neighbour was the official police photographer and his photos of one side of Piccadilly in flames were frequently used, how much more dramatic they would have been in colour. Mother was recovering from a serious operation and my sister and I could not get her to the shelter so we "slept" under the dining table. My father would not leave his bed for anything! In 1941 the Ballet Club started to present evenings of ballet and when the government promoted their ideas of "holidays at home" we joined in the programme by performing on bandstands in public parks. Quite hazardous for me in one particular ballet which required me to spin across the stage where one of the cast was stationed so that I did not fall off the edge! We also travelled to Euxton, Chorley to perform for the night shift at the underground munitions factory choosing popular things like the Can can and Strauss, Polkas and waltzes which went over well. We also provided dancers for the visiting Carl Rosa Opera Company who had had to disband their ballet group during the war. My friend and I used to go to London (tediously long because troop trains had priority). We attended the classes given by Stanislas Idzikowski famous with the Diagheliv Company. I remember standing next to Gillian Lynne then dancing with the Sadlers Wells Ballet who made her name as choreographer of Cats and many other musicals. The ballet club's premises on Oxford Road became a hive of art, music and dance activities. At one exhibition I could have bought an L S Lowry painting for a very small sum but it seemed expensive at the time. We had lectures in dance from Ninette de Valois, Marie Rambert and even Jomo Kenyatta on tribal dance. Eventually he became President of Kenya. Sometimes I travelled to Leeds to see the Sadlers Wells Company and arriving back at the then London Road Station I walked home in the blackout to Fallowfield. One could not want to do that now. When the War ended I was released from the Civil service and joined the Anglo-Polish Ballet Company under the name Margarite Baron.

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