大象传媒

This story has been added to the People's War website by Anne Wareing of the Lancashire Home Guard on behalf of Patricia Entwistle and the story is in her own words...

The date is May 8th 1945. Almost Finals time for a student in Ashbume Hall. One term into an M. Sc. course after a war time shortened first degree for a student in Dalton Hall. An opportunity for measured jubilation in Albert Square for groups of students from the various Halls of residence. During the evening of May 8th many students made their way to the city's heart to celebrate the end of the war in Europe. They wanted to mark the end of a day's National Service a week. They wanted to mark the end of fire watching. They wanted to mark the end of learning how to get out of an upstairs window and down an improvised fire escape. They wanted to learn not to look for barrage balloons, not to listen for air raid sirens. They wanted to learn how to live in a world nominally at peace. Would lunch tickets, issued by the Halls, still be IOd. with a supplement of 1d. for "A healthy life lunch"? Would the imposing Mrs. Murray Blair, superintendent of catering, still reign in "Caf." and refectory? Would scrambled egg made from dried eggs and cooked on the gas ring in the student's room in Ashburne still taste as good? Would life from now on in fact be different from the past few years when, as far as the students knew, their lives had been what to them was normal?

As the groups mingled in Albert Square two students who had met briefly at a 21st birthday party in Ashburne some weeks earlier found themselves standing together, whether by chance or design has never been divulged. At that recent 21st party in Ashburne Hall the girl had contributed her navy blue gym slip, transformed into a skirt because of clothes rationing, as a forfeit and in an ingenuous game it was struggled into by the fellow from Dalton Hall. When the festivities in Albert Square came to an end the student from Dalton walked back through Rusholme and Fallowfield with the student from Ashburne. On the way back he explained to his companion that he would have liked to ask her to the end of term dance at Dalton but he felt in honour bound to keep his promise to his sister whom he had already invited. The Ashburne student agreed wholeheartedly with his chivalry, approved of his ethical standards and immediately to herself thought "This is the man for me.鈥�

60 years later they are still together. He is still her knight in shining armour. She is still his guide in matters of human relationships. All the intervening years have been associated with the university. His M.Sc. became a Ph.D. He has been pro vice chancellor of the university. He was a member of the University Grants Committee. In 1974 he was responsible for joining Owen's and U.M.I.S.T. by the adventurous creation of a joint Materials Science department. She returned to university for a post graduate course and at one time did some teaching in the Extra Mural department. He is still involved with Dalton Hall where he lived as a tutor for some time before their marriage. There Jock Sutherland, the Quaker Principal, and known as the most militant of Pacifists, instilled in all who had the good fortune to be influenced by him, a sense of mutual respect and responsibility. Though officially retired for many years that May Day student's enthusiasm for research has not abated. He is encouraged by his wife and still continues to pursue his interests in the department that he created and which was the forerunner of the more total amalgamation that has just been accomplished between U.M.I.S.T. and the Victoria University of Manchester.

Have you guessed? They are of course Ken and Pat (Johnson) Entwistle.

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