大象传媒

This was an age long before TV. Newspapers were much sought after for pictures and incidents, as far as could be revealed, for there were strict bans on news coverage - we were not going to inform the enemy.
I was married on June 2nd 1941. My husband, Philip Denton, was a plumber/electrician and for a time was not eligable for National Service. With his trade, he was needed for repairing the bombed airfields, but later that year he volunteered for the Royal Navy.
In the Royal Navy he became a pipe-fitter, the nearest to his trade! Usually repairing the flat bottomed boats that were used for the invasions of France and later the Far East. He was based in Irvine, Scotland, then later at Plymouth.

Whilst based in Plymouth, Philip, along with many other service men would attend the Sunday service at the Methodist Church. There was also a kitchen there were they could go for a hot drink and chat in the evenings, away from overcrowded barracks.
Stanley Foot (Michael Foot's Uncle)lived in a grand house, with a garden and gatehouse, nearby.
He would often go to the Church in the evenings and invite groups of service men back to his house to sleep, so that they could escape the overcrowded barracks, with their hammock's for beds, and get a decent nights sleep, even though they would sleep on the dining room floor. The housekeeper used to make them breakfast in the morning.
The tradesmen in Plymouth knew about the way Stanley would help the servicemen and they would contribute in any way they could.
I also stayed with Philip at Stanley's house on a few occasions. On one particular night, there was an air-raid and we all took cover under the stairs. During the raid, part of the balcony of the room that I had been sleeping in had been chipped off. When we went outside in the morning, we could taste the dust in the air. It was very close. A nurse friend had been sucked into a fire-place by the force and was killed.

Eventually Philip went to Singapore. The Peace Treaty had been signed. To pass the time, several of the men secretly made toys for an orphanage (run by American Methodists), taking them apart, and assembling them at the orphanage - Strictly illegal! The children there had been gathered off the streets for they were either orphans or abandoned.

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