大象传媒

My wartime memories can be divided into three sections, Bournemouth, London and Oxford.
At the time of the Dunkirk rescues I was a sixth form pupil at Bournemouth School for Girls. For a while the school was closed so that it could be used as a feeding station for the soldiers being brought back. Soup was made in huge containers which we then served out. I remember neither what sort of soup it was nor who did the cooking; what has remained with me ever since was the smell of the men after their ordeal. I also recollect that, in the second wave of men, there were soldiers from the Black Watch.
We had our lessons in the afternoons in a hall somewhere; I don`t even remember where I took my Higher School Certificate exams.
My parents lived in London, in Chiswick, in a first floor flat. We had an Anderson shelter in the garden into which the flat dwellers went every evening at about 6 pm. We lay sardine fashion, head to tail - plus the dog - and became so used to it that we slept right through, even when a bomb made our flat uninhabitable. Perhaps because I was only seventeen I was not terrified. The Council rehoused us.
Much later on in the war I remember the very last of the raids. One night when I was staying in a convent in Chiswick where I had a room in the nurses` quarters at the far end of the garden. The only other people there were an elderly nun and a very young nurse who had just arrived. It was an appalling firebomb attack; we stood for what seemed an eternity with our backs to the wall. The young nurse was terrified, as was the nun, who clutched my hand desperately throughout. I knew I had to stand quite still to keep her calm. Eventually we were brought back into the main building. At that point I think I knew that I was utterly exhausted by the effort of not panicking; it was a very strong reaction.
I think the firstV2 fell in Chiswick. We heard a huge bang and later walked over to see what had happened. The bomb had completely demolished four houses.
When I went to Oxford in the autumn of 1940 I couldn`t sleep because there were no air raids and it was so quiet. I was there for four years - 1940 - 44 - and during that time there were only two raids, though we all did our share of fire watching.
I was at Lady Margaret Hall which had the most lovely garden, a large part of which was dug up for vegetables. Despite this we were always hungry and were given vitamin capsules which we dubbed 鈥渉orse pills鈥�. In north Oxford there was a factory which made cakes where we would queue once a week for ex-ration book delicacies which we devoured because we were always so hungry.
In the remaining small part of the garden one of the dons, a History tutor, kept chickens. We were very indignant when we found out that an egg had gone, because it was ill, to one of the two dogs belonging to my tutor! What about our health??! After the first Michaelmas term virtually all the domestic staff were called up for war work so we had to do all of the housekeeping except the cooking. Fuel was in very short supply: we had coal for our tiny fireplaces twice a week only. I used to use my academic gown as a sort of bellows to get the fire going. On one occasion a friend and I made marmalade over it!
There were very few men undergraduates but, because I was reading Russian, I was put into a group of young army officers who needed the language. One of them was Donald Swann who was half Russian and who looked ethereal all the time; was he composing tunes in his head? In general the men who were there were those who were unfit for active service or who were reading theology. I belonged to the Student Christian Movement and so met most of the latter; they were very fine people.
I spent one summer vac. at LMH helping out and doing some studying. There were some Polish airmen in the area whom we invited for the afternoon. We ended up punting on the Cherwell and one of them asked to take his turn with the pole, promptly slid down it and fell into the river! One of us had trousers that would fit him and we did manage to get his own dried by the end of the afternoon.
My studies ended, I went to Birmingham to teach. On VE Day a friend and I decided to go out into the country, to the Clent Hills. It was so quiet, so peaceful: just wonderful. On another occasion we went back to the Hills, to a pub called The Fountain Inn which had fresh eggs: what a treat to have a real boiled egg!

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