大象传媒

(Written by Olive in 1994)
Looking back over 50 years it is hard to remember the details of daily life on the Home Front. The first few months of 1944 were a fairly quiet time. We were all fed up with the war and rationing and it seemed it would never end. We did not know then that things would change dramatically by June 6th - D-Day. The Second Front must have been the most well kept secret in history. My husband-to-be, in his third year in the R.A.F. had been through intense training in various bomber aircraft, and was due for leave. The crews did not know, like other services, that all this training was for the Second Front - until it happened. He wrote to say that he was due for 10 days leave in June so we decided to get married on June 24th, giving us a week to arrange everything. It was a bit of a rush, but so were many war-time weddings.

We were married in All Hallows church - one of five weddings that day. I had been to see the vicar a few weeks earlier and explained that Walter's leave would be around that time - a situation common to many wartime weddings. Luckily, everything worked out well. It was a lovely day, both the wedding and the weather, and it was peaceful which was something of a miracle as Hitler's secret weapon, the Flying Bomb - or Doodlebug - as they came to be known, began their deadly mission two weeks previously and had been coming over every day and night.

Anyway, the wedding! My dress, made of a satin-faced material, was borrowed from a friend on the library staff, and my veil, very full and down to the floor, was lent by a friend of a friend - I was the fifth girl to wear it! My head-dress was lent to me by a cousin. Like many others, I didn't have enough coupons to spend on a wedding dress etc. because I wanted to buy a costume for going away and to wear afterwards. The wartime Utility clothes were good value and well made and my costume was a brownish flecked tweed lined with peach coloured crepe -de-chine. It cost 拢3.10.0d. (拢3.50). With it I wore a yellow blouse, brown shoes and brown gloves.

I had two Bridesmaids, my future sister-in-law Joyce Butcher (sadly now deceased) and a friend, Joy Norton (now Finch). Luckily Walter's mum had a dress length of blue artificial silk and my friend's mum had a dress length of pink artificial silk so the mums made the dresses of these from the same pattern. My mum had a length of 鈥榞old鈥� lace from which she made the head-dresses with the addition of a few artificial flowers. It all looked very professional and lovely. I should mention here that before the war making our own dresses was a much more common practice than it is today. We would go up to London to the big stores in Oxford St. and Kensington High St. during the sales and stock up with dress lengths which could be bought for a few shillings.

It wasn't easy at this time to buy flowers as everything was given over to vegetables, but I went into the greengrocer's at the top of Park Lane Tottenham a week before the wedding and he promised me that he would try and get me something. He did and he made me a nice 鈥渟ort of鈥� bouquet of red roses. They could have been a little more open but they were all he could get and I was very grateful. A neighbour and friend heard on our wedding morning that another grocer had some flowers, so she managed to get two bouquets made up for the bridesmaids, which arrived 30 minutes before the wedding.

My parents-in-law lived in one of the large detached houses in Pembury Rd. (The houses have gone now, due to effects of war damage) so we had our reception there. Friends helped out with food coupons and we were able to have ham salad and a sweet made with tinned fruit and blancmange. We were allowed tinned goods on a monthly basis when available, so of course we had been saving (hopefully!) whatever we had been allocated for some time. My husband's uncle, who was catering manager at the Egyptian Embassy, managed to have a small fruit cake made for us. We didn't have an artificial cardboard cover, which was a usual wartime thing, but stuck a spray of flowers from the garden into the top. Our friends and family managed to find enough pink and blue serviettes in their sideboard drawers to continue the colour scheme and (a miracle) about two hours before the wedding a man came down the road pushing a barrow load of pink and blue cornflowers so we bought a large armful! Pastel pinks and blues were two popular colours for the table in pre-war years.

There were about 30 guests. Our relatives from Peterborough and elsewhere didn't come because of the Flying Bombs. We were allowed a few extra rations for weddings, so I had to go to the Food Office which, as far as I can remember, was somewhere towards Stamford Hill. I was given coupons for a l/41b. tea, sugar and some dried fruit-I can't remember how much. I do remember a large board on the wall telling you what amounts of different cooking ingredients were needed to make various puddings etc. It started by stating that one l/41b of tea would make 98 cups! We still don't know if this is true.

We did have two nice wedding cars with white interiors. Like many others during the war years, with a little ingenuity and effort, we managed to have our wedding and we are fortunate enough to be writing our memories of it in this our 50th year.

Yes, we did have enough wine and beer!

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