大象传媒

This story was entered by Tony Greenfield, with the agreement of, and on behalf of, Mrs Greta Almond. Greta Dixon was born in 1931, to John Thomas and Mary Ellen Dixon, in Darlington. The family lived at 47 Brook Terrace in Darlington. Greta had three older siblings, Raymond, born in 1924, Harold, born in 1927 and Joan, born in 1929. Mr Dixon was an Engineer Designer but spent much of his time as a Trade Union official with the Amalgamated Engineering Union (AEU). Mrs Dixon had been profoundly deaf since the age of 11, as a result of a bout of blackwater fever, and, consequently, never heard any of her children speak. Despite her disability, she was a skilled embroidress, working on fine tapestries and vestments for Durham Cathedral. Mr Dixon, as well as being a Trade Union official, was active in the Socialist movement and through this, Greta recalls meeting Jenny Lee, Nye Bevan's wife, and Hugh Dalton, who was one of Greta's godparents. The Dixon's seem to have been an extraordinary family all round. Greta's older sister Joan died of infantile paralysis; Raymond joined the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers (REME)and was at Dunkirk; he suffered as a result of his war experiences and was never able to work again; brother Harold had a reserved occuaption which meant he was not called up - Greta never knew what work he did but he was sadly murdered in Australia in about 1958. At the outset of the war, Mr Dixon's sister died and, as the father was in a nursing home, the Shields 'children' all came to live with the Dixons' at 47 Brook Terrace. They consisted of twin boys Maurice and Peter and sisters Ethel and Kathleen. Maurice joined the Army and was killed in North Africa, Peter joined the Royal Navy and went down with HMS Hood; Ethel joined the ATS and Kathleen became a member of the Land Army. Mrs Dixon, despite her disability, seems to have led an incredibly busy life. As well as looking after everybody at home she also worked at Darlington Memorial Hospital, as a 'specialist sewer' making special bandages and dressings. This work was led by a Lady Starmer, of Cleveland Avenue and Greta recalls that, after the war, her mother was presented with a silver thimble, by Lady Starmer, in recognition of her work. In addition, Mrs Dixon worked for both the Red Cross and the then WVS dishing out soup, sandwiches and tea for the troops passing through Darlington Station as well as at some houses in Stanhope Road, making up beds for troops who were breaking a long journey by overnighting in Darlington and also providing them with soup, sandwiches and tea. Greta was sometimes allowed to help her mother with this work. Mrs Dixon did similar work at a canteen in Darlington Memorial Hospital, two mornings a week. Mr Dixon being an engineer, found time to construct an elaborate air-raid shelter, from steel struts and steel sheets, which covered part of the kitchen and the area under the stairs. Such was the novelty of this shelter that the family were visited by Mr Peat, MP for Darlington and Hugh Dalton, who may have been President of the Board of Trade at the time, to examine the shelter. Greta remembers having porridge for breakfast 'every morning of the year', cycling to Darlington High School and 'racing home to listen to classical music on the wireless at 1-o-clock' before returning to school for afternoon lessons. She also recalls her mother's cleverness at making and altering clothes; she particularly remembers her first 'proper' head square, replacing the much less appealing knitted scarf used as a pixie-hood and two coats turned into one blue coat, with brown sleeves, brown pockets and a brown belt with a buckle with a nice design - "very posh". Greta's father taught her how to 'cobble' her own shoes, even providing her with her own last, and also taught her painting, papering and decorating and she remembers with pride the first time he let her 'grain' the front door, even using the blow-torch! She also remembers taping all the windows in the house and fitting blackout screens into special frames made by her father and fitted with special snecks. Greta also recalls that they had a large map of the world on the kitchen wall with every action having to be marked on it. She also remembers being given a lovely chrome ID bracelet, to replace the plastic one which hung on string around her neck. When Mrs Dixon baked, she made 2lb rice loaves, fruit loaf, tea cakes and made two stone of bread at every baking. Greta recalls that on a Sunday afternoon, as a treat, they would buy a box of cakes from the Coop and would have jelly and a tin of fruit. Towards the end of the war the Dixons had eight ATS girls, from a camp at Raby Castle, billeted on them. Greta recalls that her mother enjoyed being a second mum to these girls but that as they had a new fireplace in the front room, with a precious mirror over it, handed down from their grandmother, the girls were forbidden from standing on the hearth and combing their hair in the mirror - they had to use the kitchen mirror. Greta remembers that on a Friday evening, her parents allowed the girls to have thir boy-friends (male soldiers from Raby Castle)to visit and has fond memories of evenings playing cards, darts and billiards. The boys sometime brought rabbits and vegetables and Mrs Dixon cooked for everyone. On Sunday evenings, transport took the ATS girls to Raby Castle for a social eveining. On these evenings, Mr Dixon would visit the King's Head for a pint with his friends George Steele and Percy Dobson and then, having been issued with a special pass for the purpose, would collect half a dozen German POWS from their billet in Woolworths shop and take them home to 47 Brook Terrace for a family meal, accompanied by a single bottle of Newcastle Brown Ale. Greta recalls that they had very little English but were always clean and polite. After dinner they would play simple card games or snakes and ladders and ludo accompanied by much laughter and clinking of glasses. Greta remembers only one name - Martin Mayer (Maier?)who would put on a pinny and help her mother with the dishes; another said that his father was the mayor of Berlin. These evenings took place only on a Sunday, out of consideration for the feelings of the ATS girls and soldiers.

At the end of the war, Greta remembers parades taking place from the Market Place to the top of Harrowgate Hill with soldiers and tanks and guns and bands. Mrs Dixon alternated between her Red Cross and WVS uniforms and, because of her disablity and her tiny size, was always allocated a seat on the front row. Sadly, Mrs Dixon died tragically, when she was 79, when she fell into a fire and was killed.

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