大象传媒

STRATFORD ORAL HISTORY WW2 - EDITED TRANSCRIPTS
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1 鈥� Edward (Tommy) Booker, born 1902 and his wife, Lilian, born 1909, talk about the Government Treasury Dept. at Stratford, and the London staff being billeted here:

鈥淚 was only a shorthand writer there, but they sent me down here; I suppose I must have been up the top of the scale and they put me in charge of 25 girls, half shorthand writers, half copying typists 鈥� we had the dining room of the White Swan as our office. The girls came from London and round about, by the trainload, (to Stratford) because they thought it was a safe spot you see, Hitler said he鈥檇 never bomb Stratford because he considered that Shakespeare was part of Germany鈥�
(but) I remember one night when Tommy and I were walking round Shottery Fields, it was a lovely night, beautiful moon and I heard this plane. I said 鈥楾ommy, there鈥檚 a plane, it鈥檚 very low.鈥� And he said 鈥極h, that鈥檚 all right, it鈥檚 one of ours, I know the sound of it.鈥� Right underneath the moon, we saw the great big Swastika. The German was limping back I suppose he was in trouble.

The Treasury went to the Welcombe Hotel, (and) the Americans took over the White Swan. I鈥檒l tell you a little story, but I don鈥檛 know that it ought to go on record. The day we arrived here, we didn鈥檛 get to Leamington till after three o鈥檆lock, and so of course there was no lunch for us, so we came on to Stratford, and we had to walk from the railway to the White Swan, and as we passed Arden Street, past the hospital, there was a little group of people on the corner of Grove Road, and one of them said 鈥楬ere come the bloody interlopers.鈥� That was our welcome to Stratford!
They had to put us all up you see, they had to take us all into their houses, and they didn鈥檛 get an awful lot for it, and as a matter of fact, most of us had to supplement them. I was in Albany Road 鈥� I had a very nice place.

They welcomed the Americans, didn鈥檛 they, because the Americans came with all boxes of sweets and things like that that they wanted I presume. We had quite a few down at the White Swan, didn鈥檛 we 鈥� nice chaps.
We formed a social club (in the White Swan dining room) so that our people could have somewhere to go, because obviously where we were billeted they didn鈥檛 always want you stuck in there every evening you see. The bar next door brought us and the locals together.

One or two of our people were billeted at the HayTor Hotel, some of the solicitors you know, the big bugs. They had installed something like fourteen telephone lines in case the Cabinet may want to come down, if London got too hot鈥hey had a lot done at the (Memorial) Theatre as well, a lot of telephone lines down there (for the Parliament). I don鈥檛 think Churchill would have come anyway, he had got himself a safe place underneath the Admiralty hadn鈥檛 he, and he spent all his time there.

I don鈥檛 think {the local people) were interested, except that they were annoyed about the invasion, but then they got over that and we all sort of mucked in together, I never had any trouble. I mean the people I was with, they were very good, used to go away and leave me in charge of the place, hadn鈥檛 they? We mixed with the locals all right, and that remark (about interlopers) was very ill-timed and quite unnecessary, it was by a local big-mouth 鈥� he was an isolated case he was 鈥� I knew the chap 鈥� dead now! I鈥檒l never forget it, I can see the man. We felt so bedraggled, we hadn鈥檛 had anything from the time we had our breakfast you see, till the time we got to the White Swan when we were given a cup of tea and a fairy cake, that was all we had had all day.

There wasn鈥檛 much trouble about. Some of the airmen used to get a bit obstreperous and used to have fights in Bridge Street 鈥� letting off steam more than anything.
The local girls were well pleased with all this activity, especially when the Americans came with the nylons and this that and the other. I don鈥檛 know of any instances of marriage but they enjoyed themselves; I don鈥檛 remember any children left behind, (but) all sorts of affairs were going on 鈥� it鈥檚 wartime, what do you expect? One thing that tickled us was an American came down the street one evening, knocked on the door and one of the youngsters opened the door to him: 鈥楧o you mind if I have my watch, I forgot to collect it last night?鈥� So the boy said 鈥榃here was it?鈥� 鈥楿p in the bedroom.鈥� And of course they had such loud voices that everybody in Kendall Avenue heard it.
He got his watch; that was part and parcel of the war, I mean the husbands being away at the war and of course the Americans here.
We had bombers didn鈥檛 we, bombers over at Wellesbourne, and some nights they鈥檇 skim over the top of the houses they were so low. The night before we were married, I was up most of the night because you couldn鈥檛 sleep with these planes soaring 鈥� just clearing the rooftops, going out.鈥�

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