大象传媒

My name is Hildah Newell, age 82 and living in Cardigan, but in 1939 I was Hildah Jenkins, The Laurels, Cardigan, and attended the Cardigan, County School.
Head Girl, in my last year in school. In 1940 we had the Oulton High school for Boys evacuated to Cardigan & shared the school with us, they came from Liverpool, but returned home eventually.
I failed my medical to join the Wrens, much to my disappointment, but when the 2nd battalion & the Cardiganshire Home Guard was formed with their H-Y in Stanley House, Cardigan, I became their battalion Clerk, my last-year in school had been in the Commercial Class. So I was a Trained Secretary. We covered the lower half of the County with four, companies, I had to keep the nominal role & deal with all the correspondence, as most of the Home Guard were in their late 30th HO years & now that 60 years has gone by, so there can鈥檛 be many left to remember, I was about 19 & am now 82. Please don鈥檛 forget us 鈥淒ad鈥檚 Army鈥� might be a good laugh now but it was serious then. Next door to the office I worked in was a room full of Mills Bombs. I wonder if all the boxes were ever found. My father who was a sergeant, unbe known to us, had planted a box of Mills Bombs in the depth of our lilac hedge, only discovered after his death when the hedge was removed In road widening, the bomb removal squad had to 鈥榗ome to remove it鈥�.
My other memory is of the canteen in the Guildhall, Cardigan, organized by the W.V.S. it was run by teams of ladies from the Church & all the chapels in Cardigan. It was open every evening for the benefit of all the Troops in Cardigan and the district, being young, and available I was on duty most nights, endless dishes to wash. The food we served was simple sandwiches and tea at 2d, a cup, a pint of milk had to stretch to 30 cups.
Mr. Jimmy Davies ran a dance-cum-hop in the Guildhall every Week night to the music of Victor Sylvester on the wireless, and on Friday nights, I had a dance in the Black Lion Ballroom. These dances were very well run, the dances started at 7:30 pm, and the floor was immediately crowded, no admission after 10 pm, and never a need for 鈥榖ouncers鈥� on the door. The best dancers were from the South Wales Borders. The first troops to come to town were the H.A.C. 鈥� the Honorary Artillery Company from London, all with their beautiful cars. We had eventually many nationalities, Americans, Canadians, Poles etc. The only times the dances were closed was when the black American troops came, but we kept the Canteen going.
I remember seeing the poor exhausted men sent here after Dunkirk.
Other memories are of the sheer terror we felt when the announcement came that we were at war with Germany, and of queing for tomatoes of giving my sugar ration for my youngest brother. My friend all through school was Shiela Williams her father the Custom a Excise officer in the town; she joined the ATS and taught Princess Elizabeth ( now the Queen) to drive, when it was shown on Movietone news in the Pav we all went to see it.
Our clothes were a problem, as having just left school a school uniforms, we didn鈥檛 have any 鈥榞rown ups鈥� clothes and lyle stockings took about 8 precious clothes coupons, so it. was a case of make do and mend. Wool was scarce so it meant undoing old jumpers and re knitting in a different pattern, we even made our own hats.
We had evacuees from Liverpool or you had scientists from Aberporth. The town was very full in those days.
Alas the names of the fallen on the left hand side of the Memorial Gates at the Country School are mostly of my companions in school.
WE DO REMEMBER YOU

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