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Input to People鈥檚 War
Elizabeth (Libby) Highet Born 3rd Feb 1939
(personal details removed by moderator)
Childhood Memories of a Family at War (Part 2)
Sometime in December 1942 my mother (Joan Highet) got a telegram to say father (William Bremner Highet) was missing 鈥� his ship had been torpedoed. Father went down with the SS Ceramic, which had left Liverpool with 600 men, women and children (many of the adults were medical staff 鈥� doctors and nurses) bound for South Africa and Australia. My father鈥檚 ultimate destination was to have been Pietermaritzburg where he was due to open a new nerve injury unit. On the night of 6/7 December 1942 the SS Ceramic was torpedoed at about 11.30pm. The sea was rough and the weather stormy so that when lifeboats were launched they turned upside down. All on board, apart from one survivor, lost their lives. The survivor was picked up by the U-Boat and became a prisoner-of-war. I believe it was customary for a submarine captain to pick-up just one survivor to prove that his submarine had sunk the ship. After the war, mother wrote to the survivor, but he was unable to say what had happened to father, although he did remember him being on-board. Reports say that he Ceramic went down at Lat 40W and Long 40N. I have always wanted to go to that spot to lay a wreath there, but it is not practical. A very good Web site records the sinking. Father was 31 years old when he died. My mother closed up the house, said goodbye to Eileen and our refugee, and put me into a local Oxford boarding school called Sunnymede House. I was one month under four years old. My mother had to get a job where she could look after me. Through the help of medical friends she became the matron of one of the two 鈥榠solation鈥� hospitals in Oxford. It was on Hillingdon Road, I think. Mother had a little bed/sitting room and an office next door. When I was home I shared her little narrow bed and played under her office desk.
In early 1943, boarding schools were full of children like me. My dormitory was very crowded and I was the only one who had a cot, which I hated!
Discipline was strict and I had moved from being probably rather spoilt and cosseted to having to be independent. I started to wet the bed, which meant that every morning after breakfast I had to go to the head mistress for the cane (another smack on the hand). This didn鈥檛 hurt very much but what I hated was being singled out from the other children and being pointed at. One morning another child had also wet the bed and I remember being shocked because she was so old. I think she must have been about 10 years old. The school smelt dusty. We preferred to play outside under a huge cedar tree.
One day my mother came to visit me and I was told to say, 鈥淗ello mother, I hope you are well鈥� and then shake her hand! Mother promptly burst into tears! Another day mother brought her brother Geoffrey (my uncle) to see me.
The children who were patients usually had ringworm and all wore funny caps as their heads were shaved. I was not allowed near any of the patients. We had lots of Indian Servicemen with tuberculosis. Soon after we moved to the Isolation Hospital, I contracted whooping cough, which then gave me bronchial pneumonia. I had to go into the other Oxford Isolation Hospital and was very ill. After coming out of hospital I was sent to a convalescent home.
When things got back to normal I left Sunnymeade House and was sent to a day school called St Michael鈥檚 Preparatory School. I used to go on the bus with my teacher. She had a long, sweeping navy cloak and boots with small buttons up the side. The school was very small, with only two classrooms separated by a curtain. As I had been so ill, mother bought me a very expensive navy Crombie (pure wool) coat. One day I wet my pants and my punishment was to stand outside the classroom 鈥� no hallway so I had to stand outside in the snow! My mother was furious when she heard and because I had been so ill. She got on the bus to the school and told the teacher off. Anyway, despite all that I was reasonably happy at St Michael鈥檚. The only trouble was that when I got off the bus, mother was supposed to be there to meet me. However, she was usually busy and forgot. I was told never to try and cross the road on my own. So after standing by the road on many occasions, I used to knock on the on my own. So after standing by the road on many occasions, I used to knock on the door of some council houses opposite. I had noticed that some big girls lived there and they used to take me across the road to the hospital.
At last the war ended. Lots of celebrations, but for people like us it was sad. My Daddy was not coming home and my mother became very depressed. After all, she had lost both brothers and her husband. My parents鈥� future had been full of promise. My father had been a brilliant man with a great future in medicine. My mother found that many of their friends had moved on from Oxford. An American orthopaedic surgeon from the Churchill Hospital had asked her to marry him, but mother said my father was 鈥渕issing鈥� and she would hope for years that he might turn up. I think many years later she regretted not marrying 鈥淯ncle Phil鈥� who went on to be a very successful orthopaedic surgeon in the States.
She made a brave decision to go to NZ to visit my grandparents. Being a war widow she was entitled to go to NZ with me for nothing. She had kept in close contact with my grandmother (Elsie Highet) and was keen to meet her. However by this time my grandmother was very ill, but my mother decided to go anyway. After packing up and saying goodbye to Oxford we went to stay in Norwich with my aunt until we heard which ship we were going on. Mother was very upset with the British government because they had let her down with my father鈥檚 pension. Father was asked to join the army because they had no specialist in peripheral nerve injuries. A special unit had been built in South Africa. Professor Seddon suggested my father might fill the position. After lots of discussion it was agreed my father would join the army at Aldershot Hospital for 6 months, and learn all about the army as a second-lieutenant. However on finishing he would be promoted to major with a promise of early promotion to lieutenant colonel. All went according to plan until he arrived in Liverpool at the Dockside and his major papers had not arrived. He was told it would be sorted out while he was travelling to South Africa. He was wearing his crowns (i.e. a major鈥檚 uniform) when he left. However, as I described earlier, his ship was torpedoed on the way. Mother was informed she would get a second-lieutenant鈥檚 pension for life plus 拢16 a year for me. The medical world was furious. Her MP was Quinton Hogg (later to become Lord Hailsham). He asked a question in the House of Commons. It was in all the papers at the time. Eventually my mother asked them to drop the case because she felt it made her look 鈥榤oney grabbing鈥� and she had only one child and a profession. However, Professor Seddon never got over it and in 1976 he and my Uncle (Allan Highet), who was then a NZ government minister, wanted to raise the matter again. I was married and living in Germany at that time: mother came over and asked our advice. Both mother and I felt she wouldn鈥檛 win, and it would only upset her. She agreed. Sir Herbert Seddon was by this time very ill but Lady Seddon said he was happy to release all his papers on the subject. However both mother and I decided not go to ahead with it. We never had faith in governments again!!
My paternal grandmother, Elsie, never got over her son鈥檚 death and died before we reached NZ. She was only 64.
We stayed in Norwich until we were told to go to Southampton Docks and board the ship called the Orion 鈥� a troop ship. It was exciting for me leaving Norwich in a big steam train of the day. Somehow travelling by train in those days was so much more exciting than now. The engines would puff with steam and seemed huge to a child. A corridor ran down one side of the train with compartments going off. You could sit three people each side comfortably, but usually four were crammed together. Above our heads were luggage racks (nets) and behind our heads were long narrow pictures of various attractive parts of the country. If the small window was opened in the carriage, small pieces of soot would fly in. After a journey most people felt and looked dirty! Railway stations were always full of smoke, steam and noise. Porters hurried everywhere with portable trolleys to carry people鈥檚 luggage. Children wore their school uniforms always, because they didn鈥檛 have play clothes, such as the jeans they wear now. Little girls wore pixie hats (like a scarf sewn a few inches along one edge at the half-way fold) and of course uniforms were everywhere because the war was either still going on in some part of the world and it was a long time before everyone was back enjoying normal civilian life.
So, when mother and I left Norwich on the train we only had one suitcase between us. Our trunk had gone ahead to the ship. When we arrived in Southampton, we were very tired having changed trains in London. Southampton was just a heap of rubble! I remember everywhere we looked were piles of bricks and concrete, bombed houses with wallpaper fluttering in the breeze and furniture hanging out of ruined houses. Southampton was badly bombed during the war because of the docks.
We seemed to walk for miles trying to find somewhere to stay for the night. (We were not allowed to embark until the following day). I would sit on the case while mother knocked on doors. Eventually, utterly exhausted, she asked a policeman for help. He took us to the YWCA. We shared a bed and in the morning lined up for a bowl of porridge. Mother never ate breakfast and when she left her porridge I remember she was told off for wasting food! We then had to queue up to wash our plate and spoon, and strip our bed. We were very pleased to leave that place.
The ship was huge. We climbed the high gangplank and eventually found our cabin that was on the inside with no porthole. Seven bunks were on one side with a small basin on the other. I suppose there were wardrobes, but I don鈥檛 remember any. In that small crowded, stuffy cabin were five women and two children. We were on a ship with thousands of Australian and NZ airmen. I don鈥檛 know how many there were, but it was very overcrowded.
Mother was always very particular about her clothes and we had spent the morning in the ironing room with mother ironing her dresses. We had just sailed through the Bay of Biscay when we realised all the engines had stopped. We were told that the ship was returning to England! They said we were returning because of engine problems. In truth, riots and fighting were taking place below deck because of overcrowding. Flight lieutenants and lower ranks were below deck with bunks seven high. Mother was pleased in one sense because she hated our cabin, but annoyed because she had just finished ironing all her clothes that had been packed!
So back we went to Norwich with only our summer clothes. Our winter clothes were packed in our trunk still on board the ship. I think we spent three weeks in Norwich before going back again to Southampton, this time to a troop ship called The Windsor Castle. Through some good friends of mother鈥檚, we were given a cabin to ourselves on the outside with a porthole. On this ship there were 5,000 men, 7 women and 4 children. Mother ate at the captain鈥檚 table and dressed for dinner in a smart black dress with pearls. I ate with the other children in the nursery. As I was the eldest (six), and the others were toddlers, I was not too happy with this arrangement!
I have very clear memories of that sea voyage to NZ and very happy memories. I had 5,000 uncles to spoil me! They spent hours throwing me up in the air in a blanket, buying me treats when we called in at various countries - Egypt, India etc etc., but I can remember the same men lying over the decks gambling with cards and eating butterscotch sweets of which, for some unknown reason, they seemed to have an endless supply. I heard that some of the men lost most of the money they had saved during the war (as they had had few other opportunities to spend it) in gambling on the way home. They were all happy to be going home to their country and families, so I was thoroughly spoiltWe had lifeboat drill every day because the war was still going on in various parts of the world, and also because there were still mines in the sea. Everyone lined up on the decks with lifejackets on and went through a roll call. It could take ages. So the Captain said I need do it only once a week. because I was so young, The rest of the week I could do ship鈥檚 inspection with him. I went down into the depths鈥� of the ship, seeing all the massive machinery, climbed ladders and walked on narrow metal-grating walkways. I loved the galleys and was always given an apple or piece of cake. Sometimes I was allowed to sit on the bridge with the Captain and inspect all parts of the ship.
When we arrived at India it was so hot with no breeze. Mother hated it and lay on the top bunk with her head out of the porthole! Because of the political unrest in India at that time we had to be anchored in the middle of the harbour, away from the dockside. Anyone going ashore had to be ferried by boat. Mother and I went into Bombay once. All I can remember is the heat and poverty, with people sitting begging by the roadsides. It was smelly and crowded. Mother bought a lot of lace in a shop that we stepped down into. The shop was dark with very little light coming in. At that time India wanted independence so there was a lot of unrest. They finally received independence in 1947. We were there in 1946.
When the men went ashore, they all seemed to have the same idea of bringing me bananas! Of course I had never had one before. One man went ashore and got drunk. His friends brought him back on board, but put him in his own bunk that was the top 鈥� i.e. no 7. He fell off and broke his neck. Very sad to have survived the war and die on the way home. He was Australian.
Finally we reached Perth, the first of our three stopovers in Australia. The docks were festooned with flags, streamers and people. The bands were playing and everyone was so happy to see their sons, husbands and brothers home. Mother was upset, as she always was at every port because her husband and bothers were not returning. However we tried to enjoy homecomings. This welcome home happened in Melbourne and Sydney as well, with lots of waving, screaming, music and colourful flags etc. When we reached Sydney a friend of my grandfather鈥檚 was there to meet us. It was a great treat to spend one night ashore in a hotel. We had been at sea for about eight weeks by then. One week later we reached Wellington NZ. We said our farewells to the Captain, who had become a good friend. For several years afterwards he used to come to see us whenever his ship was in port. Eventually he went on another route and we lost touch with him.
Wellington docks were the same as the Australian docks, with flags and music. So much excitement! Mother and I were apprehensive. I didn鈥檛 even know what my NZ family looked like. We didn鈥檛 know who would meet us. When we got off the ship we were herded into a huge shed/hangar with all the relatives and friends behind ropes together with what seemed like thousands of other people. We walked slowly down this long corridor of screaming crowds. Suddenly my Uncle Geoffrey appeared, took our case and ushered us through. We arrived in his car at 7, Jack Street, Karori, my grandfather鈥檚 bungalow. It can no longer be found as the road has been renamed. The bungalow is still there though.
So started a new peaceful life in NZ that lasted five years until I returned to England in 1950, aged 11.

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