大象传媒

My Mother Alice was concerned she would loose touch of her fianc茅 Tom if war broke out. From the age of seventeen years old, she had been engaged to Tom who was five and a half years older than her. Alice was the youngest of the five surviving siblings. She had two older brothers and two older sisters, who were expected to wait until twenty-one years of age before marrying. You could not marry without your parents鈥� consent until you reached the age of twenty-one.

Her Father, Joseph Fryer said he would allow her to marry only if war broke out. Alice was the only one in the world praying for war. War was declared Sunday 3rd September 1939. Alice knew she could now marry Tom, who she had met when she was sixteen. Her Mother Grace told her 19 year old daughter, 鈥淚f you marry, you make the bed you lie on.鈥�

Bride and groom married on 30th September with very few guests, no white wedding dress or wedding cake. After marrying at Bethany Hall (a Brethren Assembly) opposite the bride鈥檚 home, the wedding party had their wedding photos taken. There was no honeymoon to go onto so the newly weds set up home on one of the floors at the bride鈥檚 parents鈥� home at 113 Barnsbury Road, Islington, London. Winter was approaching and my grandmother Grace allowed her to leave the coal bucket outside their room on the landing. Until now, this had been forbidden.

Alice was expected to leave her job which she did. Now a married woman she was expected to be kept by her husband, a pharmacist, who worked at a Baker Street chemist, dispensing medicine. Alice who had previously been a Civil Servant was soon called back into the workplace, replacing the men who were 鈥渃alled up鈥� to join the services.

September 1940
Alice saw her husband Tom go off to war. He had joined the RAF and was now stationed at Blackpool. Going by what was written on the back of a photo he was put into squad 165 wing L Squadron 8. According to his RAF records, he started as an untrained pilot.

The new Mrs Sparkes who continued to work as a married woman at Somerset House, London, discovered that sugar was soon going to be put on ration. She then started to hoard sugar in a cupboard in one of the two rooms she was renting from her parents鈥� home. They were bombed out and the sugar was amongst all the glass that had splintered from the many window panes. The sugar could not be saved as you couldn鈥檛 distinguish which was glass and which was sugar.

Alice鈥檚 parents, in their early sixties were taken in by her Mother鈥檚 sister who lived a few miles away. They lived upstairs in her home. I am not clear where Alice went to. Eventually Alice was transferred to Shrewsbury working in a man鈥檚 job at the National Assistant Board. By this time Tom was stationed at RAF Shawbury near Shrewsbury, Shropshire. Therefore they were able to see each other a lot more.

27th November 1940
Alice became of age and was now recognised as an eligible adult, but spent her twenty-first birthday crying her eyes out. She received a telegram with news from the War Office that her husband William Tom Sparkes would be posted overseas.

6th May 1942
I entered the world at 6pm on a very hot day. I was born on the top floor at 27 Wyle Cop. My Father was present at my birth. He named me Kay Ellen as you couldn鈥檛 shorten the name Kay. Ellen was his Mother鈥檚 name (who had died 10 years earlier). This was because he was disappointed that she never saw me. When I was 6 months old, my Mother conceived her second child. My brother was born in August 1943 in my Father鈥檚 absence as he had been posted to Algiers, North Africa.

My Mother wrote to my Father every day. He would write as often as he could back to her. These letters were always censored before reaching my Mother, who would often receive letters with parts cut out.

While my Father was overseas he became injure and admitted to Hospital, he was told later he would be sent home on a Red Cross Hospital ship. This was highly sensitive information therefore he knew if he wrote about this to my Mother, it would be removed from his letter to her. So he had to think of a different way to let her know in secret.

His secret message in his letter to her did not get discovered or removed. He wrote telling her to 鈥渓ook up Sankeys 471.鈥� My Mother went to her Hymn Book and she immediately knew what he meant as the words were 鈥溾� am coming Home.鈥� She was elated!

April 1944
He was able to see his 8 month old son for the first time. I was twenty-three months old, but still remember his home coming. My Mother invited all her friends, their babies and toddlers, and we went out to celebrate at a caf茅, drinking tea. I was in my new fold-up push chair, pushed by my Father. I was told his name is Daddy.

April 1946
W T Sparkes was demobilised as 鈥渞egistered disabled鈥� from the Royal Air Force. To continue to drive he had to take a Driving Test which he did in deep snow, and passed. He never went back to dispense medicine, but took over his uncle鈥檚 business known as Real & Holton at Castle Cary Somerset. That later became Sparkes of Cary.

They had been happily married for 48 years when my Mother died in December1987 and my Father sixteen weeks later to the day. Both died in Devon, near to the fishing village where my Father grew up.

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