大象传媒

Singing through the War!

This story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War site by Betty Craig who was one of 鈥楾he Arden Singers鈥�. The story has been added to the site with Betty鈥檚 permission. The author fully understands the site鈥檚 terms and conditions.

I was born and brought up in Bournville, Birmingham (Cadbury鈥檚 Garden Village), where my father worked for Cadbury鈥檚 for over 50 years.

I was born in 1926 so was 13 years of age when war broke out and lived all my teenage years through the war. I have one elder sister who is 6 years older than myself so she was 19 when war broke out and she was called up for war service in 1941. She had the choice of either working in a munitions factory, working on the land in the Land Army of military service. She chose the latter and joined the ATS, which ultimately became the W.R.A.C. in which she made her career and retired from the army with the rank of Brigadier.

I was too young to do very much war work but lived through the terrible times of continuous air raids on Birmingham and remember distinctly the night that Coventry was raised to the ground. My father was a major in the Home Guard and we shared an air raid shelter with the people who lived next door. The shelter became our refuge most nights and our neighbours were 4 maiden ladies who I thought resembled the characters in Little Women. They always said nothing would happen to us while Mr Nolan (my father) was in the Home Guard!!!

I enjoyed the war years as it gave me the opportunity to begin my life long interest in the Arts and I joined a group of singers called The Arden Singers, who were formed shortly after the outbreak of war and they (or we) set out with determination to provide a form of musical entertainment that was different in style from anything that had been envisaged for the Armed Forces. The name of the group for 20 girls ageing from roughly 16-30 was taken from the Forest of Arden, an area close to Stratford-on-Avon and closely linked with the best traditions of theatre and of course Shakespeare.

The Arden Singers specialized in high class entertainment for the Forces. By the end of the war in 1945 The Arden Singers had presented 600 shows for British and Allied Service men and women including every conceivable form of music from sacred to pop, folk and jazz to evenings of 鈥渕usic and poetry鈥� and 鈥渕usic and drama鈥� 鈥� not forgetting the people 鈥渙n the ground鈥� we visited ARP depots, hospitals, particularly hospitals for wounded service men and women, munitions factories, not only in the Midlands but the length and breadth of the British Isles. Every member of the group had full time jobs of various degrees and I personally was employed at Kalamazoo Office and Business Systems in Northfield, Birmingham.

We gave our services quite voluntarily as it was our way of contribution to the war effort and as I said I enjoyed every minute, even driving home through the dark nights of the blackout, with air raid sirens hooting and Nazi planes above us but we came through without being harmed but benefiting from the whole wide experience.

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