大象传媒

My mother Maisie Lister, went out to Ankara in June 1939, as the English Governess to the children of the French Ambassador.

They returned to France when war broke out and my mother sadly had to set sail for England.

She bought a train ticket to Basra and once there hoped she could get a boat to England but whilst the train was on the way to Basra they found that the train tracks had sunk into the sand after heavy rainfall and she had to wait for the train from Basra to meet up with them, and then all the passengers had to change trains. This meant she had to stay the night in Baghdad and she had little or no money. There were 11 other passengers, all young men, and my mother went with them in a taxi to a very smart hotel.

That evening she asked the maitre d' to point out an English family and she introduced herself to them. She told them of her situation and asked if they would loan her enough money to pay for the extra travel, meals and couchette and assured them that she would write an iou and once in Basra she was expecting money to be waiting for her there. No-one could take out more than 拢5 in cash from Turkey and of course she had spent all of that small sum.

These people were very good to my mother and helped her in every way they could even seeing her off at Baghdad and asking the young men to keep an eye on her on the journey.

She was only 22 years old and of course it was very unusual for a young, white girl to be travelling alone so the "boys" locked her into her compartment and she had to stay there until they called for her next morning to go for breakfast.

She said that she was very relieved that they did this as fellow passengers, all Arabs, were crowded in the next compantment and were tapping on the glass doors and window, amazed to see her and calling out to her all the time.

Once in Basra my mother went straight to the Consulate for help and finished up staying there for three weeks, helping the Consul's wife, who was expecting a baby.

Eventually she was able to buy a ticket on the ss Baltistan, a Fyffes boat, captained by a wonderful man called Hedley.

Also on board were several young men returning to the UK to join up. Everyone was told to wear their life jackets at all times and also to pack a small bag with anything most needed just in case the ship was hit.

One day out of Capetown they were supposed to meet up with the convoy, but instead Capt. Hedley turned back to Capetown for some reason or other which nobody ever understood. This meant that the ss Baltistan had missed the convoy and they were totally alone.

The next evening they were struck by a terrible storm and in the middle of the night there were terrible thumps and dreadful grinding noises.

My mother tells me that she was determined not to look as thought she was afraid and the only one scared, so she simply peered out of her cabin with her life jaket on, and waited for the signal to abandon ship. This fortunately did not come.

However, when the next day dawned it appeared the the ship was almost going backwards it was going so slowly and the Captain and 1st Mate looked absolutely agonised with worry.

Later she learned that the ship had lost a blade from the propellor, after some sort of collision, and later still they were told by the Captain of a destroyer(after exchanging latitudes and longitudes) that they had sunk an Italian submarine during the night. She was most relieved to see the destroyer but they simply wished them good luck and went on their way, leaving the ss Baltistan limping on her way home.

The weather was very warm and the sea very calm with a lovely sea breeze for days as they sailed towards Freetown. My mother used to go to the bow of the ship to watch the sea life : an albatross followed for miles - the sign to mariners of good luck.

In freetown locals paddled out in their boats with goods for sale, and she bought a huge bunch of very green bananas which she was determined to take home to the family.

Once out of Freetown the ship was in very dangerous waters with the Battle of the Atlantic wreaking havoc, convoys destroyed and attacked non-stop, and there was the little ship battling against dreadful odds. The ship's radio kept them in touch with news of these attacks so that they were able to avoid those areas, but it was a ghastly time for Captain Hedley.

He had to take the ship out of shipping lanes to get away from the German U-boats
- going way up to Iceland and then down the coast to Tilbury.

The ss Baltistan docked in Tilbury on my mother's birthday, 31st December 1941 after an epic and dangerous voyage taking 12 weeks during which time the ship was virtually a sitting target.

Not able to contact her parents, my mother made her way home arriving in time to celebrate both her birthday and the New Year.

She later married my father, Richard Cummings Haine, who joined the RAF before war broke out and flew in the Battle of Britain. During his long career in the Air Force he flew over 100 different aircraft.

My parents divorced and my mother remarried, James Edwards, who was stationed in Lincolnshire, developing Radar.

His sister, Joan Edwards was in the ATS and their mother was in the Fire Service.

My mother's two brothers were killed in the war.

Flight Lieutenant Eric Leslie Lister, was missing in action, presumed dead, over Leipzig, Germany, on 4 December 1943, aged 22.

Leading Aircraftman Edwin Roland Lister was killed on 20th April 1943 loading a bomb onto an aircraft near Tripoli, North Africa, aged 20.

Her sister Betty Lister was among the first to join up to the WAAF and became an officer.

As a sad postscript to this story, the ss Baltistan was sunk with the loss of all hands just one day out from the UK on her next voyage.

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