大象传媒

A battery powered wireless was our main source of entertainment and news during the war. Whenever Winston Churchill was speaking everyone would listen in silence. ITMA (鈥淚t鈥檚 that man again鈥�) the unmissable weekly favorite. It was a quick fire series that was always bang up to date, often with public information messages. They were forever inventing new characters, sometimes just to make an important point or ridicule Goebbels and Lord Haw Haw. Reception in Cornwall was never very good, especially at nighttime and the powerful long wave transmitter at Droitwich was put on reduced output. Transmitters would be randomly switched to avoid their being used for the guidance of enemy aircraft. Initially Cinemas were closed because of the risk of so many being killed by one bomb. This order was soon relaxed when it was realized their importance in maintaining public moral and information. Torch batteries were always, 鈥榰nder the counter鈥�, especially the popular No. 8. The Government made sure that 120/90 volt high tension and 9 volt grid bias batteries were always available, as were 鈥楿tility鈥� radios built to a single simple design. Accumulators were re-charged by Dryden James, the local blacksmith and taxi driver. It was vital that as many people as possible could listen to their radios and if need be pass on urgent government messages to their neighbours. There were mains operated sets - we had one for our guests - and also adaptors, called 鈥榖attery eliminators鈥�, but these suffered from a 50 cycle mains 鈥榟um鈥�. It really is not possible to compare a 鈥榩ortable鈥� battery set of 1939 with those of today. Valves had 鈥榟eaters鈥� and drew a lot of current, compared to transistors which are near cold and use little current at low voltage. For dances we used a windup gramophone and '78' records. There was good dance music on the radio, but evening reception was too poor. Getting needles and the brittle records for it was not always easy. 'Ennor鈥檚' was usually our best hope! We were very adept in those day at creating our own entertainments.

Rationing was not something I was too much aware of, apart from not being able to go out and buy sweets just when I wanted. I did find some un-rationed cough sweets, which made me ill! Margarine in those days was very very different from today, as was saccharine. At school we only got one pat of butter each day, served at breakfast. We each had our own tin for the surgar ration not needed for cooking. Identity cards and gasmasks had to be carried at all times. My only real wartime privation was never having any parental visits while at boarding school, nor was I ever able to go home for half term holidays. Trains and stations all carried placards saying:- 鈥淚s your Journey really Necessary鈥�? The shortage of fuel and coaches also meant we could play very few away games. There were many 鈥榝iddles鈥� in wartime and one that affected us greatly was the number of times a case of whisky or gin would arrive with broken bottles, despite being covered in bottle straws and packed with separators, in wooden boxes. The boxes it seems were held over a bucket while a tool was driven through a joint to break the bottle. Although there was compensation the contents could never be replaced. Our wine merchants were 鈥淪tokes and Harvey鈥�, one of the main suppliers to the navy at the time.

Especially after Dunkirk there were very real worries about enemy agents having arrived with the refugees. Boat loads of mainly French Nationals arrived in Falmouth. My mother Alice and Godmother Germaine Griggs *, both fluent French speakers, went to help these lost souls who had arrived at the docks. Their baggage had been ripped opened as officials searched for evidence of illegal entry. They were tired hungry and very bewildered. Some my mother brought home and found beds for. She also went into the town to see what she could buy for them to eat; with rationing this was not easy. All she found were oranges which luckily had just been delivered to Marks and Spencer. We were already having problems with several of our guests, dissatisfied with the level of wartime service provided. When the French refugees arrived there was a near riot, some of our residents did not want to be with the ones they blamed for letting us down and collaborating with the Germans. My father made it very clear that he did not want such narrow minded and uncaring guests in his hotel and asked those that felt that way to leave. A few left and we had no more complaints from then on!

My father 'Eddie', who lost his younger brother Henry Bastick from the same regiment in WW1, saw his role as making every effort to ensure we were as self-sufficient as possible and obeyed to the letter the ever increasing number of regulations. One he was unhappy about 鈥� the need to paint a short black line 5鈥� above the drain hole of each bath. To conserve water and fuel no one was allowed to fill their bath deeper than 5鈥�. Many everyday items were unobtainable, so we were lucky to have a good stock of things like linen and crockery, having only recently opened as an hotel. We were not so fortunate with glasses and by the end of the war had few that matched. Spare parts for all our machinery were difficult to find. We were always being told, 鈥淢ade do and Mend鈥� and did a lot of that. Father smoked his pipe constantly, but because of the blackout always turned it upside down if outside! When his favorite Africanda tobacco was not available he dried and smoked ColtsFoot!

We had a large and well established Victorian walled kitchen garden, our own borehole for water, also a plant for making gas to cook with and later added some incandescent gas lights when power cuts increased. We even changed our electrically run gas plant for an older weight driven model, which could be hand wound to maintain constant pressure in the gasometer. There were no emergency lights, but every room had candles and virtually everyone carried a torch. Unlike today, our electricity then was only used for lighting, pumping water, winding the gas plant weight, a refrigerator, vacuum cleaners and an iron. Water was the only vital item we could not get any other way, but there were 3 very large tanks in the water tower and the float switch was set to make sure they were always kept near full. Part of an adjoining field was ploughed to grow even more vegetables. Runner beans were salted in the large thick and deep glass containers, which had contained the lead acid battery plates when we made our own electricity. Eggs were preserved in Waterglass or 鈥極teg鈥� and fruit bottled in Kilner Jars. For hard fruit we used Camden Tablets dissolved in water and poured over the fruit packed in glass jars. A friend had large fruit orchards near Evesham and offered to send us some plums, but the Ministry would only allow them to be sent by full railway wagon loads, direct to a wholesaler 鈥� Rowes were delighted. Their arrival in Falmouth caused long queues and our driving up to take away a car load caused great indignation, so we never did it again! After that we sourced plums locally from Kea, but sadly no 'Victorias'! Thanks to a 'gas store' we did have apples year round. We did not get a deep freeze until after the war. Before the war my father had never grown or cooked anything, by the end he was producing fine fruit and vegetables and cooking many interesting dishes, all from unlikely ingredients! Like my mother he never took a holiday or day off during the war. Willy Zundle, our Swiss chef was a "Mrs. Beaton" and Auguste Escoffier man and never really got to grips with wartime cooking, so needed help and guidance. When powdered egg first arrived my mother made sure a few pieces of real egg shell were added! It was impossible to get all the ingredients needed for traditional Christmas puddings, let alone burn valuable brandy which was in such short supply. A pudding was made of coulured plaster with a hole for holly, then methylated spirits poured over it! This flaming offering was paraded around the dining room before being removed to the kitchens for portioning. Never a problem to decorate the hotel at Christmas with evergreen and one of our own trees always filled the stairwell through two floors! By the end of the war only a few fairy lights still worked and spares were unobtainable. Throughout the war hotel and restaurant meals were free of ration 鈥� except that you could not charge more than five shillings 鈥� 25p today! Only after 72 hours staying in an hotel did you have to hand over your ration book. Other than that the establishment claimed the ration for the meals served. We were going to use our tennis court to keep both pigs and chicken, but the Ministry insisted the produce would count as our ration and any excess should be sent to the marketing board 鈥� despite intending to feed them on hotel swill and bread scraps!

There was no piped water in the Mawnan area and those that did not have their own well/borehole had to carry water from standpipes 鈥� the remains of some still exist. The army arrived close by in Church road to install and maintain miles of wire netting spread over a large field. It was an early form of radar, with a tall tower. Someone in Whitehall decided that Mawnan Smith was the nearest place to get water and ordered a 3鈥� pipe to be laid. There was insufficient drinking water in the village even to fill such a pipe! This pipe was re-discovered when St. Edwards Catholic Church was being built in 1965. The whole of Latymer School were evacuated from North London to Mawnan Smith, using the Memorial Hall for their lessons. I used to go cycling with them and also played cricket.

In 1939 Mawnan Smith, like Falmouth and Stratton-on-the-Fosse, where I was at Downside School, had manual telephone exchanges. All numbers were just two digits. By the end of the war this rose to 3 digits. 鈥楾runk鈥� calls, which I made to home each week, were generally limited to 3 minutes indicated by pips. With so many manual connections lines were seldom 'quiet'. Because it could take some time to connect a long distance call, telegrams were often sent instead. Falmouth had a telegraph machine that printed the message in a long strip. These were cut up and stuck on the form to produce the message. Mawnan Smith would have their messages relayed by telephone and then write them out by hand. As it became more difficult to find people to deliver the telegrams they would be passed by 鈥榩hone to those that had one. Driving at night was very hazardous. Many rear lights consisted of just one small bulb to light both the number plate and red lens. There was no requirement for brake lights! Headlights were reduced in intensity and directed to the ground and there were no reflective road signs. 鈥淐at鈥檚 Eyes鈥� had been introduced on a very few main roads. Despite the small number of vehicles on the roads, huge numbers of pedestrians were knocked down and very many killed. The situation got so bad that a general 20 mph speed limit was imposed at night. We were then told to paint all the edges of vehicles white and the same was done to lampposts, telegraph poles, kerbs, even trees. To emphasize how few cars there were on the roads, we went to Falmouth each Thursday and always parked in exactly the same spot outside Liptons, our registered supplier - opposite what is now Tesco, but was then the Odeon cinema! The car park on 'The Moor' was largely coverd with air raid shelters and static water tanks.

Because of the problems of importing timber many mature woodlands were cut down, including the area between Maenporth and Pennance Farm. I can remember Fox Stanton coming from Penryn to totally clear all the trees and take them to their sawmill. Today it is woodland again. The advent of the magnetic mine meant that ships had to be 鈥淒egaussed鈥�. This was done in the docks by passing wires around the hull. Just off Bream Cove the Navy laid cables on the seabed to detect if the process had been successful. Some years after the war the navy asked if they could re-use our property again to trial new measuring equipment.

We had many interesting and important visitors during the war, including Captain John C. Tucker, one day to become my brother-in-law. Although in the army he was attached to the naval S.I.S. (Secret Intelligence Service) operations in the Helford River - to find his story type G5TU into the 大象传媒 WW2 site. Broadcaster Quentin Reynolds, the man who told us Hitler was originally called Schickelgruber and of Jewish extraction. Cdr. Larry Snell, Falmouth鈥檚 American base Commander. Group Captains鈥� Guy Gibson and Leonard Cheshire 鈥� the latter met a guest, Margo Mason, who became his PA after the war. Daniel and Anna Massey came to stay just after his taking the part of Bobby Kinross in the 1942 film, 鈥淚n Which we Serve鈥�. We had to keep two registers, one for UK nationals and one for Aliens. The government provided special forms for the latter 鈥� which the Americans did not like at all! The resident local policeman checked and signed these registers regularly. Guests came at all times of the year, some just to get a rest from the bombing. This included the Lake brothers 鈥� owners of The Falmouth Packet Newspaper. Some guests insisted on sleeping in our extensive cellars, where we had installed beds, running water and cut through two extra exit ways. Two lady guests used this facility regularly. They had a real horror of being bombed, but worse, being buried in the rubble and no one knowing who they were. This prompted a guest, Major Etches, to write:- "There were two ladies from Leicester who went to bed with pinned to their chest鈥檃. Name age and station and nearest relation, the name of their dressmaker too!

Our nearest Barrage Balloon winching site was close to Budock and Penjerrick. Most beaches had barricades erected to delay any easy enemy landings. On VE day my wife to be, then Valerie Glover, was still a WREN and in London. She joined the huge celebrations in Trafalgar Square then rode down The Mall on the bumper 鈥� anyone remember them 鈥� of Winston Churchill鈥檚 car! At this time blackout was replaced with 鈥榙im-out鈥�. No one was too sure exactly what this meant, but in essence the general rules were relaxed, except that no outside lighting such as advertising signs were allowed, mainly to conserve coal. The need for scrap iron during the war meant the removal of things like railings. Many, including St. Mary鈥檚 Church in Falmouth, never replaced them. There was also a drive to collect aluminum to build 鈥淪pitfires鈥� and an huge pile of old pots and pans built up on The Moor in Falmouth.

The introduction of petrol rationing in 1939 spelt the end of individual brand names, it all became 鈥楶ool Petrol鈥�. Essential users like farmers were often given more coupons than they needed and these found their way to the black market. In 1947 the answer was found. Coupons for truly essential users allowed them buy only 鈥淩ed Petrol鈥�! We bought our petrol from Alec Pascoe鈥檚 pumps in Mawnan Smith. It was all pumped by hand by Clifton Williams. I learned to drive during the war, when tests and 鈥淟鈥� plates were suspended. All I needed to do was fill in a form, confirm my age with identity card number and send it off with a 5 shilling postal order. In return I received a nice little red book authorizing me to drive all motor vehicles.

The 鈥楶etty鈥� branch of my mother鈥檚 family have lived for several generations in the Argentine, where she was born. They were mainly involved with raising cattle on huge 鈥淓stancias鈥�. After the war they told us how our government buyer had been overcharged. Before the war a large number of buyers, each representing different companies, arrived unannounced and visited a variety of producers. When there was only one buyer - and they knew when he was coming - they all got together to agree the highest prices they dared. No mater where the buyer went the price would be much the same! It just goes to show, you can not interfere with normal established business practices!

* Her husband, Arthur Griggs, died early in the war. He was a gas engineer and designed the 鈥淧roduca Gas鈥� trailers used mainly to fuel buses during the war. Some were used by private cars, including his own. It is commonly thought that these turned coal into gas, not so, they burned only Anthracite. The gas, produced on demand by engine suction, was carbon monoxide.

Harry Pilgrim, Falmouth.

harry@meudon.co.uk

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