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THE GIRL FROM THE MOTOR POOL — St Eval
by - Pat Green aged 91- now residing in Simon’s Town, South Africa.

I met and married my husband Doug in 1940 and we lived in Sutton, Surrey. I worked at the Ministry of Transport at Berkeley House, London, attending to manifests of all shipping from The States. It was called the ‘lend-lease’ agreement. These goods were shipped over to England long before America became truly involved in the War and their generosity knew no bounds.

My husband was a Flt Sergeant in I.T.W. (Initial Training Wing of the RAF) and was posted down to Newquay and billeted in one of the main hotels.

In 1941 things were ‘hotting up’ in London and I decided I’d like to see Dougie so drove down to Cornwall and stayed with a family called Garlick.

I returned to London but had this hankering to be back in Cornwall so made a second trip and this time I stayed with two spinster sisters who worked for Kodak. They were called Auntie Flo and Auntie Grace. They also used to take in evacuee children and during my stay there was a little lad who was a right little rascal.

As I was obviously going to stay a while and as I had no children I was told to report to St Eval airbase which had been taken over by the Americans during the North African Campaign.

I had to take a driving test, even though I had a British Licence. I passed with flying colours and was issued with an American Driver’s Licence and was put to driving 5 ton lorries with two sets of gears. I alternated driving these with hopping into a JEEP and taking off all around Cornwall to pick up personnel. I often used to go to St. Austell, Launceston and down to Penzance. There must have been about six of us in the motor pool and only two women, I think the other girl was called Bunty. My first couple of days on the base I would be jumping up into these lorries in my smart skirt but soon realised — due to the wolf whistles — that I’d better buy a pair of trousers!!

The PX store — the equivalent of the NAAFI, was very popular for ‘luxury’ hosiery and perfumery etc. It’s little wonder the lads were so popular with the local lasses!!

Sadly I saw three planes come down. The first one was coming back to St Eval and just nose-dived into the sea. His mate coming up behind him flew really low over the area looking for him but the sea was churning and a wave must have caught the wing and that also went down into the sea without a trace.

The third incident — there was a crowd of American chaps who’d completed several missions and were being flown back to The States for a spot of leave. The plane rose but the undercarriage caught the edge of the cliff — again at St Eval, and went into the sea.

One of my funnier recollections was when a planeload of Americans returning from a mission were rather disoriented and thought they were off the coast of Ireland. They landed just outside of Penzance and saw these farmhands with pitchforks, gesticulating wildly and they thought they’d landed in Germany! Closer inspection made them realise they were on British soil but they could hardly understand the Cornish and vice versa! It caused great hilarity on our base.

My husband formed a little concert party. It was called ‘The Army Welfare Concert Party’ and it ran from 1941-1944. He was an MC, but also did comic turns and monologues. One of the young ladies was a Miss Gill and I believe her father owned the fishmongers in Newquay. The rest of the group comprised of Ernest Bartlett — baritone, Jimmy — raconteur, Tommy Alford — compere, Bill — baritone. Tressie Horder the pianist, Mary Furze — dancer, the aforementioned Gladys Gill and Eileen Knight — close harmony and Molly a contralto. All the young ladies were from Newquay. They would travel to all the little forces camps that were dotted around the area.

I worked at St Eval for about six months before returning to London.

My last visit to Newquay was towards the end of the troubles and as I was a qualified hairdresser I found employment with a Miss Street at her salon in the centre of town.

I have to say I thoroughly enjoyed my stay in Cornwall and everyone was so friendly and helpful which goes to show that no matter what our colour or creed when we work to a common goal then it’s all shoulders to the wheel.

After the war my husband found work at Pinewood Studios but couldn’t quite find his niche and we had this hankering to see South Africa. Then one day the owner of the salon where I worked returned from a holiday in South Africa with his friend who was a hairdresser. He mentioned that this fellow was looking for an assistant. So, in the December of 1947 I sailed off to Port Elizabeth, alone, in a ship called the Umgeni. Set up home and sent for Dougie a few months later. We moved quite a lot around South Africa eventually settling in the Cape. Ironically our one and only, a son who was born in Johannesburg last year emigrated to the UK.

Should this be read by anyone who remembers The Motor Pool or me, I’d love them to get in touch.

Mrs Pat Green, 6 Churchill Avenue, Seaforth, Cape Province, South Africa

From the UK you phone 0027-21-7863517

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