大象传媒

This story has been written onto the 大象传媒 People鈥檚 War site by Cornwall CSV Storygatherer, Martine Knight, on behalf of Marian Holden. Her story was given to the Trebah WW2 Video Archive, supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund in 2004. The Trebah Garden Trust understands the terms and conditions of the site.

I was born in Nottingham in 1918. I was doing a research degree, in mediaeval French manuscripts, at Oxford when war broke out and knew I鈥檇 have to get a job. I didn鈥檛 fancy the Army so applied for a teaching post. I鈥檇 never heard of Helston and when I arrived on a wet March afternoon, after an 18hr railway journey, I first thought it was a bit of a dump, but I鈥檝e been here ever since and been very happy.
My post was to teach French, Music, Latin and Games.

Everyone helped each other in Helston and the visiting troops, especially the Americans, were very good to locals as they had supplies we didn鈥檛.
During rationing farmers weren鈥檛 supposed to sell clotted cream as it was deemed a luxury so one local farmer sold it under the name of 鈥榃hite Jam鈥�.
You had to be very well in with the local greengrocer if you wanted to get a banana as they were always in very short supply and kept under the counter.
Our school field was dug up to grow vegetables.

An evacuee school from London shared our school from 1942-1944. Some of the children were a little light-fingered and less respectful than local children. One exception was Brian Forbes, the famous film director.

Local beaches could be dangerous as they were mined. Quite a lot of animals, which of course couldn鈥檛 read the signs, strayed onto them and were killed.

I used to go to Porthleven for First Aid training and one night, whilst coming back on the bus, it picked up a young man. He staggered onboard with a nasty gash on his head and looked quite done in. When we got off at Helston I asked where he was going and all he could say was 鈥淎merican billet鈥�. I managed to get him to my lodgings where he flopped onto the bed. I left him there and made my way to the American billet, which was opposite the Police station. It took of lot of persuading before they would believe that I had one of their injured colleagues at my lodgings, but eventually they took me back on a jeep and retrieved him. Luckily it was dark or my reputation could have been at risk. It turned out that he had fallen over a cliff, or quarry, whilst on reconnaissance.
However, the bus driver thought that he was obviously a German spy meeting up with his local confederate and had gone straight to the Police station to report it. They spent the rest of the night searching the Lizard peninsula for this pair of evil people! Luckily, one of my fellow lodgers was a Special Constable and, next morning, she was able to tell them the truth which reassured everyone that there weren鈥檛 two spies at large.

Whilst Helston had an air raid siren outlying villages didn鈥檛 so the routine was that a local worthy would be contacted by phone and blow a horn, or similar, out of the window to raise the alarm. There was a story that one such person blew so hard that his false teeth flew out of the window and he spent all night searching for them.
I can only recall one bomb falling on Helston and that fell into Coronation Lake, which drained as a result. During school time children were told to run towards Lowertown and hide under the hedges during an air raid. They much preferred that to lessons.

I wouldn鈥檛 say we were frightened during the war. I think we all took the attitude that to be so was to give the Germans a victory and life had to go on, but I once visited my brother in London, where he was training to go and question Japanese PoW鈥檚. It was during the time of the doodlebugs and that was scary because you heard nothing until they exploded.

National Savings were very important during the war and various events were held to try and encourage people to invest. We had a little group that would go around performing various sketches and songs etc. On one occasion, at Porthleven, the piano made no sound at all and, when I opened the lid, I discovered a bag of fish and chips stuffed inside.
Several nights a week a group of Helston ladies would serve sausage and chips to the troops. It was a good way for rich and poor to mix and ladies who had never previously done anything outside their refined circle had to get involved. I鈥檓 not sure that their husbands always approved.

There was a nice RAF officer who asked me out to tea. I think he just wanted some female company as he was away from his wife and family. We met at a local hotel. Afterwards I was summoned to see the Education Officer who greeted me with a great leer on his face.
He said, 鈥淚 believe, Miss Howard, you鈥檝e been having tea with a married airman?鈥� to which I replied, 鈥淲ell yes, what of it?鈥�
His response was, 鈥淲ell, you know a man will only go as far as any woman will lead him鈥�.
I was aghast that anyone would take any interest in someone just trying to be friendly to the troops.

VIDEO DETAILS 鈥� HELSTON 07:44:50 鈥� 08:15:32

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