Home › Our Memoirists › Muriel Baldrey (Johnson) › 1927–1934
Last modified: 13 October 2026
Muriel Mary Baldrey (Johnson), 1915–1999
In 1927 I went into the top class of the A Division at Plough Road School. The school was divided into three divisions A, B and C. The class I was in was quite small as most of the girls had left to go to Grammar Schools or Central Schools. The top class of the B division was an enormous class of about 50 girls, cousin Alice was in this class, and she finally left at 14 to go as a run-about in a paper factory. Miss Jones was my teacher, and she was a very nice woman, as different from Miss Mickleburgh as chalk and cheese. She taught English and Drama, and as I was good at these, I was often in the school plays. One section of the class was training to take the Trade Scholarship, actually cousin Elsie passed to go to a Trade School to take millinery, and she became very good at this, and made hats for all the family. It was handy to have a hat made of matching material to a dress for a special occasion.
I can remember one day early in the year, when I was in this class, that some crank had forecast the end of the world to take place on a certain day at 2 p.m. This was the talk of the class, and a very apprehensive afternoon was spent by us all.
I think it must have been at Easter of this year that we first met Eileen and Kenneth Fisher at Warwick. Uncle Henry had let his flat to an Army Captain just back from Singapore, there was a large Army contingent at Warwick. When I first saw Eileen I thought what an attractive girl she was, she had long plaits of dark wavy hair and lovely eyes, she was about 15 months younger than me, but we immediately became friends, and of course this has been a lifetime friendship. I was intrigued to hear about her life in Singapore. Of course they didn’t have much furniture, but what they had came from the East and was fascinating. Mrs. Fisher was a marvelous housewife, and everything was spotlessly clean, too much so perhaps, as she used to keep their best room locked, and although they had a playroom, we spent most of the time in Auntie Alice’s side of the house. Eileen and I organised games for Hazel and Madge and their friends, and Kenneth and Dennis got on very well together.
John was born this summer in June, and once again Grannie went down to act as mid-wife. We went to stay with them in August and I suppose my mother helped a lot in the house. I remember being allowed to look after John quite a lot that year.
In the meantime, my father had managed to get me a fee-paying place at Clapham County School, and so I started there in the September of this year. I remember that I was bewildered by the size of the place. I was in Form Upper 2B, and most of the other girls had already been at the school for a year, so I had a bit of catching up to do, particularly in French. However, we had extra lessons and coaching.
There was a very big Fete at the School this term to raise funds for a Library, it was a very grand occasion, and I remember the Gym was quite transformed by potted palms and flowers, small tables laid for tea, and a small orchestra. As the school charged fees at that time there seemed to be a different atmosphere, almost of affluence, the area round the school was of big houses privately owned and a lot of people were able to keep maids. Some of the girls’ parents were wealthy, and a few scholarship girls probably found life difficult. At first I was friendly with a girl called Joan Ward, she lived in Ellerton Road with her father, brother and step-mother, but the step-mother was a real martinet, and I didn’t enjoy my visits to that house.
I think it was at Christmas this year that we went to Warwick, and Auntie Bessie and her two children Brenda and Teddie came as well. It was a very exciting time for us all. How Auntie Alice managed I don’t know, but Uncle and my father often used to cook the meals, and this I suppose was a tremendous help.
I think it must have been in April 1928 that my mother’s sister Nell was married. My Grandmother suffered from angina pectoris, which meant that she often had heart attacks, and could not be left alone. This meant that Auntie Nell had given up her job which was at Quin and Axtens at Brixton in the Drapery Department, and she stayed at home to housekeep for Grandma and Grandad. She went out quite a bit in the evenings with a girl friend, but although at this time she was about 28, I don’t remember her having many boyfriends. However, she went to a Dance with this friend at the Territorials and there she met Jack Long, who I should think was about 32. They fell in love, and then of course wanted to get married, which raised the problem as to what would become of Grandma. However, Dad’s sister Edie lived downstairs, and she said that she would look after Grandma and the flat upstairs if they would pay her, as she could do with the money.
My mother and father said they would hold the reception at 35 Strathbaline, and thus it was arranged. I was a bridesmaid with Uncle Jack’s niece Josie, and Peter and my cousin Betty were little attendants. Uncle Jack’s relations lived in Clapham, and one sister Daisy who never married was very good at dressmaking, so she made our dresses, they were lemon crepe-de-chine, and we had matching picture hats. Peter and Betty wore white satin.
I should think there must have been about 70 guests, but mum and Dad coped, they had a friend, Bert Muller, who was a baker, and he made all the sausage rolls, cakes etc. I think probably Auntie Edie helped with the food, at any rate a good time was had by all. My mother must have been pregnant at this time, as David was born in August.
I was thirteen this year and must have been very naïve, as I realised my mother was getting fat, but it wasn’t until cousin Alice told me that I realised she was due to have a baby. I think David must have been born during the night, as usual in the front room with Grannie in attendance. I remember coming down in the morning and Dad telling me that I had another baby brother. I am sorry to say that I fled upstairs again crying my eyes out as I did so want a sister. However David was a lovely baby, and I know that I loved looking after him.
This year Uncle Henry had managed to acquire a caravan, and he and Auntie Alice had set off on a tour of the South Coast looking for good camping sites. They found a lovely spot at Durdle Door Camp, Nr. Lulworth, Dorset. The outcome of this was that I went down to Auntie Alice, who had decided to stay there on her own, as Uncle had to go back to work, and I helped her as she had John quite young. It really was a lovely spot, the camp was set in pine trees, and there were only a few campers there. Of course now it is a camper’s paradise, with a shop in the camp, and ice cream vans etc.
In September I went into the 3rd form, and we had Miss Summers as our Form Mistress. I liked her very much, she specialized in English, and as I was good at drama, I often had parts in the plays we read. This year we also had a tall blonde German to take us for French, and I remember she taught us to sing the Marsellaise. She did a very good job as I am still word perfect on this one. By this time I was friendly with a girl called Ada Lake, she lived at the bottom of Plough Road, and so she used to call for me each morning, and we walked to school along Bolingbroke Grove. She was a Scholarship girl and was one of a family of eight. I think my mother rather hoped I would be friends with somebody from a better background, but it was good to have somebody to walk to and from school with.
I think it was this year that we spent Christmas at Feltham with Auntie Rose and Uncle Bert, they only had a small house but somehow we all slept there for one night. I remember that we slept across a double bed. We had a lovely party on Christmas night, and at about midnight we realised it was snowing and there was a big snow fight. There was a boy called John who lived next door to Auntie that I liked.
Even though we weren’t going to Warwick in the summer, we went down there at Easter time for about three weeks, Dad didn’t get much holiday, but we stayed there with Auntie Alice. As there were so many children we didn’t go out much, but the garden was so lovely at this time of the year, and I liked seeing Eileen — we seemed to enjoy ourselves. We always went to Sunday School with Eileen and Ken at a Church called St. Nicholas, and one year when we were down there Uncle was producing “Merry England” in the grounds of Warwick Castle, this was a Pageant, the proceeds of which were to go to the Waifs and Strays Society. At that time I think we all knew the songs from this lovely show written by Edward Germann, as Uncle and his friends played and sang them so much. We went to the Pageant, and it certainly was a lovely setting, the River Avon runs through the Castle grounds, and somehow they had managed to fit up a barge like the Royal barges in Elizabethan times, and the woman who played Queen Elizabeth came gliding down the Avon to the Pageant setting.
I think it was probably this year 1929 that Uncle Henry changed his job, and left the Waifs. He went to work with Bells Poilite a firm making Asbestos. He became a traveler for this firm, and was away from home a lot. I don’t know how Auntie Alice managed in the winter as it must have been very lonely, she didn’t seem to make many friends, but, of course, she had Mr. and Mrs. Fisher in the house, and they were very nice.
It was decided that we should go camping with Uncle Henry this summer, he had acquired another car, a small Austin 7, and Auntie Alice had been trying to drive this. They had a large front lawn and she had been going round and round this. Off we went to Warwick, then we set off for Norfolk — Uncle Henry and dad in the big car trailing the caravan, with Hazel, Madge, John, Den and Peter and Auntie, Mum, David and I in the little Austin 7, following closely as we didn’t know the way.
Across Northampton, Peterborough to Hunstanton, where Uncle started looking for Caravan sites, and where we lost him. Auntie Alice ran out of petrol, and we had to ask a man on a bike to get a can for us from the nearest garage. When he came back, Auntie gaily opened the top of the radiator for him to pour in the petrol, he must have thought we were a daft lot. Uncle found a site on a farm near the sea at Snettisham, and we set up camp. Dad had a big Bell Tent with four camp beds, one for him, Mum, myself and Den and Pete top to bottom, they had a small cot for Dave.
Uncle had two lean-tos on the Caravan, one set up as a kitchen, and the other with a table for out dining room.
All went well, until a telegram arrived for my mother to say that here brother Uncle Will had died. She went straight back to London with David, and we stayed behind with Dad — I think Uncle Henry only had a fortnight’s holiday this year, and he went back to work, leaving Auntie and Dad to cope with us children. Actually I think my father went back to London with Mum, and came down again with Alice, as I remember she was with us at Snettisham. There was a large family of school teachers in the same field, and they took us swimming, and we had camp fires in the evening. The coast is so flat in the Wash that it was marvelous for swimming, completely safe. One day Uncle Henry and Dad decided to take the Austin on the sands and have a speed test. However, they ran into some sinking sands, and we had a terrific fight to save the car, particularly as the tide was due to turn and the sea would be coming in. We raced to the edge of the sands where there were some planks and with much heaving got the car out.
My Uncle Will had always suffered from bronchitis and asthma, and apparently he had been staying with Auntie Rose when he suddenly had an attack of asthma, which turned to pneumonia, and he died quickly. This was a shock to us all, as he was such a nice man, he had never married because of his health. It was a great shock to Grandma, and they were all worried because of her heart.
In September of this year I went into the 4th Form, and Miss James was our Form Mistress. Before the end of our third year however, Miss Summers invited us all to her cottage in Kent at Cudham. We met her at Warlingham then walked across to Cudham having our lunch on the way, and she had prepared a lovely tea for us in the garden. She was a nice person. Miss James was the Chemistry Mistress, and I liked her very much, she seemed to understand us, and I did very well in that year in the fourths.
On the return journey to Warwick from Snettisham, my father drove the Austin and I travelled with him. I should think just about everything happened on that journey, we ran through a terrific thunder storm, got tied up with a flock of sheep, were lost several times. Seeing that my father had only learnt to drive whilst we were on holiday I think he did very well, but I never knew him drive a car again.
Early in 1930 my grandmother died, she had been able to do a little housework, such as dusting and cooking my grandfather’s tea in the evening, Edie did all the shopping and looked after the flat. However, on this particular day for some reason she had decided to black-lead her grate, and she was on her hands and knees when she had a fatal heart attack. She didn’t manage to call out and they found her dead on the floor. This meant that my grandfather was left on his own, but this didn’t alter the pattern of things much as Auntie carried on looking after him.
This year it was decided that we should all go camping to Lulworth, and we met Uncle down there with his caravan. As I have said the camp was in a lovely position nestled in pine trees at the head of a valley overlooking the village. A steep walk down the cliffs gave access to three lovely bays, one, Man o’ War Bay, was like a lagoon, and we all learnt to swim here. Durdle Door Bay was good for swimmers as one could dive off the beach. St. Oswald’s Bay was sandy, but not very good for swimming.
We walked up to the farmhouse for most of our supplies — fresh cream, milk, eggs and they could supply us with vegetables, fruit and some tinned stuff. It was necessary to go to the village for meat. There were only a few other campers, and one was a Major Day who had a huge army marquee, divided into rooms, and he lived here during the summer holiday with his son Edward, at University, and small daughter. He did all the cooking army style and following strict routine. Hazel and Madge became friendly with Mary, the daughter, who was at boarding school and quite a little madam.
There was another family of three boys with their father and step-mother, the eldest one was going to New Zealand, but the next, Gordon, was my age and we became quite friendly. They knew of some good spots for blackberrying. Actually they lived at Balham and he went to Balham Grammar, so of course he came and saw us when we were home. I didn’t like him very much, and got a bit fed up when he kept calling on us at home. Then it transpired that two girls at school knew him and that he was keen on me, and they pestered me at school leaving silly notes around.
In the autumn of this year it became evident that Uncle Bert was ill, and he had to go into hospital for tests. I remember my Aunt arriving at Strathblaine to tell my mother and father that he had cancer and only a short time to live. This was a terrible shock to them, especially as Aunt and Uncle were just beginning to have a good life. They had bought a car now that the two boys were both out at work. The big problem was that they were living on an estate for railwaymen, and they knew that Auntie would have to leave the house when Uncle died. I suppose he died in October, and I think they allowed Auntie to carry on there for some time. She had the boys’ money, and when Reg got married the next year she took a lodger to help her out.
This September I went into the Lower 5th and we had Miss Dallas as a Form Mistress. She taught French, and we didn’t like her very much. I remember on one occasion she asked me quietly, after school had finished, if I was wise in being friendly with Ada. Poor Ada. Of course I blabbed this out to her, and she hated Miss Dallas, At that time we were also friendly with two other girls, Dora Brough and Dorothy Ivemey, who had come into our Form from the A division. We made a good foursome, and had some happy times together.
I often called in to see Phyllis Brodie on the way home from school, as she lived near the school. She was learning to play the piano from a blind teacher, Miss Dearsey, who lived in Grandison Road, and I started having lessons there when I was about 13, and carried on for about three years. Miss Dearsey was a very nice quiet lady, who was looked after by her sister. Finally Dennis had lessons there as well.
In 1931 we spent our last Easter at Warwick. Uncle Henry had accepted a transfer to the Manchester Office of his firm, and Mr. and Mrs. Fisher were moving to another house in Warwick. It transpired that they moved to London a year of two after this, Mr. Fisher being transferred to the Woolwich Barracks. I think this was the year that Uncle gave a big cocktail party, and we helped to prepare the food, and then I went in with Eileen and Ken whilst it was on.
I was in the Lower Fifth at school and we had a new young teacher for Chemistry. She lectured way above our heads with the result that the highest mark in the yearly exam was 20, so obviously none of us were allowed to take a science in the General School Exam.
In the Autumn of this year Peter caught whooping cough, and soon after David also started with this horrible complaint. In this day and age with the injections that children receive, whopping cough is practically non-existent, but in 1931 it was often very serious. David had it very badly, as he had always been inclined to have bronchitis when he was teething. He went rapidly downhill, my mother often had to nurse him all day, and we came home at night and did the housework.
In November the doctor thought it best that he should go into hospital, and he went to St. Thomas’s Hospital, as my father though he would get the best attention there. I remember going to see him, and he was just lying there getting weaker and weaker. Finally my mother visited him and he was on the verandah in his cot on a cold winter’s day. I suppose they thought the cold air would help. However, she insisted of having him home, and I suppose through constant nursing he gradually improved. An interesting fact appeared in recent years, as when David was X-rayed on developing T.B. of the kidney, they found an old scar on his lung, and it seems that he must have had T.B. in 1931. I think he must owe his life to my mother’s constant care and attention.
I had always been to Sunday School and it was round about this time that we went into the girls' bible class which was always taken by a student from the Deaconesses' training college, Clapham Common. However, attendance had fallen away so badly that there was only Alice, I and another girl, Rene Davey. I don't think they knew what to do with us because I remember on one occasion we were meeting in the ladies' cloakroom off the Church Hall. When we came to go home we found everything was locked up and we had to bang on the church door to get the Verger to let us out.
I think things came to a head then and Aunti Edie decided it would be best for Alice to go to St. Peters where she could train to be a Sunday School teacher. I stayed with Rene and we became firm friends. I started going to the Band of Hope meetings which were flourishing. All the young people of the Church came to these as there were lots of entertainments. They had a big May Festival, when they elected the May Queen and Lord Mayor and I think at the time Rene was a Maid of Honour. This meant she looked after the younger children so I was roped in as well. I also joined the Girls' Club, which Rene's sister and friends had recently formed.
We had quite a lot of fun. We organised a Concert Party and eventually did quite a number of shows at other churches.
Rene entered me for a competition at the Band of Hope playing the piano and to my surprise I won. After that I was often roped in to play the piano.
In the summer of this year we once again to the camp at Lulworth. This time Auntie Rose and Bert came with us, also Percy Holloway who had started working at the Waifs as an organiser. He was a brilliant musician but had been advised to do outside work because he was recovering from TB. He had his own tent and cooking facilities and his brother Frank and a young nephew joined him for a time. The nephew had an accident with the primus stove and burnt his leg. Apparently Percy had also done some first aid training and was able to adminster to the burns. I don't think Auntie Rose enjoyed the holiday very much as she had been used to spending holidays with Uncle Bert at boarding houses so she was completely out of her element. I think this was the last time Uncle Henry came down there so it must have been quite a party. 1932
By Easter of this year David was making very slow progress. He was still whooping and being sick. My father accepted the offer of a bungalow at Broadstairs for the Easter holiday and off we went. It was a very nice place with a lovely garden but it was so cold. We shivered wherever we went a ndwe sat on the beach in hats, coats and gloves. One day Dennis was flying a kite on the beach and the wind was so strong it blew it towards a house and broke a window. We scuttled quickly home from the beach.
My progress at school was certainly not spectacular and my father had a long talk with the Headmistress. It was decided that I should leave school and not take the General Schools exam. Thinking back on this I don't think my progress at school was the only consideration. My mother was not at all well with the constant worry of David and I think the holiday at Broadstairs had cost a lot of money. Along with the school fees for Dennis and me I should imagine the Bank wouldn't run to it. This is something I have regretted all my life although at the time I thought it was rather good to get out of taking that last big exam. As the rest of the form all got their General Schools certificate I think I would have done the same and in this day and age it would certainly have meant something.
When we returned from Broadstairs it was decided that I should stay at home and help Mum but this didn't work out at all. My mother was not at all houseproud and I have always been a very tidy person. I don't think she liked the way I kept wanting to dust and polish. David improved a lot and went back to school and, with the coming of summer, life was much easier for Mum. It was then decided that I should do a temporary job at Waifs and go to nightschool to learn shorthand and typing. This job was envelope addressing, the lowest of the low, but I liked the atmosphere at the office. I became friendly with Betty (who became a lifelong friend) and worked under Miss Wallace who was a very nice Irish lady. However, by July there was very little work to do and I had to leave. I was very sad but as the holdays were coming up I had something to look forward to.
As usual we were going to Lulworth which entailed mammoth preparations. My father had to pack all our bedding and cooking utensils and send them off first. Then we travelled with a big trunk of clothing. Phyllis Brodie had been to see us and had said how much she would like to go camping with us so she was coming down there for a week. This was our first year without uncle Henry as they had moved up to Manchester and he now had his own caravan at Rhyll on the Welsh coast. I remember waiting for Phyllis to arrive. She came to Wool station and then came by bus to Lulworth Cove. Soon after, there was a sports day organised by the camp. Phyllis and I wanted to go in for the three-legged race and two boys came up and asked if they could be our partners.
This was Harry Smart and Bill Greenaway. There was a dance round the campfire in the evening and Phyll and I were well away. This was the evening of my first kiss and I wasn't sure what to make of it. I think we had a couple of days as a foursome but then Phyllis had to go home. Harry and Bill moved their little tent near to ours and I think Mum and Dad often included them in our meal set up. Bill made friends with a group of girls at the back of us but Harry and I were going great guns. They both came from Weymouth and were in the sixth form at Weymouth Grammar. Harry's father was art master there and one day he and his sister rowed round from Weymouth and had tea with us all.
I was sad when the holiday came to an end but we made arrangements to meet in London.
I had become a Sunday School teacher this year and was teaching in the infants' Sunday School. Through the teachers' meetings I had met Frank Johnson, one of the lads from the Church. I must admit he was a flirt and always game to take out any new girls that appeared. Incidentally, I had my hair permed and it really did look attractive. I suppose I was really growing up. Frank often asked me out for a walk after church and he was very attentive at any of the church functions.
When we returned from our holiday we had the Sunday School Sports at the Emanuel School. Rene and I had entered for the flower pot race and we had been doing a lot of practice in her garden. On the sports day Frank was around most of the time and at one stage his brother, Stan, who was in running shorts etc and had been throwing himself whole heartedly into every race, came over and Frank introduced him to me. I think he had noticed me in my nice white dress on my flower pots. I went home with Frank, but that was the end of that beautiful friendship and the beginning of far more with STAN!
I started back at the Waifs in September on condition that I worked hard at shorthand and typing. I was to work under Peggy Jordan as her secretary. She ran the Golden Needle League where supporters from all over the country knitted and sewed either clothes for the children or articles that could be sold at Bazaars. Peggy was marvellous and used to dictate at a snail's pace and helped me with my outlines. I was going to nightschool and by this time all my old friends from Broomwood joined me there. They had all left school and were working in Barnes in the office of the piano factory. However, with shorthand and typing they could get much better jobs. I think at this stage I had suddenly become very boy conscious. Harry was writing long, long love letters. Boys from nightschool were walking me home and there was lots of teasing from boys at nightschool and Stan.
This year was a good year for me. I enjoyed working at Waifs and I was improving steadily at shorthand and typing because I was attending nightschool regularly. There was a boy called George Penfold in the class who was very friendly with Harry Cornelius who was Dorothy Ivemay's boyfriend. Dorothy was one of my friends from Broomwood and she now attended night-school. Often we walked home together, the four of us. Then one evening Harry came up from Waymouth and we went to the Stoll Cinema up at Kingsway. But there was nothing left between us and I never saw him again. I was very friendly with Rene at church and I think I went to church three times on Sunday. Stan was very much in evidence at the morning service and often Rene or I would read the lesson.
I think I spent Easter with Betty's family at Keston and I really enjoyed it. We all went walking in the lovely country surroundings and on Sunday I went to church with the family. It was rather sad as Betty's cousin, Fred, had lost his father when he was a baby and we put flowers on his grave in the churchyard.
Back at work, Betty was flirting with a boy called Wren who worked at Waifs and I was quite keen on Roy Webb, one of the Society's old boys, who was quite nice. Occasionally we played tennis in the local park during the lunch hour.
When it came to deciding where we should go for the summer holiday I decided that I didn't want to go to Lulworth again. My father had written to Harry asking him to join up with us again. Betty was interested in going away with me and finally we decided to go to Aunt Edie's (granny's sister) at Eastbourne for a fortnight. Prior to this I had been out walking with Stan once or twice after evening church. Once we skipped church and walked up to Wimbledon on a glorious evening and that is when we exchanged our first kiss. Even though I was eighteen this year I didn't want to start going seriously with a boy. I remember when Stan asked for my address at Eastbourne that I didn't give it to him as I felt that I wanted to be free and not tied to anybody.
We had quite a good time at Eastbourne. Madge Bohling and family were there and we went swimming quite a bit with Jack, Madge;s brother, who was a fine swimmer. Another of Betty's boyfriends came down in a car with her cousin Fred to see us and finally they said they would take us home. They were good company and we enjoyed the journey back.
I stayed with Aunty Edie for a time, as Mum and Dad were at Lulworth. I found a letter from Stan at home saying he wanted to see me, but somehow I didn’t want to get involved, and when I finally saw him again in Church, I told him I just wanted to be friends.
This went on until the October, when one morning I met Stan at the station in the morning, and he asked me to go to the pictures with him, I agreed and we went to see “The Mummy”, a pretty horrifying film, and from then on we saw quite a lot of each other. I met his mother at Church one Sunday, and she asked me to tea, then Stan came round to our place at least one evening a week when my parents went on their weekly visit to the cinema.
One thing I haven’t mentioned was that David was taken ill at the Whitsun weekend, and rushed to hospital where he was operated on as he had developed a particularly nasty mastoid. He made a rapid recovery, but is deaf in one ear, after this he never looked back, and was and still is a very exuberant boy/man.
Round about this time Aunty Rose had to leave her house at Feltham, and also Bert became redundant because his firm — who built tram cars — closed down. It was decided that they should take our flat at Strathblaine.
My mother was walking round the Common in the autumn of this year, and saw a house up for sale in Dorlcote Road. Actually my father had just completed a bill of sale for 35, Strathblaine Road and they decided that they could manage to buy the one at 16 Dorlcote. We moved in November, and the house was nice but in need of re-decoration throughout, so my father set to in the evenings and weekends on a massive re-decoration scheme. My father had done all this house purchasing business through a solicitor at Brixton with the Abbey Road Building Society — a Mr Cossor, he was in need of a Secretary and was willing to pay a much higher wage than I was getting at Waifs, so it was decided that I should work at his office.
I started to go out with Stan steadily this year, and I don’t think Rene liked it very much. However, I still went to the Girls’ Club every Wednesday and Friday. Stan always had plenty of studying to do, so it was mostly at weekends that we saw each other. I had transferred to the Junior Sunday School as a teacher, and also played the piano for the hymns. I met Stan’s father, who because of T.B. was not living at home but at a British Legion Settlement at Aylesford, Kent.
His mother had to stay in London to keep the home going as they had signed for Stan to receive a grant and to go through Teacher Training College at Shoreditch. I admired his mother, as in those days there was no National Assistance, and she had to do dress making to keep the home going, Frank was at work and helped a lot from his weekly wage packet. All in all Stan had very little money, as his grant was swallowed up in buying books and clothes. In those days it was not the custom for students to go to work in the holidays.
In fact further education was mostly for people with money, who could afford to finance their children through the training.
This year I decided to go back to Lulworth with the family for the holiday, I asked Stan to come but he couldn’t because of finance, however, he was spending a day of two at the School Camp at Lechlade, and he promised to come to Lulworth on the way back. Betty was coming with us for a fortnight, also Phyllis, my mother and father were gluttons for punishment, they never seemed to mind how many they had to cater for on holiday. My father was marvellous in the kitchen and did a great deal of the cooking, he loved setting up his primuses and valour stove, and he certainly produced some very satisfying meals.
We travelled to Lulworth a week after the family went there, and Hedley Board an organiser at Waifs offered to give us a lift in his car, as he was going to his relations in Bournemouth. In those days there wasn’t much traffic on the roads, and I can remember when we got to the New Forest it was very early evening, and the further we got, the quieter the roads became. We had stopped for tea at the Vicarage of Mr Cobbett who was Vicar of Amesbury, and had formerly been at St Peter’s, it was a lovely spot in those days with a small river running through the Vicarage grounds. I think it is completely spoilt now with the growth of the town. We also stopped at Stonehenge which again was completely unspoiled, we were the only people there in the late afternoon, and at that time it was not a trippers’ paradise. It seemed to have an unearthly air about it, and was a very lonely spot.
We arrived quite late at night having got lost on the way, and Hedley stayed overnight, as it would have been too late for him to have found his way back to Bournemouth. He seemed to be having a bit of a flirtation with Betty, and he promised to come back the next week. Stan arrived and he stayed a couple of nights going off early in the morning as it was going to be a long cycle ride back for him.
One day on the beach a boy and girl from the camp joined up with us when we went swimming, and we met them again the next day their names were Jack and Molly Tombs. I must blow my own trumpet here and say that I was a very good swimmer, and Betty couldn’t swim at all. I therefore did quite a bit of swimming with Jack and Molly, and one day they suggested that we should swim from Durdle Door beach, where the water was much deeper, we had quite a lot of fun. Phyllis arrived the week after us, and at that time there seemed to be a crowd of us, there was a boy called Peter Keast and two college boys camped near. We went bathing once or twice in the evening and lit a fire. The water seemed much warmer.
There was a camp dance and Hedley came over for this. Of course we paired off and I had a lot of fun dancing with Jack and walked back to the camp afterwards. I also went out on his motorbike once or twice. At the end of the holiday he asked if he could see me in Town, but I told him about Stan. When I returned Stan and I had a big row and I though it was all over, but he came back and we decided to go on together, I went up to town once with Jack and he came to our house once, then I never saw him again. I rather think he was killed in the War. One odd thing that happened around this time was that both Stan and Jack received anonymous letters which led to them both turning up at Waterloo Station, somebody must have had a warped sense of humour, but we never found out who it was.
Two other things worth mentioning this year were that I did not like the job with the Solicitor at Brixton, there was only one other girl working there and often we had little to do each day then a rush of work when we were due to go home. In May Mr Vaughan, at Waifs, asked me to go back there and work in the Girls’ Welfare Department. I liked this work very much and stayed there until I was married.
Stan was voted in as Lord Mayor at the St. Marks Band of Hope which meant he was very much in evidence at the May Festival. I also became very friendly with Helena who was the new May Queen and I was one of her Maids of Honour, we had rather nice long dresses of mauve organdie, later, with a purple velvet sash, this was presentable to wear to dances.
With thanks to Muriel’s family.