A CHILDS CHRISTIAN STORY BOOK

It was the same with our letters, they, too, had to be perfect. Mr. Bullen would not countenance more than one rubbed out word on any letter no matter how long. I remember him holding my letters up to the light to see if he could find rubbed out mistakes. He would tell us he had a standard to keep up and the offending letter would be swiftly flung across the desk to us if there were two rubbed out words. I remember he told Miss Davidson she would have to go if she continued making dozens of mistakes!! She had rubbed out twice and was furious when she came back into our room. Mrs. Watson then swiffly informed her that she was lucky to be working in the best Solicitors' office in the town and she would have to improve! Evidently she did as she remained there until she married.

Our first job in the morning was to light the boss' fire before he came in. The cleaner would lay the fire and all we had to do was light it - simple you may think, but this fire had a mind of its own. Miss Carr would start to light it and then either Miss Davidson or I - sometimes all of us - would go in to help. We were on edge as it had to be lit, blazing, and us out of the room before Mr. Bullen came in. He was very annoyed if he found us still trying to light it when he arrived. Fortunately, Mr. Bullen had a rather nervous cough so we were well warned as he climbed the stairs to the office. I can still recall the feeling of panic, and the look of consternation we exchanged with each other when the fire hadn't taken and the famous cough was heard approaching. Mrs. Watson would then dash into the room and whisper 'Haven't you got it going yet?' Thankfully most days it obeyed our efforts, but on the odd occasion when it just wouldn't burn we would be panic stricken. This cough was a great help to the office boys too, as when 'T.C.' as Mr. Bullen was known, left the building the boys would clear his enormous desk and have a game of table tennis! Had they ever been caught it would have been instant dismissal with no references. They knew this, but still carried on!

When T.C. (short for Tempest Carey, his Christian names) came into the office in the morning it was my job to take in the carbon copies of the previous day's letters, the Post Book and list of every telephone call. He would then dictate to me what he wished to be typed on each relevant file. This job was called 'taking down the items' a tedious job as it meant I had to go into the alcove with all its countless years of accumulated dust and search out every file then painstakingly add a couple of sentences so that it could be finally costed out. The last job every evening was to collect all the carbon copies, lay them on thick waterproof sheets, damp them down with a brush dipped in water, place another sheet on them and continue with the sheets and copies until they were finished. They were then placed on the press and two of us would twist and twist until they were tightly squeezed down. It was another tedious job but again, it had to be done and we had to stay there until everything was finished no matter what the time. I remember my Dad ringing the office at 7 p.m. one evening and we were still there just finishing. Overtime payment never entered our heads - nor that of Mr. Bullen!! The following morning I would take the carbon copies from the press and take them into T.C.
As the weeks passed I became great friends with Miss Carr and Miss Davidson. We would meet socially, going to each others houses for tea where we would be formally introduced to the parents by Miss Summers, Miss Davidson, or Miss Carr. I remember Mam and Dad saying 'Pleased to meet you, Miss Carr, do sit down' they never called her by her first name although she came to tea many times.
Her Mother and Grandmother (her Father had been drowned during the war) also never called me anything but Miss Summers and it was the same with Miss Davidson. Even when we were playing tennis we would call 'Service, Miss Carr' and think nothing of it. It seems strange now as I'm recalling it but it was completely natural to us in those days. How times have changed! I wonder if any Secretaries refer to their bosses as 'Sir' nowadays or speak of others in the office as Miss or young boys by their surnames. I rather doubt it.
As I often say to my daughters - 'I feel as if I'm living on another planet, times have changed so much.' Perhaps when they read these Memoirs they will understand why I feel that way.

Offices were allowed a small ration of tea and sugar each month, also a small amount of soap. Rationing didn't end until early 1954 I believe. So we took our office ration book down to the store on the corner of the street and collected our allotted rations. Their windows were all boarded up to prevent flying glass during an air raid so it was rather dark inside. I remember they had a pulley system into which they would put our money and the bill then pull a lever and the little container would make its way to the cashier who sat in a little cubby hole way above us. The change would then come down the same way - I found it fascinating and thought for a while that I would like to be way up there in the cubby hole. I thought it preferable to T.C. and his tantrums!!

I remember we never used all the soap and so we took it it turn to take a small bar home. It didn't happen very often but I do recall the excitement when it was my turn to take the precious soap home. I also remember how delighted Mam was as soap was scarce and we certainly didn't have the lovely perfumed varieties of soap we can choose from now.

In the morning we normally had cocoa at the office and tea in the afternoons with saccherines for sweeteners when the sugar ran out. I remember once when Miss Davidson, after the regular threat of being thrown out was shouted at her, came back into our office. It was her turn to make the cocoa and as she was fuming at T.C. she put in about a dozen saccherines and took it in very innocently. It was then my turn to take dictation and I well remember the look of distaste on his face as he drank the first mouthful of cocoa. It took me all my time not to burst out laughing as I thought 'Serve you right T.C.' When he then asked me what was wrong with his cocoa I could innocently say 'I don't know, Sir'- well, I hadn't tasted it had I?

We were never allowed to eat in the office, but I remember one day we decided to make some toast on the tiny gas ring. Of course the whole office was filled with the smell of toasting as T.C.walked in. 'Do I smell cooking?' he demanded. Half a dozen innocent faces looked at him and answered 'No, Sir.' Well, it wasn't really cooking was it?

In the warmer weather after the beach had been cleared of mines and barbed wire we would take sandwiches and spend an hour on the beach at lunch time as it was within easy walking distance of the office. One day we decided to put our bathing costumes on under our dresses and sunbathe. This was fine but Miss Carr didn't have a costume so Miss Davidson brought one in for her. She changed in the ladies room then came in to show us. It was whilst she was standing in the curtained off kitchen that Mr. Allan walked in!! There was a shocked silence that could almost be felt and poor Miss Carr turned bright red not knowing where to hide her self. Sixty years ago this was a shocking thing to have happened as well as wasting the firm's time, but, like the gentleman he was, Mt. Allan appeared not to notice. However, the next day he casually remarked 'Warm enough today for you is it Miss Carr?' What a giggle that was.

I recall another time when one of the office boys went across the road to the pork shop and bought some pork pies. Miss Davidson was busy slicing them and when she heard the door open, thinking it was me, she said 'Here you are Miss Summers' and handed, not me, but Mr. Allan a slice of pie!! We gave a horrified gasp then he calmly said 'No, thank-you. Miss Davidson' and then gave Miss McQueen some work to do, the offending pie wobbled in Miss Davidson's hand and crashed to the floor. I had continued typing pretending nothing out of the ordinary was going on but when Mr. Allan left the room we looked at each other in horror. We were deliberately disobeying an office rule and wondered what would happen. Nothing happened. Mr. Allan was a good sport. He was only in his late 20's so no doubt had many a laugh at our expense.

In August the Americans dropped the first Atom bomb on Japan but this had no effect. They were determined to carry on the war. A second bomb was then dropped and the Japanese surrendered.

Signing the instruments of surrender aboard 'USS MISSOURI'

We now had V1 Day - Victory over Japan. The Atom bombs shortened the war by many months as the Japanese were willing to fight until the last man, so by dropping the bombs, horrendous though they were, it still saved countless thousands of lives - particularly those of our own fighting men, and of those who were their prisoners of war. We later found out that the Japanese had accumulated enough biological germs to wipe out the whole human race with the bubonic plague. Operation 'Cherry Blossom Night' was due to release the bubonic plague, anthrax and other deadly germs on San Francisco which would have wiped out the entire city. To make sure these biological weapons were successful the Japanese unleashed them on Chinese peasants and Captured Allied Airmen!!! These germs were successful and countless thousands of innocent people died. For this atrocious crime the Chinese Government are still today in the 21st Century, trying for compensation and admission of guilt from the Japs. So far they have failed, but the world knows what these Japs did, and will not easily forget. In the cinema we now saw Newsreels of scenes from German Concentration Camps.

Jewish civilians ftom the Warsaw ghetto on their way to a death camp in 1943. Of the 600.000 sent there only 60.000 survived. I was so glad to read that this little boy was one who survived

Belsen, Ravenbruck, Buchenwald and many others. Such depravity we never believed possible. We were angry, appalled and astounded at the cruelty of the German nation. 'How could they?' was the question on everyone's lips as we saw how they treated the Jewish people and others. Those who ran the Camps 'enjoyed' the cruelty they meted out to innocent men, women and children. We saw the gas chambers where millions of Jews were gassed - simply because they were Jews! The Germans loathed the Jews, the Polish people and other Slavonic nations. They deemed them sub-human so they could do what they liked with them - and they did! The atrocities were sickening and unbelievable. We heard of Irma Grese, a woman in charge of the women in a concentration camp, who skinned dead bodies and made lamp-shades out of their skin. Of Commandants who strung men up with piano wire and left them to die slowly - too many evil atrocities to enumerate. The scenes were appalling.

Then the Newsreels showed our boys in the infamous Changi Jail. and the inhumanity of the Japanese. How thousands died as they were forced to build the infamous Burma Railway with very little food and water to sustain them. They died by their thousands! When those whom survived were eventually liberated the men were walking skeletons. 'What turns people into sadistic monsters?' we asked ourselves. We were overwhelmed by a flood of horror. 'Why were the Germans and Japanese so cruel, so different?' We just couldn't understand, it was honestly beyond us. And so the tears flowed in our cinemas. All we could do was to be determined that such an unleashing of evil and depravity would never happen again.

Two views of the cemetery at Arnhem where I saw the
Graves of the 19yr. old twins.
It was very emotional seeing all the graves, yet they are only
a fraction of those who gave their lives for us.

So on V.E. Day and on V1 Day we celebrated with our street parties, we thanked God for our survival, but we didn't forget, nor ever will, those who gave their lives to save our country on land, sea and air, and those who died in the bombing - so many people, known and unknown.

WAR is not a great game - it is horrendous.

It unleashes EVIL    yet It brings out GOOD

It unleashes CRUELTY   yet It brings out COMPASSION

It unleashes TREACHERY   yet It brings out LOYALTY

It unleashes HATE   yet It brings out LOVE

It unleashes FEAR   yet It brings out COURAGE

Six long years of being tossed in a maelstrom of emotions left us virtually exhausted. The icy fingers of war had held us in their wintry grip bringing their chill into every corner of our lives.
Yet, through a resilience brought into being by the very horrors of War itself, we had survived, and not only survived but had found laughter in the smallest of things, courage in the face of defeat when Britain stood alone, and a compassion for others - a neighbourliness, a 'togetherness' a faith in God which had brought us through.

Let's leave the last word to our greatest Prime Minister Winston Churchill - who said: -

'Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duties, and so bear ourselves that, if the British Empire and its Commonwealth last for a thousand years men will still say:'

'This was their finest hour."

I agree!

This is a copy of a postcard I bought in 1945 - one of many mementoes to celebrate Victory.

ADDENDUM

My children may I impress upon you the need to store up and treasure your memories, they are a precious gift from God. As one grows older and health begins to fail it is both comforting and joyful to walk down the corridors of one's mind and on entering the room marked 'Memories' take from a shelf one of the treasures and re-live it again for a few poignant moments. One such moment occurred recently as a song I hadn't heard for 60 years came on the wireless. It was 'The Holy City' a song we sang at StJohn's.

'Last night I lay a sleeping
There came a dream so fair
I stood in old Jerusalem
'Beside the temple there'

Immediately the years slid away. I was no longer a sick old lady struggling to walk without pain, I was a bright 14/15yr. old looking forward to a happy future with unclouded eyes, as I was transported back to our music room hearing Mr. George thundering out the impassioned Chorus of 'Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Hark how the Angels sing~ and how these chords evoked in us an answering response as we sang with all our hearts, indeed our very souls this Chorus. In the writer's dream the scene changes a few times and I remember one verse which takes us to Calvary.

The sun grew dark with mystery
The morn was cold and still
As the shadow of a Cross arose
'Upon a lonely hill'
Followed by the Chorus:-'Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Lift up your Gates and sing'

The dream changes again for the final verse when he sees the new Jerusalem, the new Heaven and new Earth. Yes, I was no longer in Maidstone as I sang along with the vocalist I was back 60 years ago in that music room singing my heart out with all the other pupils. A precious, precious memory, and one which brought me much joy for a few delightful moments.
There was a lot of singing during the war, in fact it could almost be termed 'The Singing War.' In the cinemas; in the factories; walking along the streets; there was singing everywhere. As one person wrote "The Nazi nightmare is being sung away."
Another memory which my brother brought to mind when visiting us, was the day he ran into the shelter whilst playing football and knocked himself unconscious. Oh yes, I then remembered the scene dearly as I ran into the house shouting for my Mam. I remember we carried him upstairs to his bedroom and when he came round all he wanted was for his sister to play the gentle tune of 'The Barcarolle' which, of course, I did - over and over again. It seemed to have a soothing effect on him.
So, my children, when a special event occurs in your lives, however small, think to yourself 'I must remember this' and hurry along to the 'Memory' room and place it carefully on a shelf, for one day it will comfort you to pick it up and live it all over again. God has graciously given us this wonderful gift cherish it and use it for it will bring you untold joy one day.
There are many other memories I could write down but I must remember that an Addendum is not another book!
E.Aynsley ©