My first 'coming' was when I came into the world, the fifth child and first daughter of Lieut-Col Robert Story and his wife Mary, at Bingfield, County Cavan, Ireland, on 14th June 1904. There were already four little boys in the family, so perhaps a girl was a welcome change, for my first given name was Dorothea, which means 'gift of God'. I also had 'Vera' and 'Caroline'. 'Vera' because our family crest had the motto 'Fabula sed Vera', i.e. Story but Truth. Caroline was to please both Grandmothers. We also had a grown-up half sister 'Vida', daughter of our father's first wife Florence; Florence died of cancer when Vida was very young. Vida was away in England as governess to a family near Cheltenham. While there she met Major Ponsonby May Lynn Carew, a widower with one daughter Gladys. They were married in Dublin in 1910, and I was one of her bridesmaids. When I was about three years old we moved to Dalkey nine miles from Dublin, because there was no school near to us at Bingfield. Mount Salus was the name of the house that Father rented. There in 1911 my sister Laila was born; so then we were six in the family.
At this stage I will give you some information about the family background. The Story's came from the north of England. Family records tell us that one John Story, an English gentleman, squandered his estate, sold his family place Bingfield Hall near Hexham in Northumberland, went to Clogher in County Tyrone, Ireland, under the auspices of Bishop Ashe in 1697 and settled at Corick, where he built his new family home. There is mention of two sons, Thomas and Joseph, through there were probably more. Thomas inherited the Corick home. Joseph born 1697 went to Edinburgh University and became Chaplain to the Irish House of Commons, which was exclusively Protestant. He became Bishop of Killaloe in 1740, and then Bishop of Kilmore, County Cavan in 1742. His son Joseph became Archdeacon of Kilmore, and built his home two miles from Kilmore Cathedral, calling it 'Bingfield' after the old family home in Northumberland. This became the family home of this branch of the family for some generations. The older branch was established at Corick in county Tyrone.
After the Archdeacon there were two more Josephs who were also Church of England (Anglican) clergymen. Then came my grandfather, another Joseph, who was a Barrister. He married Caroline Reid who was a grand-daughter of Lord Napier of Ettrick. Joseph and Caroline had six sons, the eldest son was Robert my father.
Robert was educated at Harrow. On leaving school he obtained a commission in the Hampshire Yeomanry, transferring after three years to the 60th rifles, the Kings Royal Rifle Corps. He married Florence Mansfield Bush of Bradford-on-Avon and they had one child, Vida Hope Carmichael. Robert went to India with his Regiment. There he became intensely interested in the peoples and their languages; he studied Hindustani, Persian and Arabic all the rest of his life. So he transferred to the 8th Bengal Cavalry, later renamed the 8th Cavalry I.A. His Regiment went to the second Afghan War in 1878. Robert suffered an attack of erysipelas and Spinal Meningitis, which meant he had to return to England; which in his condition was a long and painful journey. He was lucky to survive that illness after a long convalescence.
After their daughter was born Florence Emily became very ill and eventually died of cancer of the breast. Robert resigned his commission on account of his ill-health. For some time he rather drifted with nothing special to do. Then he had a chance to go to New Zealand with his naval brother Oswald who was in command of HMS Opal. Oswald married Miss Olave Baldwin, grand-daughter of Hon. Andrew Buchanan, the Doctor who built Chingford of which now only the stone stables remain and the grounds are a Public Park. On his return to England by sailing vessel Robert met Mary Jollie, one of the daughters of of Edward Jollie of Patea, New Zealand who was on her way to Scotland to visit her sister Bessie, Mrs James Angus. In 1896 Robert Story and Mary Jollie were married at Patea and sailed for the United Kingdom. Robert's mother gave him Bingfield where they settled down and had five children. The sixth child was born when they moved to Dalkey, Co. Dublin. Robert was High Sheriff of the County of Cavan and was on the Magistrate's bench for many years.
Now for some information about the Jollie family. The Jollies were French, Huguenots, who
left France as a result of the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes by Louis XIV in 1685.
These persecuted Protestants went to Scotland, some of them to Perth and Edinburgh. The
Jollies became 'Writers to the Signet' which was a Society of Law Agents in Scotland.
A extract from Sir Walter Scott's Journal goes:-
Jan 29th 1826. Mr James Jollie, who is to be my trustee in conjunction with Gibson, came
to see me, a pleasant good-humoured man and has a high reputation as a man of business.
In 1760 one Francis Jollie left Scotland and went to Carlisle. He was an architect but lost his fortune in building speculations in that town. Then he and his son, Francis, started a newspaper, The Carlisle Journal. The elder Francis died and his son carried on the paper till he died at the age of thirty-six, leaving Margaret his widow with a family of four boys and a girl; John, William, Francis, Edward and Elizabeth. Margaret Jollie was of the Routledge family, the publishing firm. She was only seventeen when she married so she must still have been young when her husband died and little Edward was about eighteen months old.
Margaret Jollie kept on the newspaper with a Mr Steel as manager. When Edward was four years old, the Journal published something which caused Lord Lonsdale, a prominent local magnate, to prosecute for libel. Mrs Jollie chose to go to prison rather than pay the imposed fine, and she took little Edward with her. She had rather a good time, for all her friends came to sympathise and they presented her with a handsome silver tea service with the inscription:
PRESENTED
BY THE REFORMERS OF EAST CUMBERLAND
TO
MARGARET JOLLIE
ONE OF THE PROPRIETORS OF THE CARLISLE JOURNAL
THE UNFLINCHING SUPPORTER OF
THE CAUSE OF THE PEOPLE
JUNE 7TH 1834.
This tea service is now owned by Tim Jollie of Pakuranga, a great-great grandson of Margaret Jollie.
When Edward was sixteen years old in 1841, he sailed to New Zealand on the barque Brougham on 2nd October 1841, arriving at Wellington on 9th February 1842. He was a surveyor-cadet with the New Zealand Company for three years. When he had served his time he took surveying contracts and did much surveying and exploring, mainly in the South Island. He laid out Lyttelton, Sumner, Christchurch, Timaru and Temuka. In the 1850s Edward Jollie and his partner Edward Lee established the Parnassus Sheep Station.
In 1850 Jollie was elected Member of Parliament for Cheviot, so he had to go to Auckland for the Parliamentary session. While there he used to go to musical parties given by the Governor Gore-Browne and his Lady at Government House, where he met Miss Caroline Orsmond. They were involved in private theatricals at Government House; Sheridan's play 'The Rivals' was being produced. The friendship thus begun culminated in their marriage on 14th May 1861 at St. Paul's Church Parnell, celebrated by Bishop Selwyn. When Edward had wound up all his outstanding surveying contracts he took his wife home to England to meet his mother. Their first daughter Margaret, known as Madge, was born there. When they returned to New Zealand they settled at his new Beachcroft estate, Southbridge, where the rest of the family were born. Mary Jollie who married Robert Story was the fifth child. There were seven daughters and two sons, but one daughter died aged four.
In 1877, Edward Jollie took his wife and eight children, with a maid to help with the children, on the four month voyage by sailing vessel to England and Europe via Cape Horn. The eldest girl Madge had her fifteenth birthday on the voyage. She kept a diary in a school notebook of all the doings on board. The original is in the Turnbull Library and I have a photo-copy, it is most amusing. She learnt sea shanties and jokes from the sailors and added little drawings. They were away for several years and the children went to school in Dresden and Lausanne. So my mother had an unusual childhood. When the Jollie family returned to New Zealand, they left the South Island and went to a new home called Waireka at Patea. One of the girls, Bessie, married a Scotsman, James Angus, a coal-mine owner who lived in Ayrshire. Mary was on her way to visit here when she met Robert Story on board ship.
I must now give some information about the Orsmond's. Caroline Armstrong Orsmond who married Edward Jollie was born in Tahiti, where her father was a missionary for the London Missionary Society. Rev. John Muggridge Orsmond, Caroline's father was descended from an English Catholic family; the name may originally have been spelled Ormonde. Family tradition tells that one of the Ormonde family married a French lady and their son, destined for the priesthood was educated and trained in France. While in Holy Orders he met and fell in love with a wealthy Spanish lady. They eloped to England and were married in a Protestant church. So the Catholic Church excommunicated them. His family, incensed at his conduct, required him to alter his name to Orsmond and renounce all claim to the family titles and land. He became a Protestant. His son Thomas Orsmond married Anne Muggridge at St. Mary's Church, Portsea, Hants. I have a photocopy of their signatures in the marriage register of that church dated 5th November 1785. Their son John Muggridge Orsmond was educated for the Ministry at Gosport, Hants, England. He was ordained on the 23rd December 1815 at the King Street Chapel, Portsea. He decided to offer his services to the London Missionary Society to go to Tahiti. For this he incurred the displeasure of his parents and also lost his claim to his share of their wealth, which on their deaths was lodged with the Chancery.
Orsmond went to Tahiti in 1817 with his first wife Mary who died in childbirth and the baby did not survive. After a while the Rev. J. Orsmond went to Sydney to search for another wife. He did not want to marry a native as some of the missionaries had done. On 23rd February 1820 he married Isabella Nelson who was a teacher in Rev. Samuel Marsden's Sunday School. She bore him ten children and was his right hand in the missionary work and his sympathetic companion throughout his life. She died in 1854 aged sixty and is buried in Papeete Cemetery. John Orsmond was naturally a strange mixture. He was a scholar and an indefatigable worker, sparing neither himself nor anyone else; an able leader, not an aristocrat, which was evident in many of his actions. His family remembered him as a kind and indulgent father. There is more to this story, but this is not the place for it.
Let us go back to the Story family, having moved from Bingfield to 'Mount Salus', Dalkey, near Dublin. This was a lovely place for children; a big semi-detached house up quite a long drive from the Knock-na-cree Road. It was on a hillside with a wonderful view overlooking Dublin Bay and round the corner to the south were the Wicklow Mountains. There was an extensive garden, much of which was wild with granite rocks covered with gorse and lots of purple Veronica; surrounded by a stone wall. There was a locked gate at the rear which gave access to the common land behind. We used to see the mail boat go out from Kingstown Harbour every morning on it's way to Holyhead and return in the evening.
My brothers and some other boys formed the nucleus of what became a very good preparatory school called Tudor House. With the boys at school I was rather lonely. There was one little girl next door with whom I used to play sometimes; May Strahan, with a younger brother called Colin. Their aunt Miss Cohan used to bribe us with chocolate beans to sit still while she painted our portraits in water-colours. I can remember clinging up onto a garden gate in our place which overlooked the Strahan's, and yelling out 'May, can I come in ?', till someone would come out and say yes or no. When the boys came home from school there was plenty of activity about the place. Father had a workshop built in the back garden for his wood-turning lathes and other tools. The older boys were boy scouts. In bad weather we played card games etc. Mother and Father used to have friends in for musical evenings. Father played his cornet to mother's accompaniment on the piano. Father sang and no doubt the visitors did their share. With no radio or television people made their own entertainment. Father bought one of those 'His Master's Voice' gramophones just like the one pictured on the trademark. He had a delightful variety of records, serious and comic. I remember someone singing 'Down Among the Dead Men' and a dramatic record of 'The Death of Nelson', and on a lighter note, the first verse of a comic song which went:
Lady Clare went out to dine,
In a dress of satin fine.
A waiter who had not got the knack,
Dropped some ice-cream down her back!
La diddly-iddly-um, diddly-iddly-iddly-um, la diddly-iddly-um,
She said he'd have to find it.
I used to enjoy dancing round the big dining-room to these records.
Brother Basil had a Bantam cock up in the fowl run. I do not know from where he got some whisky and gave the Bantams a drink, making them drunk. Basil was full of ideas. There was a big wide stone wall between the fowl run and the vegetable garden. Basil used to sit up there, light a fire and cook things. One day mother was entertaining Mrs Rootham the school-masters wife, and showing her round the garden. A voice called down from the big wall 'Mrs Rootham, did you know that slug's skins came off when you boiled them?'. Basil had a great capacity for mischief but at the same time was often blamed for things he did not do. He asked for boots with nails on the soles so that he could make sparks along the pavement and he collided with an old lady because he was watching the sparks instead of where he was going.
Father had a motor-boat at the Royal St. George Yacht Club at Kingstown, ( now known as Dun Laoghaire or Dunleary ). One day he took mother and Mrs Rootham and me right across Dublin Bay to visit friends on Howth Head. Howth is a peninsula that stretches for nine miles from north of Dublin to it's head. On the way home we ran into very thick fog and I remember making my mother keep on singing that old sea shanty 'Blow my Bully Boys Blow'; for the fog-horns were blowing hard, so it seemed appropriate. Father got us safely back to Kingstown with the aid of his compass. Sometimes we went out trolling for mackerel; I remember being very pleased with myself for catching ten fish.
Dalkey had two parks, Sorrento Park and The People's Park. In the summer there was Band Night on Saturdays at Sorrento Park. Some people subscribed to this venture and received books of tickets, others could pay at the gate. Well-known bands, military and otherwise were engaged to play from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m.. It was a beautiful situation with Howth in the distance in one direction, the Wicklow Mountains to the south and the sparkling sea below. it was daylight in that part of the world until well after 10 p.m.. The street lamps were lit by gas in those days. We had gas-light in parts of the house, otherwise we used candles and oil lamps. Father once caught me sliding down the banisters with a lighted candle in my hand.
There was no mixed bathing at the bathing places. At Dalkey the Ladies' and Gents' bathing places were about a mile apart. Of course, down at the beach there was no segregation but Dalkey beach was quite a distance from most of the houses owing to the steep coastline. So I did not get much sea bathing because mother did not go and I could not go with the boys. We did not have a car, few people did then. In the country we had the horse and trap which as a big dog-cart and a pony trap. My sister used to go riding on Chloe the pony. We also had our bicycles as we grew older. The Cavan roads were not tar sealed and were very bumpy. During the 'troubles' neither side would mend them for the other to use.
Just outside Dalkey there lived a well-off old gentleman called Mr Quon Smith who had no children of his own but was fond of children. Every summer he gave a children's party with sports and prizes. I won a lovely little Crown Derby trinket box, which I have given to my daughter-in-law Alison. In the winter Mr Smith gave a Christmas party. Adjoining his house was the remains of an old castle. After the tea party we all went to an upstairs room in the castle for Christmas presents, which were given to us by a big bear, not Santa Claus.
We had a nurse-maid called Mary-Jane, whose mother had been housekeeper for our grandmother at Bingfield. Mary-Jane came to us aged sixteen when my second brother Ralph was the baby of the family in 1899. She was still with us until about 1910 when she left to get married. At Dalkey Mary-Jane slept in my room and looked after me. She took me out for walks and shopping; and sometimes she would slip into the RC Chapel for mass or part of it. I can recall the Sanctuary bell tinkling at a certain part of the service. We as a family were Protestants and went to the Church of Ireland (i.e. Anglican) church, but our friends were of both kinds. I remember seeing Halley's comet in 1910 when I was not quite six and with any luck I may see it again next year, 1986.
Mother gave me my first reading lessons with 'Line Upon Line' books; 'the cat sat on the mat' sort of thing. When I was six I started going to a governess in the mornings for lessons. But this did not last very long because in the spring of 1911 mother took me over to England to visit her sister Bessie, Mrs Angus, at Cheltenham. Aunt Bessie was a widow with a son at boarding school in Scotland and four girls who went to Cheltenham Ladies' College as day girls. I enjoyed having girls to play with after being the only girl at home. C.L.C. had a kindergarten attended by boys and girls; and in April I went there, which I enjoyed.
During this time I did not know that my mother was shortly going to have another child; she left me at Cheltenham and went home to Dalkey, where my sister Laila Mary was born on 18th July. I am told I was not very pleased to hear that my mother now had another little girl. I saw little of my mother after that. I did not see my baby sister till I went home for the Christmas holidays in December. I have no recollection of holding the baby or what she was like then. I went back to Aunt Bessie in January and remained with her for the next nine years. I only got to go home to Ireland in the summer holidays. So I grew up more like my cousins than my own family. I had been laughed at for my 'brogue', but gradually the English accent took over and then my brothers laughed at me for being 'English'.
I did well at school, because that was how I could get the praise and encouragement so necessary to children. My Aunt Bessie was kind and good and treated me as one of her own but it was only natural for me to miss my mother and my own family. My half sister Vida and her husband lived in Cheltenham at that time and I sometimes stayed with them. But she gave birth to her first daughter Joyce in 1912 and some time after that they moved to Erdington in Somerset.
Lindley, College Road, Cheltenham, where I lived with the Angus family was a big roomy house with a large garden. On one side we overlooked the Boy's College playing field so we had a good view of all the sport; Rugby football, cricket etc. In the winter term my cousins Sheila and Mabel and I went to a gymnasium class where boys and girls were taught by a retired army sergeant. We had great fun doing exercises and learning to climb ropes. There was an upstairs gallery with a sham window which had a polished pole outside it which went down to the floor of the gym. We thought it great fun getting out of the window and sliding down the pole like one sees firemen do in films.
The summer of 1911 was very hot; I saw cracks in the ground when we went up Cleeve Hill on the Cotswolds where Aunt Bessie rented a couple of semi-detached cottages at farmer Snow's place 'Stoney Cockbury' as a holiday home. To get there we had to go by tram to the terminus on Cleeve Hill and then walk a mile or more over the top of the hill and down the other side. It is difficult after such a long time to remember the distance; we were good walkers and there was a carrier to deliver our luggage. At the cottages, which Aunt Bessie called 'Tootle-Oo' we had six bedrooms because each cottage had three. A door was made between the two ground-floor front rooms; there was also a concrete-floored back room in each cottage, with a cold-water tap and a sink. At Lindley, Aunt Bessie had domestic staff but at Tootle-Oo we did our own work. We got milk and eggs and cream from the farm and a butcher's and a baker's van called. We could get groceries from a shop at the tram terminus. The Cheltenham trams were double-deckers but the ascent up to Cleeve from Preston at the bottom of the hill was so steep that special single-deck trams were used for the hill-climb. Letters were delivered by horse-drawn mail van which plied between Cheltenham and Winchcomb a few miles on from Stoney-Cockbury.
Sometimes the Cotswold fox-hounds would hold a meet at Stoney-Cockbury, or at the neighbouring farm of Rushy Cockbury and they would go hunting through the wood called Langley Bottom. We children would follow them on foot. On one occasion Muriel Snow, the farmer's younger daughter was given the brush ( the fox's tail ) as the first lady in at the kill. Poor Joey our dog got a piece of wood wedged across his jaw when hunting in the woods. We had to walk him all the way to Winchcomb to the vet to get it removed. One Sunday when we walked to the little church in Cleeve village, Joey must have followed us and have had a fight on the way, for in the middle of the service up the aisle of the church walked Joey blood-stained and bedraggled. One of the girls had to take him out. Aunt Bessie dressed us younger girls in corduroy shorts to save out good clothes; we were such tom-boys. The lavatory at the cottages was at the bottom of the garden with a castellated wall round it. There were two seat holes, one adult size and one child size. Part of that very hot summer we went to Newquay on the north Devon coast, where Aunt Bessie rented a house for a few weeks. We were joined by some other cousins and travelled by train in a big sort of Pullman sitting-room compartment. There was a long beach at Newquay but I was only seven and could not swim; I was terrified of the huge rolling breakers. At the end of September school began again. I was in the transition class of the kindergarten. My cousin Mabel moved out of the kindergarten into the main school, class III 4. Next year III 4 was abolished and I moved into III 3 with Mabel and we moved together for several years till she went away to Wycombe Abbey School, Buckinghamshire. Sheila and Jean also went there; Betty went into her nursing career when the war began. At Lindley we had a governess to look after us, take us for walks, supervise our homework and do our mending. Miss Ethel Violet Raynes or 'Rayney' as we called her was a lovely person. She was younger than she looked, for her hair had gone prematurely grey. She was a very faithful church-goer and kept us up to the mark in that respect. It was at here instigation that I was prepared and confirmed. As my mother was not on the spot Rayney was a great help to me. We had long hair in those days and Rayney brushed it and tied it up or plaited it in the morning. We were not allowed to wear it loose at school, it had to be tied with a specified width of black ribbon. School hours were 8:45 am to 1 p.m., so we had plenty of free time. Of course we had regular homework, on a time-table. At the weekend we had a scripture essay to write, verses from the Bible to learn by heart and a Bible passage to read on which we would be questioned on Monday. Boarders would have to take part in team games at the games field. We lived too far out to do that. We had navy blue school uniform and and must not be seen in the street without hat or gloves. There was a day-girls dance in the Christmas term but the only gentlemen allowed to attend were uncles over thirty-five years old and fathers! My sister was a boarder at C.L.C. in the nineteen twenties. One day Miss Apperly was leading some of the girls on their 'crocodile' walk when she say some college boys ahead. 'Boys!' she cried and made the girls do a right-about turn. When I told this to some little girls in New Zealand their remark was 'Nothing wrong with boys', which I thought so natural.
In 1914 Aunt Bessie bought Hill House, a lovely place with five acres of grounds up on Leckhampton Hill at the south end of Cheltenham, outside the town. The tram terminus was at the bottom of the hill; there was a steep walk for about ten or fifteen minutes up to the house which had a wonderful view of the town below and the country beyond for many miles. Tootle-Oo was given up; Leckhampton was at the other end of the Cotswolds. There was a large basement, ground floor and two more floors above that. There were twelve bedrooms on those two floors plus two more in the wing. Bathroom and lavatory were also in the wing and another lavatory on the stairs going up to the top floor. Aunt Bessie also had a room on the top floor made into a bathroom because there were so many people to have baths. Here is a list of the household when we went to Hill House:- Aunt Bessie, Rayney, Betty, Jean, Sheila, Mabel and myself, my brother Teddy and three maids; a total of eleven. Brother Teddy joined us to go to the boy's college to prepare for the Indian Army.
The kitchen was on the ground floor of the wing, with the store-room and pantry nearby and the servants hall. There a large double drawing room and the dining room and morning room on the ground floor. The front door was up a few steps from the drive and there was thus a veranda round part of the house. There was an orchard with apple and pear trees. The water supply had to be pumped to the house by a petrol engine in a shed in the orchard; this was part of the gardener's duties. There was a cottage where the gardener and his family lived on the property. There were two lawns, a large vegetable and fruit garden. There was a big walnut tree, hazel walk, two big mulberry trees and a lot of other trees which we children delighted to climb. In one corner of the vegetable garden we girls each had a small plot to look after and plant as we pleased with flowers. I had a tiny lawn on mine, just big enough for my deck-chair and a tiny rock-garden in one corner. There was a substantial stable building, with coach-house, harness room and stalls for two horses, with a big loft upstairs and two small rooms with fireplaces.
Aunt Bessie moved to Hill House just when the first World War began. Of course we did not know it was going to last so long. The full-staff situation with which we began at Hill House gradually dwindled as the staff went off to war-time jobs, or got married. One of the lawns was dug up to plant potatoes which became in short supply. At one period we had to do with rice instead. Rationing came in for meat, butter, margarine, sugar etc. This was really an improvement because before that much precious time was spent standing in queues to try to buy things which were in short supply.
Betty Angus was at finishing school in Germany at Dusseldorf when the war began. She had some difficulties in getting home to England, but she managed. I was ten years old and at home in Ireland for the summer holidays. Mother and father had not yet moved back to Bingfield, which they did in the autumn. I remember Dublin Bay was full of the British fleet. In September I returned to Cheltenham, this time to Hill House where Aunt Bessie had moved during the holidays. Betty was back from Germany and she soon started her nursing career as a V.A.D. at Leckhampton Court Soldiers Hospital when the casualties began arriving from the war. I forgot to mention that Aunt Bessie had one of the rooms in the wing made into what we called the 'cook room', with a gas cooker and all the equipment from Tootle-Oo. This came in very handy when we got short of staff. Meals etc. could be produced here without having to go down to the big kitchen. Also, while we had a cook, we could go and make toffee or scones or cakes without being a nuisance to cook.
Jean went as a boarder to Wycombe Abbey School in Buckinghamshire, and Sheila, Mabel and I continued at C.L.C. Later on Sheila and Mabel went to Wycombe Abbey. Robin Angus did not often appear at Hill House. He was in the Ayrshire Yeomanry at the beginning of the war and later in the Royal Flying Corps. Robin perished in the war; he was 'last seen over enemy lines', and that was the end. This was a terrible grief for Aunt Bessie; she was confined to here room for some time after this. Rayney kept the household going.
In the autumn of 1914 my parents and Laila went back to live in the old home Bingfield, County Cavan. I was in England and Teddy with me, Ralph was a classical scholar, boarding at St. Paul's School, London, Basil was a border at Tudor House. Pat who was nearly eighteen went to farm in New Zealand. He joined the New Zealand army when he was old enough (20 years) and served in France, was wounded, went to Cambridge and became an officer and served in the army of occupation in Germany after the war. Ralph also served in France with the Royal Artillery but he got severe sciatica and had to be discharged from the army. In 1917 Teddy went to the military college in Quetta, India. He was in some of the last Northwest Frontier fighting. It must have been very dreary for little Laila away in the old home in the country. Actually she tells me that she was quite happy because she had a number of imaginary playmates in a country called 'Ha'. Her chief friend was 'Heavensie'; others were Malley, Baby Malley and Malet also Douglas. Father used to read to her a lot. We only saw each other once a year when I was home for the summer holidays. In fact the longest time we ever had together under the same roof was four months in 1920, between my leaving C.L.C and going to Alexandra College, Dublin. So we grew up not really knowing each other like sisters; the seven years gap in our ages accentuated that. All through life our ways have gone in different directions.
I continued to go to C.L.C. all through the war, though the scene changed quite a lot. Betty went to Guy's Hospital, London to take a course in mid-wifery and then in electricity and radiography. Jean continued as a VAD at Leckhampton Court Convalescent Soldiers Hospital and enjoyed quite a lot of social life in the neighbourhood. Sheila and Mabel were borders at Wycombe Abbey School. The gardener went to the war and the maids to munitions or got married. Teddy went to India in 1917. So Aunt Bessie got a Mrs Patrick that she had known in Scotland, to come and be housekeeper. Jessie Patrick was a widow with a little girl called Ella aged about four. Ella liked to follow her mother around and try to help her. Aunt Bessie also got Baldwin down from Scotland, who had been the Angus' coachman, to come and live in the cottage. He took over the pumping engine from Rayney; it was becoming rather too much for her. Eventually she left and went to be matron at Boyne House, one of the boys' college boarding houses.
Towards the end of the war Aunt Bessie took a flat in London and she was backward and forward between there and Hill House quite a lot, so I was the only one left much of the time at Hill House. Jessie looked after me when everyone was away. Then Aunt Bessie decided to shut up Hill House as she wanted to take Sheila and Mabel travelling; they went round the world. This was when the war was over. This meant that I had to leave C.L.C. because to be a border was too expensive. So I went home to Ireland in 1919. Mother kept me at home for the Spring and in April I went as a border to Alexandra College, Dublin. The age for entering that college was sixteen and I had my sixteenth birthday in June. So now I had my foot in only one camp, in my own country. That was an important 'going' from C.L.C. and a 'coming' to A.C.D. It was a little strange at first, but I found the girls in Ireland very refreshing after the more sedate English girls.
After nine years as a day-girl at school in England, life as a boarder at A.C.D was rather different. For one thing Ireland was in a very disturbed state and Dublin in particular. The British were still trying to hold Ireland and had their forces all over the country. The I.R.A. were spasmodically active, causing a lot of outrage and trouble. Some random diary entries will illustrate this:
Monday 15th April 191?:
During Easter over 60 police barracks and huts were blown up in Clare, Cork, Galway
and Meath and five fires started in Dublin; all rebel activity.
7th May:
The full number of barracks blown up was 144
24th June:
Derry is in an awful state
21st November
More outrages in Cork
Our home in County Cavan was raided. I was away at school when father was held up by the rebels;
he gave up his revolver to avoid bloodshed. I was home for the holidays when the I.R.A. raided
the house one Sunday morning. Father and I had gone to church and luckily I had taken my bicycle
or they may have taken that. Mother and Laila were at home and Mrs and Mr Wagge and their son
John ( who were servants ). The armed men went upstairs from the kitchen straight to the library
where the sporting guns and ammunition were kept and took them, plus some table knives from the
dining room; they knew exactly where to go. Father had to inform the British military stationed
in Cavan five miles away.
Our Alexandra College residence was in Earlfort Terrace, just off Stephen's Green and right opposite the National University. Further up the terrace a number of British army officers were billeted. One Sunday morning we girls heard shooting not very far away. We learned later that twenty of these officers had been shot in their beds. After that a 10 p.m. curfew was imposed. This meant that friends taking any of our girls out at the weekend had to bring her back early enough to themselves get home again before 10 pm. As the fighting continued, we very often did our 'prep' in the evening with gunfire as a background. One afternoon some girls had to come in from the garden because some stray shots came whizzing through. When we went on our 'crocodile' walks, often lorry loads of Black-and-Tans would go tearing past us. Poor little Miss James, in charge of us one day was so scared she rushed into a shop and temporarily abandoned us. Sometimes it was not very nice going into college in the morning to hear that some girl's father or other relative had been killed. One night about 2 am. we all had to get out of bed and sit in the passage for some time because there was an ambush going on in the street outside. We were afraid of any stray shots. When we returned to bed, the girls in the front came and doubled up with us in the back rooms.
When it came to the day to travel home at the end of term in June 1922, we heard that the railway station, Broadstone, from which some of us would depart was in the 'fighting area'. There was another route I might get home by, from Amiens Street Station on the Great Northern line which went to Armagh and had a branch line going down to Cavan. So several of us set out in our cab, horse-drawn, for Amiens Street Station. There we found that the line was closed because a bridge had been blown up at Drogheda. So we talked to the cabby and he agreed to try to get us to Broadstone Station, in-spite of the fighting. There were some snipers on the roofs as we went along but we managed to get there safely by 10 am. Our trains had gone but there would be others later in the afternoon. It was Saturday; we could not go back to school which would be closed. Luckily there was a station buffet which closed at 1 p.m., so we were able to get some lunch. Two girls got away by train at 2.30 p.m. for Galway; two others got a train an 5.45 p.m. and I was last to get away at 6 p.m.. We had lived on slot-machine chocolate since lunch time. I reached my station Crosdoney about 10 p.m. and found our horse and trap waiting for me. I was glad to get home and have a good meal. On Monday I went to the village to fetch the Irish Times newspaper as we had no delivery but there was no paper because the railway line by which I had come home on Saturday had been torn up by Sinn Feiners in the weekend.
My cousin Dick Story aged twenty was serving with the Shropshire Regiment in Dublin at this time. He was allowed to take me out from college several times and one to a dance at a club run for British army officers in a house in Earlfort Terrace. I had to be back at residence by 11 p.m.. On August 31st 1922 we received the sad news that Dick had been shot and killed as he drove his car through Phoenix Park returning to his barracks late at night after dining at the Mess of another regiment. Dick was born in Ireland but his parents had moved to England. My father as next-of-kin attended his funeral. my brother explained to me later on that Dick was at risk because he was working for British Intelligence; he used to go down to the docks, listening for information.
Our County Cavan was one of the three counties of Ulster which were left in the Free State when Ireland divided into Northern Ireland and the Free State in December 1921. Irish politics are too complicated for me to make any more reference to 'The Troubles' at that time. We were fortunate not to have our house burnt down seeing father was a retired British Army officer; but he had been on the retired list for over forty years. Like many other Irish landowners he had suffered loss of much of his land at the hands of the British Government, from the Land Acts. But he had always been good to the people about the place and helped them when he could, so he was loved and respected. We had friends among Roman Catholics and Protestants alike and employed both.
I am very sorry not to have my diary for 1921, which as stolen out of my chemistry overalls pocket in the cloakroom at A.C.D. That summer Teddy was home on leave from India. In July I was over in London with Mother and Teddy staying in a private hotel in Earl's Court. I was just 17 and I went to me first grown-up dance. My cousin Mary Freeman gave me such s pretty pink tulle ball dress and did my hair up for me. The dance was at a club she belonged to. I was very unsophisticated. After one dance with a Mr Wickham we sat down to have an ice-cream. When he rose to leave me he said 'Have another later', and I replied 'Oh no thank-you really'. I thought he meant another ice-cream, whereas he meant another dance. We went to a few theatres but without my diary I forget which ones and Teddy took us to watch polo at Ranelagh and Hurlingham. Then it was back to Ireland for the rest of the summer holidays.
During my last term at A.C.D. I went to London to sit for the London Matriculation Examination, upon the result of which hung my future career. This I passed and in October 1922 I went to London University, to King's College for Women, up on Campbell Hill, Kensington. The college was later renamed Queen Elizabeth College in honour of the Queen Mother, who was patroness. So I did not see much of Ireland after that. The old home, built in 1745, was sold after my father's death in 1924. In 1925, after graduating I went on a farewell visit to Ireland and to see my friends there, many for the last time; since then I have never been back.
The subjects studied at K.C.W. for the degree course in the first year were Inorganic Chemistry, Physics, Biology, Social and Economic History and Household Work; all requiring practical work except the economics. The second year was devoted to: Organic Chemistry, General and Economic Biology, Principles of Economics and Business Affairs, Hygiene, Physiology and Household Work.
More specialised word was undertaken during the third year in readiness for the degree exam, the subjects being: Applied Chemistry, Bacteriology, Hygiene including Maternity and Child Welfare, Physiology including Nutrition and Household Work including Institutional Management. In applied chemistry we analysed foodstuffs for adulteration, milk to see if it was pure and up to standard, soap to see if it contained any harmful ingredients; we determined the amount of lead in the glaze of casseroles etc. I understand that Psychology had been added to the course. As there was no sewing I took a course in dressmaking at the Technical School, Cheltenham, after leaving King's.
One of my fellow students was Ishbel MacDonald who worked at the same chemistry bench with me and I knew her as a quiet pleasant sensible person, I knew nothing of her background. Then her father, Ramsay MacDonald became Prime Minister, January 22nd 1924. As he was a widower with three children, Ishbel had to leave college to become hostess at No. 10 Downing Street, a big task for a young women of just 20. Her mother died when Ishbel was only eight years old, so she learnt to stand up for herself. She was born and educated in England and the aunts who brought her up gave her plenty of savoir faire, so she never made a mistake while she was at No. 10 Downing Street. As a newpaper put it, 'She came through her time as hostess with flying colours.' She had a brother, Malcolm, who had a distinguished political career, and a sixteen year old sister. I accompanied her to Elliot and Fry and Dorothy Wilding to have her photograph taken for the press.
At college we used to entertain each other with 'cocoa parties'. We did not have instant coffee or Milo in those days. So on 7th May, Ishbel invited us of her college year to a cocoa party at No. 10 Downing Street. She showed us over the public rooms including the cabinet room where I collected as a souvenir, a piece of notepaper headed 'No 10 Downing Street' and an envelope with PRIME MINISTER printed on it. Ishbel told us about her invitation to afternoon tea with Queen Mary at Buckingham Palace and the etiquette which had to be observed.
Ishbel married twice. With her first husband she ran a pub in the village of Speen in Buckinghamshire. But her husband died suddenly one night. She met her second husband while on holiday in Lossiemouth; he was the town chemist. Ishbel became Mrs Peterkin, the chemist's wife. In 1955 the chemist died. She bought a fisherman's cottage and turned it into a comfortable home. She had no children of her own, so she became foster-mother to three boys.
My father, Robert Story died in Ireland during my second year at K.C.W. The old home was sold, and my mother was living in rooms in Cheltenham when I left King's. My sister Laila went as a boarder to C.L.C. She was thirteen and had never been at school before. I joined mother at Cheltenham, taking a course in shorthand and typing, while looking for a suitable job. As we had now no home I had to have a 'live in' job. Then mother received news of the illness of brother Teddy in Australia; he had a nervous breakdown caused by the circumstances of his job and mother saw it necessary for her to go to him. So I was left 'in loco parentis' to my sister, while mother went to Australia. This made it necessary for me to get a job where I could get the school holidays. I did not want to teach; in any case I would have needed a year at a training college to do that; though I did teach Latin and maths to a class of five girls in a funny little private school in Cheltenham but that was only for one term. At last I obtained a post as House Assistant in the junior house of St. Swithun's Girls School, Winchester. There were thirty-three little girls from eight to thirteen years old boarding at North Hill House. I had to sit with them when they were doing their homework, do their darning, wash their hair, sort their laundry when it came back, help to serve the meals, escort the 'crocodiles' to and from school and escort them in the bus to the games field which was at the other end of town. At the games field I had to be ready to render first-aid for any injuries. On Sunday I escorted them to church.
I was House Assistant for only one term. The lady cook was leaving to get married and I was asked if I would take on the cooking at a slight rise in salary. So this I did for the rest of the two years I spent there. My salary was £60 per annum, living in, all found and of course I got the school holidays which I needed in order to look after Laila. I cooked for forty-two people, 33 children and 9 adults; good wholesome plain cooking and good useful experience. I made two gallons of porridge for breakfast in a large double boiler. When I made pikelets, which we called 'flapjacks' I made 80 on a large girdle. I cooked on a large coal range with an oven on either side. There was also a gas stove which was used in the summer days when we did not light the range. We lit the range on two or three days a week in the summer to do some 'advance' cooking for the other days.
On July 11th mother arrived back from New Zealand. I was able to have a few hours off to meet her at Southampton, then back to my cooking. On the 27th all the children went home for the summer holidays. I was kept busy with cooking, kitchen cleaning and jam making till 4th August, then I got away for my holiday. After a week with the aunts in Torquay I joined mother and Laila in London. On the 10th August we were joined by our cousin Poppy Seymour from New Zealand and her aunt Miss Flo Seymour and we left Victoria Station by the 8.20 p.m.. train on our way to France via Newhaven and Dieppe. Mother had arranged a three-weeks tour to see chateau, cathedrals etc. We reached Dieppe about 2 am. and went on by train to Rouen to see the cathedral there and then on to Chartres which we reached by 8 p.m.. We stayed one night at the Hotel du Grand Monarch and were up bright and early the next morning to visit the cathedral and see the famous stained-glass windows. We caught the 10.31 am. train to Tours which we reached at 2 p.m.. and settled into the Convent of the Saint Augustine Order of nuns. It was mainly a pension de retraite for old widows but they also catered for travellers like us. There was no bathroom and the lavatory was rather primitive. Hot water for washing was brought to our rooms early in the morning and then 'petit dejeuner' (breakfast). The weather was warm, so, as there was no bath, we girls went for a bathe at the Ecole de Natation, which was a part of the river Loire enclosed by a line of floating barrels. In the evening we went to a Rudolph Valentine (silent) film. As this was Sunday, we told the nuns we were going for a walk, in case they did not approve of Sunday cinemas. Next day we went to the 10 am. mass at the cathedral. We found the number of times the collection bag was brought round rather disconcerting. That afternoon we went on a char-a-banc trip to see the wonderful chateaux of Amboise and Chenonceau.
Next morning mother and I went to the blanchisseuse with some clothes to be washed as we had no facilities at the convent. We girls went for another bathe. Next afternoon we went another char-a-banc trip to see chateaux at Villandry, Azay-le-Rideaux, Langeais, Luynes and Angmar. This was rather too many at once to remember very well without photos of them. I lost my camera by leaving it on the train on the way home. Fortunately I did buy postcards of many of the chateaux with descriptions which I have collected in an album. We went to Plessy les Tours but the chateau was occupied and not open to the public. Seeing all these wonderful places where kings and queens and noblemen had lived made me wish I had taken more interest in history at school.
Poppy Seymour and her Aunt Flo knew no French so they were dependant upon the rest of us when we went shopping etc. After ten days at Tours we took the train to Blois to see the big chateau there. In one part of the building there is a double staircase; people going up would not meet those going down. There is a small room with little cupboards where we were told Catherine de Medici kept her poisons. Next day we visited the cathedral and the art gallery. In the afternoon we went in a char-a-banc to see the Chateau of Chambord which was built for Francis 1st in 1519. It contains 450 rooms, 63 staircases and too 1800 men 15 years to build. We were in only a small part of it. Then we saw Chateau Cheverney, finished in 1634 and Chaumond, one the property of Catherine de Medici. On the 25th we got the 9.45 am. express to Paris. Eric Rootham met us and conducted us to the Hotel de Calais. After dejeuner, we visited Notre Dame cathedral. Next day poppy and Flo Seymour and I went on a Cooke's tour to Versailles, Petit and Grand Trianons and Malmaison, with dinner at Versailles. Next day we went shopping and exploring and found the English Church where some of us went to 8 am. Holy Communion on Sunday. We went to the Louvre and saw the Mona Lisa. We took a taxi to the Arc de Triomphe and sat there, then walked down the Champs Elysees. On the 30th all the others left by the 10 am boat train for London via Calais and Dover. I left later by the 5 p.m.. boat train for Le Havre, dining on the train. Next morning I was back in Winchester. The children did not return till the 20th, but meanwhile I was kept busy with jam-making and various house-keeping and cleaning chores.
After two years I wanted to do something with some prospect for advancement. I was told by friends about a new training scheme being started by Messrs J. Lyons & Co. for people to become superintendents for their teashops. As a rule the head staff in Lyons were only only drawn from those who had worked their way up in the firm. In this new training scheme people new to the firm could spend some time in each capacity in the teashops and then graduate as Assistant Manageress or 'Seater'. Later the trainee, if she proved to be competent, would become a manageress and then after sufficient experience should become a Superintendent. The length of the training would vary with the individual. I was about eight months in training before I became a 'seater' or Assistant Manageress. Trainees earned £2 per week during their training, with all meals while on duty supplied and uniforms provided by the firm. The hours were 54 per week, variously arranged according to the particular shop's hours of being open. The name 'seater' arose from the fact that one of the Assistant Manageress' jobs was to see that the customers could get seats when the tearoom was crowded. I started with a week at the training school at Clerkenwell, where, with others, I learnt about such things as dressing a counter with goods, packing chocolates, packing and tying neat and secure parcels and how to address customers etc. Then I was sent out for my first experience of shop work, to serve on the 'frontshop' counter of the teashop in Baker Street, Cricklewood, and Kilburn, to get used to three different kinds of window dressing. The Baker Street shop used adjustable stands holding silver dishes on which were arranged the cakes, buns etc. at different heights. Dressing the window was quite an art. One day when trying to reach some buns off a dish near the front of the window, in my nervousness I knocked down some of the stands! I felt terrible but the kind First Sales woman did not scold me in spite of the work it gave her repairing the display.
After two further days of training at the Clerkenwell school I was sent to work on the soda-fountain at the Cricklewood shop. This was a suburban district which mean that the shop, which was open on Sundays, was very busy at weekends. I was on the soda-fountain for six weeks, serving ice-creams, salads, fruits and all kinds of cold drinks such as ice-cream sodas and soft-drinks. This was nice clean work and not hard, except when the ice-cream was rather hard frozen, making it difficult to dig out with the portioner.
My next capacity was waitress or 'nippy' as they were nicknamed. I had four days tuition at Clerkenwell before returning to the Cricklewood shop. This was a nice airy shop with pleasant manageress and staff. A new waitress was known as a 'trippie' because I suppose at first one was liable to have all sorts of little accidents with trays etc. On my first morning I dropped a tray with just one small jug of milk on it. Waitresses could not wear the firm's badge on their caps until their period of probation was over and they became 'nippies'. At intervals Miss Fowler from head office came to see how I was getting on in my training. I said so much about how hard I thought the waitress's job was that she said 'Oh, you're not ready, you must do another fortnight!' Each waitress had six tables seating four customers to attend to. At slack periods this was not so bad but when all the seats were full I found it very hard to serve everyone in reasonable time and remember all the orders. I would soon 'get up the wall' as they called it.
'Steam and Grill' was my next job. After three days at the school, I was sent to 300 Regent Street, where I worked on the large basement floor. I made the hot drinks, tea, coffee, cocoa etc. and toast goods such as 'Egg on Toast', Welsh Rarebit etc. Grills were done in the kitchen and passed through to the counter for the waitress. I also did a few days in the kitchen and I relieved the cashier for meals. Then I spent two days in the cash desk, where I found how easy it is to give away money ! After two days of final instruction at the school, I came out as a 'seater' or Assistant Manageress and was sent to 47 Oxford Street, not far from Tottenham Court Road. I had to provide myself with an approved navy blue dress with beige lace collar and cuffs obtainable at the school and wear beige stockings and black shoes. It was the policy of the firm to move one about so as to get experience of different kinds of locality and different kinds of trade; so altogether I worked in fourteen different shops, including the ones where I trained.
Lyons did all the catering at Olympia; they had several large cafes in the building. For three and a half weeks I was sent to work at the Ideal Homes Exhibition at Olympia. The staff dressing rooms and canteen were underground, with underground passages from one part of the building to another. I was working in the Empire Club cafe which was for exhibitors only and their friends. I also went relieving seaters in the other cafes, so I was able to see a good deal of the exhibition while making my way from one cafe to another and I took care to have my meals in a cafe where I was not on duty, so as not to be interrupted.
The hours at Olympia were very long; I worked from 9 am. to 10.30 pm every day except my 'early' day when I was off at 7 pm. I had a quarter of an hour for 'breakfast' ( really morning tea), three-quarters of an hour for lunch, a quarter of an hour for afternoon tea and twenty minutes for supper. It was supposed to be an honour to be chosen to work at Olympia for which one received an extra 5/- per week in pay. So while I was at Olympia I received 50/- per week. It was hard work but as it was only for 3½ weeks, it was an interesting and useful experience. The exhibition was open six days a week, shut on Sundays. The carpeted floors in the cafes were very tiring for our feet; a smooth linoleum floor is much less tiring to walk on.
At that time the were 250 Lyons teashops in London and others in the provinces. The London shops were served by the big food factory at Cadby Hall in Kensington. There were four fresh deliveries each day to every shop; so the manageresses could arrange their orders to have fresh goods coming in at regular intervals and anything forgotten on one order could be put on the next. Each manageress had to make out a report about the day's events in the shop to send to Cadby Hall every evening, taking special care to mention anything unusual such as a customer's complaint, any accident or anyone unable to pay their bill. In the latter case the name and address of the customer must be included. In connection with complaints I should mention the firm's habit of employing 'observers'. An observer, someone unknown to the staff, would come into a tea shop and order perhaps an orange drink and then complain that it tasted maybe of soap. The waitress would call the manageress to deal with the situation. This would be put in the manageress' report, saying how she dealt with the incident. The observer would also send in a report, with remarks on the general conduct of the shop.
Teashop hours varied according to the situation which influenced the kind of trade. City shops were generally closed on Sundays, whereas suburban ones would be open. Staff received one week of annual holiday on full pay and could take a second week at own expense. My annual holiday fell at the end of January, a very poor time for weather, I arranged to join Aunt Bessie and Sheila where they were holidaying in Austria, At Zell-am-Zee in the Tyrol. This was a popular holiday resort for Austrians but they were trying to work it up as a winter sports resort. There was good ice-skating on the lake which was one mile wide by two miles long, though fresh snow sometimes spoiled the surface. The best skating place was on the tennis-platz, opposite the hotel were we stayed. This surface was re-flooded every night, so there was a newly frozen rink in the morning and music was relayed out there at night. There was good skiing up the Schmittenhohe mountain, reached by going up in the funicular railway, a sort of cabin suspended on a steel hawser, which took 20 minutes to ascend to the summit at 6,000 ft up, where the Franz Joseph Hotel provided meals and a sunny terrace to sit out on. There was a good toboggan run and toboggans could be hired.
Everything was under snow in the town and even the babies' prams were on runners. The lake was frozen so deep that even horses and sleighs drove across it. We went for a lovely sleigh ride in a big two-horse sleigh out in the country, passing wonderful castles. The Austrian people were very friendly and it was surprising how many of them could speak English. I began to pick up a little German. Aunt Bessie spoke excellent German as she had been to school in Dresden as a child. The children played ice-hockey in the afternoon when they came out of school and the old men played a kind of curling on rinks on the lake. There was no music in the hotel but there was a piano; so we made our own music and had good sing-songs. There were several other English people there.
All good things come to an end and I had to return to my job in London. I was mainly based at 47 Oxford Street, known by the code-letter 'R' in the firm but I was frequently sent to other shops for shorter or longer periods. I began to get very tired of the dirty London smoke and fog, so when I found they were needing staff for some of the shops outside London, I applied to be sent to Bournemouth for the summer season. Several of us travelled there together by train on 3rd July and started work next day at 'H.E.' in the centre of Bournemouth. This was a large shop with two floors seating 290 and 370 people respectively. There were two manageresses and two First Seaters and two Second Seaters. I was one of the First Seaters. The shop was open from 7.30 am to 11 p.m.. There was so much to do when shutting down at night that it was often after 12.30 when I got home to bed, though my official time was supposed to be until 11.30 p.m.. After this late night I would be on duty again at 7 am. and finish as 12 noon; but I was rather too tired to enjoy that free half-day very much.
This shop had the new 'self-service' counter that was just coming into use. Instead of the waitresses calling out their orders to the servers behind the counter, they could just open little doors in the closed service counter and take out what they wanted. This was an excellent idea as long as the 'hands' behind the counter kept the different compartments supplied. In later years customers' self-service came into use, doing away with the need for waitresses. In that shop at that time of year the customers were mainly people on holiday, hence the need for the late hours of being open. The house where I had a bed-sitting room had the advantage of being fairly near to the shop; but there was no bathroom, so I had to have a hip-bath in my room which was not very convenient. I had an uncle living in Southbourne, on the outskirts of Bournemouth, whom I visited at least once a week, it was not far by tram, so I arranged to have a bath there. Uncle Fran was blind; he was married and his wife, Aunt Edie, was very kind. Uncle was a great walker and he also went for rides on a tandem bicycle with his valet, Gould, on the front seat. Mr and Mrs Gould were the servants that uncle and aunt employed.
When I was on duty at 7 am. my first job was to go through all the perishable food left over from the previous day, pass as fit for use that which was good, destroy what was not good and enter it on the stock sheet. One day the superintendent interfered with the manageress' order sheet, with the result that there were about 400 pieces of cooked fish left over from the day before. the fish came to the shop ready cooked from the food factory, in this case at Southampton and only had to be heated up when ordered. While trying to examine all this fish, I began to think I could find some better employment and felt I did not want to become a superintendent in this firm. So I wrote out my week's notice and left in the middle of August, after the Bank Holiday rush was over. In those days August Bank Holiday was the first Monday in the month; it has since been changed to the last Monday.
A few days after finishing work at Lyons I went by bus to Torquay to stay a while with my Story aunts. My sister was there too on her summer holidays from the physical education school at Dartford where she was training. Ten days later, Laila went to stay with Uncle Fran and Aunt Edie at Southport. A week later we received a telegram to say that Laila was in hospital with suspected appendicitis, so off we had to go to see about her. Aunt Charlie followed from Torquay three days late. Eventually Laila did not have to have an operation; we took her to Torquay to recuperate and she was able to return to Dartford when term began. At the end of September I went to Aunt Lou's in London for two days to pack up my things as I was going to work in a private hotel in Winchester.
I had known Capt. Des Voeux and his wife when they had a private hotel in Earls Court, London and now she was running Holyrood House Private Hotel in Winchester. I do not know what had happened between the Captain and his wife, but they were not living together and they were eventually divorced. It was not my concern; my business was to be assistant to Mrs Des Voeux in the hotel. It was a fair-sized brick house, three stories and a basement. There was a garage and a small cottage, really only a summer-house in the garden. It had at least an acre of ground. I think the capacity was for about eight or nine boarders. There was one waitress, one housemaid and a cook and Mrs Des Voeux and now me. I think Mrs Des Voeux was rather lonely and unhappy and needed a friend and someone who would enable her to be a little less tied and who could look after the place when she wanted to go out or away for a few days. I was paid £40 per annum living in. In November I went to London for a weekend, partly to see the proprietress of a private hotel in Bayswater who had advertised for an assistant and to see friends and relations. I did not come to any agreement with Mrs Heim of the hotel then. On the 15th December Mrs Des Voeux went away to stay with friends over Christmas, leaving me in charge. There were not many boarders in the hotel at that time. One was a very elderly Miss Bridge who had a bedroom and a sitting room on the first floor. She fell ill with bronchial pneumonia on the 29th December and had to have two nurses. On the 1st January a Miss Bridge who was a niece of the old lady came to stay for a few days, to see how her aunt was getting on. Two days later the old lady passed away and her funeral was on 5th January.
Mrs Des Voeux came back from her month's holiday on 13th January. She was very upset at the death of Miss Bridge, for one reason because the old lady was a permanent resident and paid well. Meanwhile I had decided to take the job at York Private Hotel in Bayswater, London. One of my reasons was the coming divorce between Mrs Des Voeux and her husband. I had received a letter from him asking all sorts of questions and I did not want to be involved. So I gave my notice to leave in a fortnight and set to, to do all the spring cleaning which Mrs D.V. wanted done before I left. She was in bed with the 'flu' till 26th, on which day I finished the cleaning. I left the next day, going to my uncle and aunt at Southbourne for a few days and then for a few days to Aunt Bessie at Charmouth. On 3rd February I returned to Winchester to pick up my luggage and to go to Aunt Lou at Maida Vale. I stayed there until the 19th, during which time I went to Dartford one day to see Laila at the Madam Bergman Oesterberg Physical Training School.
On 19th February I went to my new job at York Private Hotel, Queensborough Terrace in Bayswater. This place consisted of two large terrace houses. The 'guests' were mostly permanent residents, business people away all day at work; but there were always a few casuals as well. I had charge of the linen, the stores, the visitor's accounts, the staff wages and insurance cards, petty cash etc. I liked the work but my quarters were very poor. My bedroom was a miserable place; it was a bed-sitter-cum-office and at night was used for the service at dinner. The kitchen was in the basement, so at meal times the food was brought up and put on an electric hotplate on a table across the door of my bed-sitter. It meant that I had no privacy on my free afternoon and evening and no place to retire to if tired or unwell. At first the bed, which was broken, was in a sort of cubby-hole, but I complained and Mrs Heim got me a divan couch which was put in the room.
There were two waitresses and two chambermaids, a cook and a porter at this hotel. Ten days after I started work, all four girls gave notice and a few days later the cook left. In fact during the year I was there we had continual changes of staff. This was not surprising because the staff had such poor quarters. The cook lived out and came in by day. The bedrooms for the rest of the staff were in the basement. If I did not think much of my quarters, theirs were far worse. The two waitresses began to complain about something biting them at night in their beds. There did not seem to be any fleas about so I went to investigate. I discovered that the woodwork around the bedroom door was loose and rotten and underneath it was infested with bedbugs! of all the horrible things. I had learnt about these horrid pests in my college course but never did I expect to meet them in real life, in these enlightened days. The Sanitary Inspector was called in to deal with the situation. The room was thoroughly cleaned and all the rotten parts removed and redecorated.
Mr Heim was away to business of some sort in the city every day and Mrs Heim ran the hotel and she usually did the booking of the guests. If someone made enquiries when she was out, I always said they must speak to 'madam'. Mrs Heim had been used to the place always keeping fairly full and now with the depression she began to have a few empty rooms, so business was not quite so good. She had always been careful as to whom she took in; but one day she took a booking by telephone without seeing the young man or getting any references. He arrived on the doorstep at 10 o'clock at night with a trunk which he carried in himself; there was no sign of a taxi. Mrs Heim gave him the only room with it's own hot and cold running water basin, on the ground floor. This Mr Jones used to go away every morning like most of the boarders, apparently to work. He brought young ladies to dinner most nights. It was our custom to present the bill weekly; so at the end of the week I did so. Next morning I noticed that the water was running away down the drain from Mr Jones' room; so I went to turn off the tap and found that the bird had flown. The room was clear of his things and the wardrobe which he had always kept locked was open and empty. There was no hope of tracing him as nothing was known about him. I was glad I had not taken the booking. I learnt that it was not unusual for dishonest people to go round getting free board this way.
In my free time I used to go to a Badminton club some evenings and to ice-skating at Queens Road Ice Club in the next street to the hotel. I saw a good many plays and films and I visited friends and relations. But I was always on the lookout for a better job. I went for several interviews and had my name down at an employment bureau; but owing to the depression jobs were scarce. My cousin Jack Seymour who had got his engineering degree at Canterbury University, New Zealand, came over to England hoping to get some experience in some engineering works, but found thet everywhere he applied the answer was 'Sorry but we are having to reduce our present staff; there is no chance of anyone fresh being taken on'. He stayed at York Hotel for a short time before returning to his parent's sheep farm in New Zealand, where he had to be content to work just for his keep until things were better. I took him to 'Tales of Hoffman' at the 'Old Vic', the night before he left.
In spite of the depression we continued to have staff problems at the hotel; but as I have indicated the staff did not have decent quarters. I was jack-of-all-trades when we were short of staff; cook, waitress, chambermaid. In January Mrs Heim was in bed with the 'flu', then Mr Heim got it and they both went to bed. Mr Heim had always done the locking up at 11 p.m. and now I was asked to do it. I did not mind when he was ill but when he recovered I was asked to do it every second night. I did not like this as I liked to get to bed earlier. On 14th January I gave in my notice and left on 18th February. I was very short-sighted as I should have claimed my holiday money as I had worked there for over a year. I was invited to stay with Col, and Mrs Johnson at Wormwood Scrubbs Prison where he was governor. I did all I could to find another job and went to several interviews but to no avail. I went down to Torquay to visit my aunts Charlie and Florrie as Aunt Charlie had been ill. After a fortnight I returned to Wormwood Scrubs to continue my search for a job. Then came the sad news that Aunt Charlie had died suddenly. So on 23rd February I went to Torquay for the funeral. There were a lot of relations gathered. Aunt Florrie, the survivor, was a sort of semi-invalid; one could say she 'enjoyed' bad health; so now the relations began to say 'Who is going to stay with poor Aunt Florrie?' I seemed to be the only one free but I did not want to go and live in the big house full of servants and give up my freedom and independence. I has stayed with my aunts several times on short visits so I knew something about their kind of life. There was a cook, a housemaid, parlourmais, 'lady's maid' and s resident gardener who lived in a flat over the garage with his wife. The house had eleven bedrooms, large double drawing-room, dining-room, morning room, conservatory, pantry, kitchen, scullery, larder, house-keeper's room and servants hall. The garden was an acre and a quarter, with a greenhouse for flowers and tomatoes. There was a vinery where lovely Black Hamburg grapes grew and luscious peaches. There was a wire enclosure for raspberries. The vegetable garden produced most of the vegetables needed for the house.
I stayed with Aunt Florrie in a state of indecision, going up to London several times for interviews for various jobs, but I was not successful. It was not until the 6th May that I finally came to the conclusion that I had better accept the aunt's kind offer and settle down to be her 'companion'. Of course from her point of view and many other people's it was greatly to my advantage to do so. But I did not look at it in the same way. I liked people of all kinds, being amongst them and working with them, whereas living with my aunt I knew that her circle of friends had to be her kind and I would have very little life of my own. On 31st March I wrote in my diary, 'Oh those awful meals alone in that big room'. Aunt Florrie was still having her meals upstairs in bed and I was alone in the big dining-room, waited upon by the parlourmaid. It was better when relations came to stay and the place became a bit more alive.
By the 23rd May Aunt F. was feeling well enough to travel and we went to London for a little change. Aunt F. and her maid went to the G.W.R. Hotel, while I stayed with my cousin Dorothy, Mrs Short at Richmond. I had a most enjoyable month seeing friends and relations and going to entertainments. On 1st June we went to the Derby at Epsom racecourse. I put 1/- on a horse and got back 2/6. It was a lovely day and the whole scene was most entertaining, with the gypsies and the bookies etc. We also went to Richmond Horse Show and to Hampton Court. We visited Laila one day at Madam Bergman Osterberg Physical Training College at Dartford.
On 9th June our mother arrived back again from New Zealand, where she had been making a home for Teddy, who had been ill. He was not married then. At this time all our four brothers were in New Zealand and only Laila and I were in England. I got board for mother at the York Hotel where I used to work and came in frequently from Richmond to do things with her. Sometimes Laila came up from Dartford to join us. On the 22nd June I returned to Torquay with Aunt Florrie.
Now began my life as companion to the aunt. She was only about 60 years old then but her 'Victorian' ways and ideas made her seem much older. She was very kind to me in her own way; but of course everything had to be done her way and my job was to do what she wanted. The people I met were mostly dear old lady friends with a few dear old gentlemen if the ladies were married. I had little opportunity for meeting or mixing with people of my own age. Aunt Florrie was a snob and it me squirm when she talked about 'our class' and would take me to task about my 'socialistic tendencies'. Her friends were charming people and I enjoyed knowing them; but the life of continual 'tea parties' seemed so aimless. I was called by the housemaid at 7.15 am. with a pot of tea and thin bread and butter. Breakfast was at 8.45, by myself in the dining-room. Aunt had hers in bed at 8 am. After breakfast I would have the flowers to do. On Mondays there were stores to give out to cook and perhaps cleaning materials for the housemaid and parlourmaid, from the cupboards in the housekeeper's room. Sometimes aunt would do this herself. Then I would go down the town to do her errands, such as posting letters, changing library books, paying bills and going to the bank. Once a month there was the tradesmen's' books to pay. These were monthly accounts with the butcher, baker, grocer, fishmonger etc. Lunch was at 1 p.m., a two-course meal presided over by aunt. There was no such thing as 'morning tea' but later on the doctor ordered a drink of milk for me in the morning. Afternoon tea was at 4.30 p.m., or sometimes at 4 p.m.. and was called 'tea', to which friends were often invited and sometimes we went out visiting to tea. The evening meal was dinner at 7.30 p.m.. This was a formal meal with the parlourmaid waiting at table and one had to 'dress' for dinner. After dinner we sat in the drawing room and played cards or read or listened to the radio. I might do some knitting or sewing. Going out in the evening was very rare. After listening to the 9 pm. news on the radio, I would say 'good night' between about 9.30 and 10 p.m. and be in bed before 10.30 p.m..
By way of recreation I joined the Petitor Tennis Club and rod the two miles there on my bicycle. Wednesdays and Saturdays were 'club' days when afternoon tea was provided. This was a welcome opportunity to meet some younger people. One afternoon when playing tennis I ran back onto a ball and sprained my left ankle. It just happened that I was going to Torbay Hospital next day for an operation on my nose. I had been having a lot of asthma and my nose used to get very congested. The specialist said I had a twisted septum and the operation might mitigate the asthma. While in hospital I was able to have a massage for my ankle. The nose operation did not seem to affect the asthma, but as time went by my nose was more comfortable. I had never had asthma before I went to live with Aunt F. but while with her I became thin and asthmatic and never really well. Doctor tried all sorts of remedies but none were successful. I really consider my trouble was emotional.
Every now and then Aunt F. would be in a critical mood and then nothing I said would seem to be right. She criticised my attitude to life and said I must remember I was 'Sahib class' and that I should put my mind to business and be more interested in life. When I forgot one of her messages, I was told I was always forgetting things, which was not true and she would call me 'schoolmarm' if I tried to be precise about anything. An entry in my diary for 12th November 1933 runs: 'At lunch had the periodical pulling upto see if the 'plant' was 'happy or not'. She wanted me to feel at home and yet when I talked about 'our gardener' in course of conversation she had to correct me and say 'my gardener'. The fact was that our points of view were so different that I felt all the time I had to be careful what I said; I was not really 'at home'. Of course there were compensations and some very pleasant times, such as the wonderful experience of spending two winters at her villa in Italy, at Bordighera on the Riviera. Aunt let the Torquay and that helped pay for going to Bordighera.
La Storietta was built in 1902 for my grandmother Caroline Story. It was she who had the money in the family; her people were Reids, brewers and wine merchants. La Storietta was about 500 feet up from the sea, on the road called Via Dei Colli, the hill road behind Bordighera. It was some ten to fifteen miles from the French border. We looked out over the Mediterranean Sea and in the westerly direction the lights of Monte Carlo could be seen at night. At certain times, in certain lights there was a curious phenomenon of a mirage when one appeared to see the island of Corsica in the south-easterly direction; whereas Corsica was really far out of sight and impossible to see at that distance.
We travelled to Italy by sea, as aunt found it less tiring than the long overland journey through France. The first year we went from Southampton to Genoa by the S.S. Christian Huygens of the Nederland Line. Wynn, aunt's personal maid, fell ill just before we were due to depart, so she could not come with us and had to remain in England with her sister. Aunt had hurriedly to engage a substitute who joined us at Southampton. 'Cross' came with good references but turned out to be a great disappointment. Our only port of call was Algiers where I went ashore with a Mrs Marshall. We walked about the town, were able to get some afternoon tea and sat in the gardens watching the people. The general impression was of a strange mixture of French and Eastern cultures. After six days at sea we disembarked at Genoa on 14th December and went by train to Bordighera, about four hours journey.
There was deep snow at Genoa and a little a Bordighera. The house had been shut up for several years, there was no central heating and only wood fires; so the place was very chilly until the weather cleared and we had some sunshine. We had some afternoon tea, Celeste the Italian house-parlourmaid being in attendance. We had brought with us from England one pound of tea each, this being the amount a person could bring without paying the heavy duty there was on tea. In Italy, tea was 10/- per pound, so we were careful with what we had. Aunt always made the tea herself and the caddy was kept locked. We only had it at afternoon tea. Tea was not habitually drunk by the Italians, coffee and light wines being their usual beverages. But Celeste enjoyed a cup when she fetched away the pot from the drawing-room. We had coffee for breakfast and there were no in-between snacks in the household. Aunt F. always had her glass of Claret or Burgundy at lunch and dinner; water was provided for me.
On the short voyage to Italy I had no asthma but when we settled into the house I had a lot and was having special vaccine injections to try and overcome it. Life was somewhat similar to that at Torquay, but much more interesting because of being in Italy. I still went down to the town to do the errands but there was the novelty of being abroad. I was glad I had learnt Italian at school, which was useful and now I had a chance to improve my knowledge of it. Celeste did not speak English but Lina, the cook, spoke a little. I soon found my way about the town and district; there were lovely walks on the hill up behind Storietta and along the seashore. Owing to the steepness of the hill, the road up to Storietta had to wind round by the old town, making the distance over a mile by road; but there were several steep footpaths going almost straight down through the olive groves on the hillside, which were the quickest route on foot. One of these I called 'The Chute', for it lead straight down to the town as a rough stone stairway with occasional resting places, seats of stone. I was very delighted with the wild flowers which grew in such abundance, especially varieties of wild Orchid and Violets and Narcissi. On Monte Bignone up behind San Remo there were carpets of Gentians.
As we had no radio, our evenings were spent playing cards, knitting, sewing etc. There was a piano, so I was able to amuse myself on that a little. I was generally in bed soon after 10 p.m.. It was impossible for me to accept evening invitations on account of our situation up on the hill and having no transport. It was not done for unattended ladies to be out alone at night along a lonely road such as the Via Dei Colli. I joined the 'English Club', but was only able to go to very few of the evening parties when I was lucky enough to be taken in a car of some other member who lived along the hill road, Sir George Forbes usually. I went to several pleasant afternoon parties there. Among the enjoyable events of that season were the occasion when friends took me to a concert at the casino at Monte Carlo and another at San Remo. The latter was only a few miles along the coast to the east from Bordighera.
When Aunt F. had recovered from the chill which she had contracted soon after our arrival at Storietta, she began to get busy sorting out old papers and things in the morning-room desk and she advertised the villa for sale. As she had not been there for several years there were all manner of things to sort out and get rid of before selling the place. There was a large tower room up a stairway above the rest of the bedrooms which was full of things that had belonged to her sister, Charlotte. Aunt Charlie had been a keen photographer and she had her dark-room up there. One could go out on the roof of the tower where there was a magnificent view of the Mediterranean with the French Alps to the west, with Mentone and Monte Carlo below them. From time to time we saw very large passenger liners on their way to Genoa from New York and vice versa. There was Rex, at that time the largest passenger liner in service in the world, 52,000 tons, which held the Blue Riband for the fastest passage to New York. Two others were Roma, 32,000 tons and Conti di Savoia, 28,000 tons. It was lovely to see them pass at night all lit up.
The season went by without anyone buying the villa. There were some cracks in the retaining wall of the terrace below the house which had been attended to and aunt had obtained an architect's advice and had his certificate to say that the house was quite sound. Owing to the steepness, the garden was in terraces and the drive up to the front door had a bend in it which no car could negotiate without backing at least once in order to get round. A horse-drawn carriage could get round easily because it was 'articulated'.
So the time came to prepare for our return to England. Aunt sent Cross home by train before we left, for she found her unsatisfactory in so many ways. So I had to be 'Lady's maid' and help aunt with her clothes and pack for her. By way of a change this time aunt hired Simonazzi and his convertible car to drive us along the Riviera as far as St Raphael on the French coast. Our route was via Mentone and the Upper Corniche Road, La Turbie, Lachet, Nice and Cannes arriving at the Grand Hotel St. Raphael at 5.30 p.m.. Here aunt paid Simonazzi and he returned to Bordighera. Aunt had her dinner in bed, while I had mine alone in the dining-room, after which I went for a stroll by the harbour, very pretty with all the coloured sails on the fishing boats and yachts. But I had no companion to enjoy all this beauty with me, so I went back to the hotel and to bed by 10 p.m..
Next morning after breakfast in bed at 8 am. I went for a walk in the town. We continued our journey to Marseilles by train 2.30 p.m.. and embarked on the Strathaird at 6 p.m.. We sailed next morning 26th May at 6 am. We found on board some of our Bordighera friends, Cynthia Ellis and Col. Biggwither. On arrival at Gibralter on 28th Col. Biggwither took Miss Ellis and me ashore and away up inside the famous Rock of Gibralter, where there were at that time tunnels half a mile long, with big reservoir tanks hollowed out of the rock in places. I believe during the Second World War these were greatly extended and improved. We had a drive through the gardens and to Europa Point before rejoining the ship by the 10.20 am tender. We sailed about 11.30 having taken on board many new passengers. Among the passengers already on board were the famous authoress Baroness Orczy and the singer Clara Butt. That afternoon we called at Tangier, but there was no landing except for people leaving the ship and a number of new 'tripper' passengers came aboard. Next morning we had boat drill. On out last day I won the sweepstake on the distance travelled in the past 24 hours which was 414 miles and my prize was 22/6.
Next morning we disembarked by tender at Plymouth at 8.15 am. Aunt's car was there waiting to drive us to Torquay and we were home by 11 am. After lunch I unpacked for both of us and the old round began again. I still continued to have asthma and to be given all sorts of remedies by the doctor. It was this summer that I had my nose operation.
On 7th November we departed again for Bordighera, this time by S.S. Oronsay from Tilbury to Toulon and on from there by train. We called at Gibralter and another passenger, Miss Supple, and I went ashore together to have a look round the shops. Next day we called at the island of Majorca but we could not go ashore. That night we had a very stormy passage through the Gulf of Lyon arriving next morning at Toulon. The sea was too rough for the landing tenders to reach us, so we had to remain on board for lunch. About 3 p.m.. we were able to get off in a tender which took us to S.S. Ormonde from which we were finally able to walk ashore by gangway. As we had missed our train, we put up at the Grand Hotel for the night. The storm had caused flooding of the shops along the sea-front. Next morning we took train to Mentone, where aunt decided to stay for a few days in the Park Hotel. After a few days aunt arranged for Simonazzi to come with his car and drive us over the border to Bordighera. This was not a long drive and very pretty, going through Venymiglia, where there is a famous flower market.
Aunt F. was very anxious to sell the villa; various people came to look over it but no-one bought it. Our life went on much as in the previous season. I continued to be plagued with asthma and had to miss some very pleasant invitations on that account. But as I now knew some people I had a pleasant social life and the weather was good. We had a lot of cold weather in January and February, with cold winds. When the weather improved I enjoyed some lovely walks up in the hills with friends and other outings. On 11th April my Aunt Lou, Mrs Field came to stay with us. I had lived with her when I worked at Lyons Teashops, so it was nice to see her again. She was a clever woman and the author of several books. We had the pleasure of her company for just over a month, until on 16th May we drove over to Villefranche and saw her off by ship to England. From time to time there were now 'goodbyes' to be said as people began to return to England for the summer as it became too hot and they liked to get home for the English summer. So we too were soon preparing to depart.
La Storietta had to be left in the agent's hands and ready in case a buyer should turn up. Aunt did not expect to go back there next season and perhaps not at all. Italy was preparing for war against Abyssinia, which began on 3rd October 1935 and the following day Italian troops marched into Addis Ababa. The second World War was brewing too. Aunt Florrie did eventually sell La Storietta and get her beautiful empire furniture home. She also managed to get the money out of Italy; but I have no details of all of this because by then I had gone to live in New Zealand.
We travelled home by sea as usual, this time from Genoa on board S.S. Johan van Oldenbarnevelt. We drove along the coast of the Italian Riviera to Genoa in Simonazzi's car, having a picnic lunch on the way near Savona. We embarked at 2 p.m.. and sailed at 4 p.m.. from Genoa. Our route was along the coast so that we passed by Bordighera about 8.30 p.m.. on this beautiful summer evening. There were several of our Bordighera friends on board. On the second day we called at Algiers where I went ashore with two other ladies. We visited the beautiful cathedral and did some shopping. I still have the Morocco leather purse I bought. The voyage was very pleasant and we docked at Southampton about 10 am. on 10th June. We spent two nights at the Polygon Hotel there. My uncle Evelyn Story and Aunt Hilda came for a day. He took me to see the huge liner S.S. Berengaria, 52,101 tons in Southampton dock. In the afternoon we went to Beaulieu Abbey. Next day Aunt F. and I took the train home to Torquay.
I continued to have asthma; my chest was x-rayed and the report was 'Very good, nothing wrong there'. In the middle of August I went to stay with Aunt Bessie at Charmouth. The village is on the south coast of Dorset, 2 miles from Lyme Regis and not far from Bridport. At that time the coast road between Charmouth and Lyme Regis was closed because it was subsiding. No traffic could do along it as in places there were drops of ten to twelve feet. Also it was unsafe to walk along the beach below because there were quick-sands; people had lost their dogs in this way. The beach at Charmouth was safe for bathing and was down a short lane from the village. Bow House where my aunt lived was a very old two-storey thatched roof cottage with stone floors downstairs, low ceilings with big wooden beams. There were five rooms downstairs and the same upstairs. The front windows were bow windows, hence the name of the house.
After 2½ weeks, when I returned to Torquay, I found that Aunt F. was planning to let Bingfield and spent the winter in a local hotel instead of going to Italy, because the international situation was not good. In October the Italians invaded Abysinnia, which made it uncomfortable for English people living in Italy whose sympathies were for the Abyssinians. Having arranged to let Bingfield to Lord and Lady Onslow for the winter, Aunt F. then decided we would go and live in Wellswood Private Hotel while Bingfield was occupied. She engaged a suite of two bedrooms and a sitting-room and a bedroom for Wynn. Then we had to prepare Bingfield for the tenants. This meant clearing out drawers, cupboards etc. putting away valuable ornaments and replacing them with other suitable ones. We had one back bedroom and a lock-up storage room. A new bath was installed in the bathroom. On 15th October the 'plate' i.e.. all the silver, cutlery etc. was packed and sent down to Sermon the Jeweller for safe keeping while we were away. On 17th an inventory was made of everything in the house. Next day I departed to the hotel with all sorts of luggage. Next day Aunt F. came with her maid, Wynne, who had resumed her service with Aunt F. when we returned from Italy. Aunt's suite was on the top floor reached by a lift and Wynn had a room on another floor.
Living in the hotel was rather pleasant as there was plenty of enjoyable company. There was a ping-pong table and I played my gramophone in the billiard room, but not when anyone was playing billiards. There was coffee after dinner and pleasant conversation. But I would get into 'hot- water' with aunt if I stayed down below too long. I went to the technical school for a course in dressmaking, as I wanted to learn to draft my own patterns. I also went once a week to a private tap-dancing lesson. But this interesting life was interrupted by my falling ill on 14th November with a chill which resulted in the worst attack of asthma I ever had. I had a night- nurse and a day-nurse for five days and remember nothing about the first two days. I went to bed for eleven days, but I continued to be bothered by wheeziness. So on 11th December aunt sent me to stay at Southwood Nursing Home. While I was there I had a course of injections against the horrid catarrh which I suffered from so much. I had a lot of kind visitors and I read and sewed in my big bed-sitting-room there. I was able to go for walks on Warberry Hill when the weather was fine. I continued to have a lot of wheeziness through January and February even with the quiet life and careful diet. I improved in March and on 2nd April I went to stay with a friend of ours whose daughter was away. After a few weeks the daughter came home and aunt had to make other arrangements for me. So on 7th May I went to a boarding house near Wellswood Hotel and after staying with two other friends I returned to Wellswood on 9th June.
The tenants left Bingfield on 7th June, so we were shortly to return there. On 10th June Wynn died suddenly at the hotel. Her sister Edith came down from London for the funeral and to see to her affairs. After this sad upset we had to turn our attention to getting Bingfield ready for our return. The Onslows had done a lot of damage, so some redecorating had to be done and Lord Onslow had to pay £70 for the damages. This was 'Huia' Onslow, whose father, Sir William Hillier Onslow was Governor of New Zealand from 2nd May 1889 to 24th February 1892, hence the name Huia. Aunt had to engage domestic staff. On 23rd June we returned to Bingfield and back to the usual routine.
Now we come to the 'going' which changed my life entirely. Early in March Aunt F. had a letter from my Aunt Chrissa in New Zealand telling us that my mother had suffered a slight stroke, but was going to be alright. A little later we heard that mother was well and had a housekeeper to look after her and my brother Teddy who lived with her in Picton. Teddy worked at the freezing works. So when my doctor said that a sea voyage might help to cure my asthma; Aunt F. said, 'Well, she had better go to New Zealand and see her mother'. Aunt very nobly said she would give me the trip, to spend six months in New Zealand. Some of my good friends were at the back of this suggestion via Dr. Catford. Naturally the prospect delighted me; I was to sail on 17th September on M.V. Rangitiki of the New Zealand Shipping Company. In early August I went for a long weekend to Charmouth to see Aunt Bessie and to say goodbye. I never saw her again for she died while I was in New Zealand.
After all the goodbyes, aunt and I went up to London on 14th September, to the Sesame Imperial Club. After three days of visiting people and saying goodbye, I sailed from Tilbury on Thursday 17th September, on board M.V. Rangitiki. I had a very comfortable Tourist Class, single cabin with hot and cold running fresh water. At that time the Tourist Class single cabin cost only £60 to New Zealand. We had dancing on our 'B' deck on Tuesday and Friday evenings; the ship's band went to Tourist 'B' Class on Saturday nights; other nights they played in First Class. There were the usual deck games and some of the engineer officers off duty and the purser would join us at deck tennis. In the evenings, card games, bridge etc. were popular. As I am not a bridge player I used to play Lexicon sometimes or bring up my gramophone on deck. Sometimes with Mary, with whom I had become friendly, I would go to the Tourist B dance. At one of these I met a First Class passenger in the 'Paul Jones' dance who said "I'm one of the knuts, one of the nibs; the average age is 70 in First Class, so I came to the 'slums' to dance."
The days were well filled with reading, knitting, embroidery, walking the deck, playing games and chatting with the passengers. Also I had a German language lesson every day. I was fortunate to find on board a German family emigrating to New Zealand. I am a 'fair weather' sailor, so once or twice I succumbed and had to stay in my bunk much to my annoyance. I generally retired to my bunk after lunch until afternoon tea time; but the day we went through the Panama Canal I was up on deck watching all the time and when we reached Balboa, in pouring rain, I went ashore with Mary. We walked half way to the town and then got on a tram. It was so hot and muggy, I think I was damper inside my macintosh than outside. We took a look round and Mary bought some dress material. We took a taxi back to the ship. In the evening we went ashore with two of the engineers and dined at a restaurant called La Rancha. We drove out into the country, it was a lovely fine evening and we saw lots of fireflies. Next day we proceeded on our way, now on the Pacific.
On reaching Pitcairn Island we stood off-shore for a couple of hours while several boatloads of islanders were rowed alongside of us and a swarm of islanders came aboard selling fruit and baskets and all sorts of carved wooden boxes etc. They were a very colourful lot in a motley collection of clothing and bare feet. I bought some paw-paws which I enjoyed eating. Next day we had our sports competitions in which I won two events. As we proceeded south the weather became colder and unsettled, preventing some of our deck games and dancing. On going over the international date line we skipped from Sunday to Tuesday.
On Wednesday 21st on awakening I saw the hills of New Zealand for the first time and we arrived in Wellington about 10.30 am. Brother Teddy was on the wharf to meet me. The customs business was so slow that we went off for some lunch and came back later for my luggage. We visited Sir Kenneth Douglas, an old family friend and lawyer, before embarking on the ferry steamer S.S. Tamahine for the South Island. After a fine crossing we reached Picton where my mother was on the wharf to meet us. She was looking well and we proceeded to her house in Market Street for tea. I learned that 'tea' is the evening meal about between 5.30 p.m. and 6.30 p.m. and later there was a snack called supper before going to bed. I liked this much better than what I had been used to as it gives one a nice long evening.
Next day I went on my first launch trip on Queen Charlotte Sounds with brother Basil and his launch Ramona. We called in for a cup of tea with two ladies in their Crib after leaving the mail at The Grove, Basil had the mail contract. Not being acquainted with the terms 'bach' and 'crib', I wrote in my diary, "Visited Mrs Court and Mrs Maitland in their hut down the sounds". Mother and I went to tea at Basil's where I met Alice, his wife, and Terence their little boy aged six. Life was quiet in this little down at that time. Picton had not yet become the popular holiday resort that it was after the 2nd World War. I was keeping well and having no asthma and had none during my whole six months away from Torquay. Teddy had persuaded a Mrs Jordan to give up the tea shop she ran in Picton and come to be housekeeper for mother and him. As there were only three bedrooms Teddy slept in a but in the garden. Mrs Jordan did not live with her husband and later on they were divorced.
I knew very little about my grandfather, Edward Jollie at that time, but I had learnt that he surveyed Christchurch before the settlers arrived. So I thought I would go to Christchurch for a few days early in December and return to spend Christmas with mother in Picton. Miss Phyllis Brodie whose parents I had known in Bordighera was General Secretary at the Christchurch Y.M.C.A. and another Bordighera friend, Mrs Wooler-Jennings, also lived in Christchurch. On Tuesday 1st December I went on the 7.45 a.m. bus to Blenheim and caught the 9 a.m. 'service car'- as buses were called then - for Christchurch. I sat by the driver and he pointed things out to me. It was quite an adventurous drive for me because at that time there were no bridges over some of the rivers which therefore had to be forded. The driver put a sack over the bonnet of the bus, for the rivers were swollen from recent heavy rain.
I visited my friends in Christchurch and I went to the museum where I saw my grandfather's portrait and many interesting things. I learnt that grandfather with his friend Julius van Haast had been responsible for founding the museum. My visit to Christchurch was cut short by the sad event of the sudden death of my mother at tea time on Friday evening. I was out shopping and on returning to the hotel found a telephone message for me to ring Miss Western in Picton. Westerns lived opposite my mother and were good friends. Miss Western told me that mother had collapsed at tea time and had never recovered and the funeral was the very next afternoon, Saturday. The only way I could get back in time was to catch a plane in the morning. After a night of not much sleep, I got a plane that took just 12 passengers. Such a small plane flying over the Kaikoura Mountains meant a passage like going up and down in a lift. We reached Blenheim at 11.45 a.m. where Basil met me, we got some lunch and then met Laila who flew down from Masterton. I forgot to mention that she preceded me to New Zealand to take up a post as games mistress at St. Matthew's School, Masterton.
After the funeral Laila stayed on in Picton as the summer holidays were coming on. She and I set to on the task of going through our mother's personal belongings. As my return passage to England was booked for 6th May from Wellington I decided now to see what I could of the North Island with what money I could spare; and meet some of the relations on my mother's side of the family. I crossed to Wellington on the Tamahine on 15th January, staying first for a few days with Frank and Ena Peterson whom I had met when they were in Picton on their summer holiday. During this time I visited the S.S. Remuera to see Mr George Hopper, a Torquay friend who was on a cruising holiday. Also I had lunch with Sir Kenneth Douglas, an old friend of the Jollie family and trustee for my grandmother's estate.
On 19th January I took the train to Napier and stayed one night. There was still quite a lot of ruins to be seen from the earthquake in 1931. I remember also lovely Jacaranda trees; something I had never seen before. Next day I went to Rotorua by service car. That zig-zag road was very rough in those days. I had booked in at Park View 'Bed and Breakfast' Hotel, so I had to go out for an evening meal. That evening I went to a delightful Maori concert given by 'Rangi's Concert Party'. Rangi was a famous Maori guide at Rotorua for many years. Next day I went on the 'Government Round Trip' to see the Waimungu Geyser and the various results of the eruption of Mount Tarawera in 1816. We walked over some very desolate country with hot streams and cold ones. Then we went by launch across Lake Wairoa which was cold and transparent. In the distance we saw Mount Tarawera with the huge scar which showed where it had blown up all those years ago. The other side of Lake Wairoa was the village of Wairoa which was buried when Tarawera erupted.
On that trip there was one other 'unattached female' with whom I made friends. She was Miss Elizabeth Gregory staying at Brent's Hotel. She had been attending a science congress in Auckland, the geological section of which were being given a Maori welcome at Ohinemutu that evening. Miss Gregory invited me to go with her. There were a lot of speeches in Maori and in English, the orators walking up and down in front of the meeting house where the audience sat on chairs outside. There was Maori food being cooked for the visitors, but we did not want to stay too late. Miss Gregory was Dean of the Home Science School at Otago University. Next day I went alone to see the boiling pools and geysers at the Maori village of Whakarewarewa and in the evening I went again to the Maori concert which as so jolly.
Next day I went to stay at Royal Court Private Hotel, Wynyard Street, Auckland. To my great surprise I found I had landed in the same place where my brother Ralph was staying, so I had company over the weekend. Sunday morning we went to St. Aidan's Church and in the afternoon to the War Memorial Museum in the Domain and we had tea in the gardens. Next morning I left in the 9 a.m. service car for Leigh, a little way up the coast, to stay with brother Pat and his wife Daisy and three children. Pat and the children met me in Leigh and told me I was booked in at the Leigh Hotel for two nights because Daisy's father, Mr Hewitt, had just died that night. He lived in a little house near to Pat and Daisy with his unmarried daughter, Cass. So I spent a couple of days exploring Leigh until Pat came and fetched me to his place and I met Daisy at last. I slept in Nancy's bed and she went to stay with her Aunt Cass.
Pat's three children were Belinda aged twelve, Nancy who was eight and Patrick aged six. Pat had built his little house himself with some occasional help from a neighbour. He had two bedrooms, a kitchen and a sitting-room and later he added to it. He was living very carefully to recover from the recent depression when he had been obliged to sell at a loss the dairy farm he had in the Waikato. It was hay-making time and we all helped and had a picnic lunch in the hayfield. We also had picnics and bathed down at the beach which was quite near with Goat Island a short distance off-shore and further out was Little Barrier Island. Looking north we could see the Hen and Chickens Islands and when clear the Whangerei Heads. There was a little steamer, a scow called the Kawau which sailed up the coast from Auckland to Mangawhai a little north of Leigh every Monday and returned to Auckland on Tuesday via Leigh. It was only 100 tons but could take a few passengers, the 'ladies cabin' had three births. I thought it would be a pity to return to Auckland as I had come, by bus so I arranged to sail back in the Kawau.
On 16th February, I left Leigh about 3 p.m. on the little ship Kawau, reaching Auckland at 8.30 p.m. We called at Kawau Island in the Hauraki Gulf, just to land some goods; I could not go ashore. This is where Sir George Grey, Governor of New Zealand in the early days had his famous mansion built for him. It was later a tourist hotel for a period. He planted all sorts of trees and shrubs there. The trip down the Hauraki Gulf was very beautiful on this lovely summer evening.
On arrival in Auckland I went to stay with my mother's youngest sister, Aunt Chrissa Valentine in Onehunga. Her son Tony lived with her, a nice young man about 20 years old. Aunt Chrissa was a delightful person, but not at all domesticated. She only had part of the two storey house and a dressmaker also had part. Miss [blank] was about 40 at that time. I think Tony way 21 and Miss [blank] was 42 when they got married and I believe they were very happy. I could see how it happened, I think Miss [blank] 'mothered' Tony in a way his mother did not. Aunt Chrissa was very kind to me and took me visiting to some of her friends and to the Dominion Museum.
On 22nd February I took the train to Whangarei and stayed at the James Hotel. I wanted to see Mary Grove who had been with me on the Rangitiki. She was training as a nurse at Whangerei Hospital. I went by bus to Mary's home at Manganese, a few miles from Whangarei. Mr Groves had a dairy farm. On the evening we went to the cinema in Whangarei. With us came Jack Stow a young stock dealer of 25 who had come up on the same train as me and was staying at the same hotel. Next day Jack and I walked out to see Whangarei Falls. There were no paths at that time and it was not easy to get down to the bottom of the falls but most rewarding if you did make the effort. We paddled in the pool down there. A kind Mr Forbes with his son Desmond gave us a lift back in his car to Whangarei. Mary came to lunch with us at the hotel. After tea Mary and Jack went riding together. Mary joined us again for lunch the next day, after which we took a taxi to Oneraghi, then left Mary back at the hospital. That evening I went to the cinema with Mary and her grandfather. Next day I took the train to Auckland to stay with Aunt Chrissa again. Whangarei was in those days a much smaller place than it is now.
I went to see Mr and Mrs Perl one afternoon. They had been on the Rangitiki and had taught me a little German. On my last evening with Aunt Chrissa we went to a musical evening at the home of the Mollers. Next day I went to Hamilton by train to stay one night with Aunt Chrissa's daughter Cynthia Watson and her husband Reg and six year old son Michael. They took me on a drive round Hamilton including the pretty Lake Domain. Next day I went off to Waitomo by train and bus. The stalagmites and stalactites in the caves are most spectacular, but best of all was the boat-ride on the underground river silently in the dark, but lit by thousands of glow-worms. Noise frightened them and then they would put out their lights. There were three caves so it took some time to see everything. At 12 noon next day I set out by bus for New Plymouth, to visit my cousin Bill Matthews and his wife and family at Inglewood. Bill collected me and took me out to Te Whare in time for tea. The Matthew's home was a great big wooden house and there were seven children. We sat down twelve for tea. The family was busy with haymaking. I was with them from Wednesday 3rd March to Monday 8th. On 5th we went up to the Dawson Falls Hotel on Mount Egmont, run by Bill's sister-in-law Mrs Valentine. It was a lovely drive up through the bush and after lunch we walked to the lookout at 3,375 feet up. Here we could see away in the distance the other big mountains, Ruapehu and Tongariro. The hotel was 3,100 feet up. Next day I went by bus to New Plymouth to look for more relations. Aunt Cissie, widow of my uncle Ted Jollie was out but I found her daughter by her first marriage, Madge Gaudie. She was most kind. The Gaudies had four little boys aged from one month to six years. After tea she got them all ready and they took me in their car on a tour of New Plymouth including various parks and gardens. My last day at Inglewood was spent helping with the hay and the next day I went by train to Wellington, passing through Patea where the Jollie family used to live, and where mother and father were married in 1896. After two days in Wellington I crossed to Picton on the Tamahine. I found that Teddy had arranged for me to stay at Miss Western's, just opposite. I still had two months more to spend in New Zealand before I sailed on 6th May. It was evident that Mrs Jordan, whom Teddy had brought in as housekeeper for mother, did not want to be bothered with me. Miss Western was a very good friend of our mother's, who lived with her brother, Bill Western, a widower about 65 years old. He worked on Grove Track, which is now Queen Charlotte Drive.
For nearly two months I lived a very idle carefree life. I went out with Basil on his launch very often, on mail runs etc. I went to Blenheim to see my aunt Sally Seymour and cousin Diana and to shop. I went walks about Picton, but as everyone not too old was busy working, this was a lonely occupation. I did manage to get one young woman to show me up Mount Freeth, about 3,000 feet up behind Picton. There was a wonderful view up there of the Sounds all laid out before us. It was a scramble coming down through gorse and scrub, following a fence line. I visited Basil and Alice, and Teddy; went to the cinema and to one or two dances. It was beautiful autumn weather and I began to regret very much that I had to return to Torquay and the restricted life with Aunt Florrie. I had no asthma while I was in New Zealand. But the aunt had given me the trip, and now she had broken her leg, so it was my duty to return to her.
At 11.30 a.m. on Saturday, 1st May I left Picton on the Tamahine for Wellington, where I got the railcar to Masterton, to have a weekend with Laila at St. Matthew's School where she was games mistress. On Tuesday 4th I returned to Wellington, for my last two days before sailing on the Rangitane on 6th May. I had no-one to see me off and I felt rather forlorn until I came across some Picton friends farewelling some others. I had lots of farewell letters and telegrams. At my table in the dining-room I met a nice young Mrs Bickley travelling with her seven months old daughter Jacqueline. Mrs Bickley was going to join her husband who was a reporter in England with the New Zealand cricket team. I sat on deck often with Mrs Bickley and her lovely baby. We also made friends with a charming Mr and Mrs White from Wanganui, where Mr White worked in the Bank of New Zealand. I found a German lady, Miss Doberanz who was happy to give me some German language lessons nearly every morning.
On Wednesday, 8th June we were able to listen to the coronation service of King George 6th on radio. On Monday 20th May we docked at Balboa about 9.30 a.m. Three of the passengers and myself hired a taxi and went on a tour of old Panama and then into the town for shopping. Next day we got through the Panama Canal by lunch time because we had entered it at 3 a.m. I found another German lady, Mrs Wolf in the first class, who gave me some German lessons. On 3rd June at our fancy dress dance I went as a Colleen and Mrs Bickley as a school girl and we both won prizes.
On Tuesday 8th June we docked at Tilbury and after the usual formalities I got away in the train to St. Pancras where I was met by Edith Wynn, and she saw me off from Paddington in the train for Torquay where I found Mrs Malcom-Patton to meet me and drive me to Bingfield. Aunt F. was in bed with her leg in plaster and very well otherwise. I met Miss Marshall who had been her companion while I was away and the nurse. After dinner and a chat I soon retired to bed. Next morning I met Mrs Bush, the cook and visited Mrs Clubb in the gardener's flat. On Thursday I saw Miss Marshall off by bus for her home and I knew I was 'in harness' again.
With aunt being in bed I had to spend long periods sitting with her and I read to her when she wanted me to. One thing I read to her was my copy of grandfather Jollie's reminiscences of his early days in New Zealand, which I found fascinating. He had such exciting experiences up and down the country. I could not help feeling how much more interesting the Jollies were than the Storys. In fact as the days went by I began to long to get away and live in New Zealand where life was not so restrictive. For instance one fine day I went down down with no hat on; quite an ordinary thing in New Zealand. When I hot home aunt had me 'on the mat' about it; I just laughed: ridiculous !
On 20th June Mr Capener, the surgeon, removed the plaster from aunt's leg and he was pleased with the progress so far of the mending of the break. Next day Dr Halliwell X-rayed the leg and two days later came to tell her that the join was good, but that there was a bit of bone sticking out which would have to be removed later on. On 28th June, aunt sent me with her visiting card to the new neighbours next door, Mr and Mrs Windeatt and three children. They had a motor launch on Torquay harbour and I had many pleasant outings with them during the summer.
The kind of life I was leading began to be very irksome. In my diary I wrote, 'Oh Lord how long! I am burning with impatience and sometimes don't know how to endure this life.' This was only two months after my return from New Zealand. On 17th July My Capener came with another doctor to operate on aunt's leg, to remove the offending spike of bone. The operation went off successfully and she slept until 4 p.m. That night Sister Dommett came on duty as night nurse.
Next afternoon two good friends called to inquire how aunt was progressing. One of them was Mrs Lucas, with whom I had a really good 'heart to heart' talk about my problem. It was a great relief to talk to someone about it. Two days later I wrote in my diary, 'Dr Catford agrees with me', so I must have had a talk with him. Two days later I went to the doctor for a general check-up, so see if there was any reason as regards health why I should not go to live and work in New Zealand, the result of which was I got his encouragement to do so. Now the problem was when to tell aunt what I wanted to do. I could not tell her just now when she was so incapacitated with the broken leg and also so soon after coming back from the trip which she had given me. So I had to be patient and wait for the right opportunity. On 26th July I went to afternoon tea with Mrs MacDonald, a good friend of my aunt's. I must have confided in her because I put in my diary 'She is on my side, Hurrah!'. So the social round went on. On the 4th August at afternoon tea aunt began asking me questions, truthful answers to which involved my telling her that I wished to go and live in New Zealand. Naturally there was a bit of a 'scene'. I was sorry that she had forced my hand, but also relieved that now she knew. Of course I had to endure a barrage of reproaches and all sorts of arguments and recriminations. On 12th August I visited Mrs Lucas at her request and she was very helpful and talked things over with me, so that when I returned home I told the aunt that I did want to help her at present, which cleared the air a bit. On 13th Aunt Lou came to stay and I had a barrage of reproach from her, but that was to be expected. On the 16th Aunt Lou went away in the morning and Aunt Hilda arrived in the afternoon. She was the wife of my uncle Evelyn Story. It was their son Dick who was murdered in Phoenix Park during the 'troubles' in Ireland. To my great joy I found that Aunt Hilda entirely sympathised with me for wanting to go to New Zealand. As she was a very good 'cobber' of Aunt Florrie, this was a great help to me. Aunt Hilda was very kind to me; for one thing she gave me a subscription to The Daily Telegraph newspaper. Aunt Florrie took The Times but I very seldom got a chance to read it because whenever I asked for it aunt wanted it for herself. On 24th August there was a fair and regatta in Torquay, with fireworks in the evening, but I could not go out the latter, I was not expected to go out in the evening; but I had to stay up until 10.30 p.m. to let the servants in. One day my cousin George Story, elder son of Aunt Hilda and Uncle Evelyn called in very briefly in the morning from 11.45 to 12.45. He was here on a yacht but was leaving by train in the afternoon. I had last seen him when I lunched with him at the Brewer's House of Guinnesses in Dublin in 1925.
The days went by as usual with aunt digging at me every now and then; "Had I changed my mind?" etc. All the lovely summer evenings I had to sit with aunt up in her bedroom, read to her, play Rummy or other games with her and listen to what she wanted on the radio. When I said 'goodnight' I sometimes went down to the drawingroom, put on the wireless there with some bright music and had a dance around.
On 19th November I managed to get a week off to visit relations in Charmouth, so I took the opportunity to go to London for one night for an interview at the Society for the Overseas Settlement of British Women. I left there my references from previous jobs. When I finally went to New Zealand, they sent my references to the Victoria League, which would do anything possible to help immigrants in the way of finding board and jobs. Next day I travelled to Charmouth with my cousin Sheila Angus. Sheila's sister Mabel was there too, living in the cottage behind Bow House with her little boy Jim. Mabel was now a widow. On the Monday I received an indignant card from Aunt Florrie because I had gone to London without telling her. I had a lovely week with my cousins.
By 2nd December my plans were at the stage when the shipping agents Westrays wrote to offer me cabin 71 on the M.V. Rangitane sailing 3rd March next. On 23rd December Joyce Carew my niece came to stay for Christmas. She was 8 years younger than I, the daughter of my half-sister Vida. It was very pleasant to have Joyce until 31st December. Aunt was up on the sofa in her bedroom on Christmas afternoon, which was a little progress. On 1st January I had an unpleasant interview with aunt, with her threatening me "you'll remember this" etc. But I knew I just had to 'take' whatever she said to me without getting upset. She was quite alright with her lady companion while I was in New Zealand and she could not bully a person who was not a relation in the way that she would try to do me; it was much better for her to have someone who was not a relation. Some people would try to work on my feelings by saying the aunt would not be here much longer but as it turned out she lived to be nearly ninety-two years old. During January she began to be very moody which I attributed to the drugs she was taking. When Miss Phyllis Hope came to afternoon tea with aunt, she saw the deplorable affect of the bromide.
In February I began to organise my packing. Also I paid goodbye visits to my friends. On 23rd Miss Marshall arrived to take up her position as companion to aunt, with whom she remained until Aunt Florrie died in 1963. On Saturday 26th my taxi came at 10.45 a.m. I said goodbye to Aunt Florrie and Miss Marshall saw me off at the station. I went first to Cheltenham for the weekend to stay with the Leys to say goodbye to them and other friends. On Monday I went to London and left my luggage at York Private Hotel. I had with me a little banjo-mandolin on which Mrs Field had given me 11 lessons before I left Torquay. I had to go to the makers of the instrument to get a better one because the frets were so placed that one could not get it properly in tune. This done, I caught the 1.30 p.m. train to Christchurch to stay one night with Uncle Fran and Aunt Edie to say goodbye. I also saw Dr and Mrs Child to say goodbye. I had lunch with my cousins Sheila and Mabel in Bournemouth. I said goodbye to them and returned to London by the 4.45 train and went to dine with Muriel Ley. Next day I had lunch with my cousin, Mary Freeman, Aunt Lou's daughter and to tea with her sister Dorothy, Mrs Short. In the evening Aunt Lou took Mary, Dorothy and me to the Albert Hall for a concert to hear Elgar's Violin Concerto, The Dream of Gerontius. I really wanted to go to the musical Balalaika, but since this was a goodbye meeting with my aunt and cousins, I felt I must join them. My last evening in England I went to see Lupino Lane in the very funny show Me and My Girl at the Victoria Palace; the show from which the song The Lambeth Walk came. I went to the 6.20 p.m. performance so that I was back in the hotel at 9.30 to finally pack up.
On Friday 4th I went by 11 a.m. train to Tilbury docks and embarked for New Zealand on M.V. Rangitane, tourist class, cabin 71. We left in fine weather but there was thick fog in the English Channel, so the fog-horn sounded all night. In my carriage going down to the docks was a pleasant young Mrs Lumsdale, travelling alone to join her husband in New Zealand. She was a pleasant companion and we played deck games together and with others. I was fortunate to find a German lady with whom to exchange conversation and learn more German. Frau Schnapp was a German Jewess whose daughter and son-in-law were already settled in Dunedin. They were some of the fortunate dew of their race who managed to get away from Germany before the second World War and so escape from Hitler's clutches. They did not know what became of their relations later during the war. Mrs Schnapp's son-in-law was practicing as a dental surgeon in Dunedin and had two schoolboy sons, Frank and Wilfred. Mrs Schnapp knew very little English and I had a little pocket German-English dictionary which I gave her as she needed it more than I did.
The voyage passed very pleasantly with the usual occupations and entertainments. At Balboa some of us went to a beer garden where there was dancing in the evening. We arrived at Wellington on Saturday 9th April and my sister was on the wharf to meet me. After we had seen to getting my luggage through customs and sent to the South Island ferry 'Wahine', we had some lunch as Laila's flat. At that time she was games mistress at Chilton St. James School for Girls, Wellington, but did not live in. That afternoon Mr Stanley Davis, a friend of Laila's took us on a drive to Titahi Bay, where we had a walk on the cliffs. After tea at Laila's Mr Davis drove me to the ferry steamer which sailed at 7.45 p.m. for Lyttelton. Next morning I was met at Christchurch railway station by Miss Eileen Harman, daughter of the people where I was going to work for a start. The Harman's were friends of the Moyseys who lived just behind the aunt in Torquay and they very kindly agreed to let me come to work for them until I found a suitable job.
Meanwhile I was to work for them in the house a 25/- per week. Miss Harman was a Plunket Nurse and had her own flat. Mr T. de Renzie Harman was a solicitor practicing in Christchurch and his father had known Edward Jollie my grandfather. They were an elderly couple and Mrs Harman was a bit of a dragon and rather henpecked her dear husband. 'Crohane' was the name of their house in Fendalton; a two storey house with six bedrooms and bathroom upstairs and three reception and kitchen etc. downstairs. A woman came on Mondays to do the washing and she did some of the house cleaning, such as scrubbing the kitchen floor. I was prepared to do the latter and did it one week; but I do not know whether I did not do it satisfactorily or what was the reason but Mrs Harman said she would prefer the woman to do it. I soon began to feel that Mrs Harman was wanting me to move on, so I began to plan to leave as soon as I could make satisfactory arrangements. I wrote to Mrs Hope to see if she would like me to come, if she still had a job for me which her sister Miss McNab in Blenheim suggested to me, the outcome of which was that I went there on the 30th June. Mr and Mrs Maurice Hope had two children, Michael aged three and Susan who could crawl but not walk yet and another was expected which is why Mrs Hope wanted some help in the house. Mrs Hope wrote that she would like me to come on 30th June, so I left the Harmans on 19th May and went to the YWCA Hostel. On Friday 27th I went by service car to Hanmer Springs, to a boarding house for a long weekend. I wanted to see where was Jollie's Pass, discovered in 1851 by my grandfather when driving sheep from Wairau to Canterbury. I also visited Mr and Mrs Stavert and her mother Mrs Walker. I had met Mr Stavert on the Rangitane and Mrs Walker had known Grannie Jollie. After another week in Christchurch during which I visited various friends, I went to Wellington and then up to Wanganui to see Mrs Bicknell for two days, then back to Wellington for a few days. On 13th June I crossed to Picton in the Tamahine in a fierce gale of 70 mph. The ship went up and down like a lift, I could not stay in my bunk, I had to stand up and hold on with both hands. I stayed at brother Teddy's until I went on 30th June to work at the Hope's place Blink Bonny three miles out of Blenheim. Besides the family there was a cowboy to cook for; he had meals by himself in the kitchen and slept in the 'sleep out' hut. It was very muddy outside the house; George brought a lot of it into the kitchen! But I could not help but feel sorry for him with nowhere to sit in the evening but his hut.
I soon came to see that this job was too much for me and they expected too much of me and were most inconsiderate. For instance, one night after I arrived back after my day off, I found the sink full of dirty dishes left for me to wash up and the coke burning Aga cooker not alight. These stoves are not meant to be let go out. So then, after 10 o'clock at night I had to set to and and light that stove again, so that it would be hot enough to cook breakfast. Mr Western who had brought me back from spending the afternoon and evening at Picton was very indignant on my behalf. After three weeks I decided that this job was more than I could cope with and gave a fortnight's notice. It may appear as if I was 'giving up' very easily, but in my defence I say I was not accustomed to quite such hard work and it appeared to me that many people in New Zealand expected of one maid as much as people in England would of two or three. So I returned to my good friends the Westerns in Picton for ten days after which I went to the YWCA in Wellington; for I thought I had more chance there of finding a suitable job. I answered two advertisements in the Dominion newspaper and visited the advertisers and I put an advertisement of my own in that paper, for a domestic position. I did not immediately decide upon the jobs for which I had been interviewed because I wanted to give my own advertisement a chance to bear fruit. On receiving a call from Mrs Gray-Young in Sydney Street West, I visited her and was engaged to start work as cook-housekeeper from Saturday 20th, it being then 16th. To fill in the few days before starting work I went to see a few friends in Wanganui, returning on the Saturday to me job in Wellington.
I went to the Gray-Youngs at 125 Sydney Street West after tea on 20th August. They were five in the family; Mr and Mrs, a grown-up daughter Barbara and a primary school daughter Diana and a teenage son David at boarding school in Masterton. Mr Gray-Young was an architect; the new railway station in Wellington was some of his work.
Barbara showed me round and told me what to do about next morning's breakfast. I had the cooking to do and cleaning all the downstairs rooms and the stairs, windows to clean and hot-water furnace to attend to.
Monday was sitting-room cleaning day, Tuesday hall, servery and silver cleaning. Wednesday cleaning the dining-room and some baking; Thursday window cleaning, Friday baking morning; Saturday cleaning the kitchen. Wednesday was my afternoon and evening off, and every second Sunday after lunch. 'Mary' came on Monday and Tuesday to do the washing; she was very Scotch. I found the routine very tiring, I was not yet fully 'broken in' to this kind of life, but gradually I got more used to the busy workload. I was able to join a music club which met on Monday evenings. The Hawaiian Club run by George Paris consisted of two guitar players, two or three with steel guitars, one violin, one piano-accordion, three mandolins. It was great fun and I played with them at one concert we gave at Ewart Hospital. I had one long weekend away at Picton. The Gray-Youngs went to their bach at Day's Bay sometimes on Sunday for the day, then Laila joined me sometimes if I was still 'on duty'.
All the time I wished I could get a job in a hotel. I went to a Scottish Registry which sent me to the Midland Hotel where I left my credentials and was put on a list for a possible job vacancy. Also I was sent to the Regent Hotel, Manners Street, but had no luck there, and the same at the Waterloo Hotel. I left the Gray-Youngs on 19th November and went to stay at Abelmarl Private Hotel, a rather dingy place but the food was good. On 23rd I went over to Picton for 10 days and back to Wellington to the G.F.S Hostel on 3rd December. I was directed by a Miss Murison who had a small employment agency on The Terrace, to go and see two ladies who ran a small guest house at Paraparaumu a little way up the west coast from Wellington. 'Whareiti' was run by Miss Page and Miss Holywell, two middle-aged English ladies who just wanted some general help. They could take seven guests. Because the dining-room was upstairs but the kitchen downstairs there was a lot of running up and down stairs to be done at meal time, which was rather too much for the two ladies. Anyway, I arranged to start work there on 8th December at £2. 1. 0 per week all found, and sleep in a house nearby. My hours to be a more or less forty-four hour week, as laid down by the Hotel Workers Union. Miss Page and Miss Holywell were lovely people and I enjoyed working for them. I took the guests their early morning tea trays and breakfast trays if wanted in bed. I made the beds and cleaned the bedrooms and the sitting-room. I had an hour off in the morning, then set the tables and served lunch. I had an hour or two off in the afternoon, then on duty to turn down the beds, serve the evening meal and help wash-up. I had some nice walks on the beach with various guests and Misses Page and Holywell. I met the writer Miss Nellie Scanlon, who was a friend of Miss Western in Picton, also Mr Basil Whitcomb of Whitcomb and Tombs and a Dr Christie from Wanganui whose parents had been friends of the Jollies at Patea.
In the summer season the Webbers, Maori owners of part of Kapiti Island used to come over in suitable weather with a big whaleboat and row tourists over to the island, about five miles out for the afternoon. I went one time. I was sitting right in the bow of the boat when a great big wave came and swamped me. I stood up the rest of the way to try and dry my clothes; luckily it was a fine sunny day. Some of the party went fishing, but I stayed on shore and went exploring a little way in land and saw Parakeets and other birds in the bush. Part of the island was Crown Land where there was a bird sanctuary; but permission had to be obtained to go there.
That part of the coast if very subject to earthquakes; we seemed to have one about fortnightly. One was bad enough for us to walk out of the house, being safer outside. A guest who was on the lawn sunbathing said it felt as it the ground was heaving about under him. There were also sometimes fierce gales. A half-built shop was blown off it's foundations, and Mr Taylor the owner landed in hospital with a broken jaw and broken ankle. One windy day I pushed my bicycle the two miles to Paraparaumu village to post a letter and I sailed home all the way, holding my coat out as a sail.
I has Monday off after lunch and all Tuesday; so I was sometimes able to go to Wellington by train, stay the night and return on Tuesday evening. On one such occasion I went to the Russian Ballet with Miss Tanner who had been a guest at Whareiti. Another time I was able to farewell my sister on her departure to a job at the Dunedin YWCA. I also attended the Hawaiian Music Club and the Wellington Maori Club where I met Lady Pomare and the writer Johannes Andersen. One day in January I spent the day at Plimmerton to see Miss Bridgman who was offering me the job of running the YWCA cafeteria in Wellington. But I declined because I was not experienced enough. I was still 'feeling my way' in New Zealand.
Easter was late that year, 8th April was Easter Day. Soon after Easter Whareiti was closed down for the winter; so my pleasant job came to an end. On 14th April I left Paraparaumu and went to Rawhiti Guest House in Picton for ten days. I had a little money left to me by my mother when she died, about £760 which I wanted to use to build a small house in Picton; things were cheap in those days. So now with old Bill Western's help I chose a good flat section in the Broadway, a wide street. Picton was a much smaller place than it is now. I went to see Mr Flood about building the house and gave him my plan; he had built my mother's house in Market Street. A few days later I went to the section with Mr Flood and then to his house to see the specifications and contract. Bill Western was helping me and advising me about the house building. He was in his sixties, thirty years older than I; he would have asked me to marry him but for the difference in age. But for my part I did not see myself settling down to domestic life in a little house with an elderly man. Kind and good as he might be, I could not say that I loved him; he was more like a father to me. The little house I was having built was for letting, not for me to live in, unless perhaps in my old age retirement. So I returned to Wellington to continue my search for a job. I went to stay with my relations in Inglewood for a few days, then back to Wellington to a job as housemaid-waitress at Murning's Private Hotel at Oriental Bay. I had to share a tiny slip of a room with Agnes Cocker, another staff member. Our duties started at 6.30 a.m. with taking the early morning cups to the guests in bed. After 'waiting' at the breakfast table and having our own, the morning was spent making beds and cleaning rooms. Then there was waiting at the lunch table and helping with the washing-up. We were off duty about 2.15 until 5 p.m. then on duty again for the evening meal, finishing about 7.15 p.m. What turned me off was Mrs Murning was intoxicated nearly every night, so it was chaotic trying to wait on the guests at dinner.
After about nine days I had a letter for Laila telling me there was a vacancy for a sub-matron at the YWCA Hostel in Dunedin. So I gave in my notice to leave Murnings and in my free afternoon time went to see Miss Laws, the General Secretary of the YWCA for New Zealand to get her help in sending my application for the vacant sub-matron post in Dunedin. I worked 11 days at Murnings and it had been necessary to join the Hotel Workers' Union. I went to their office to resign, which cost me 7/-, which was 6/6 to resign and 6d for weekly contribution. I reported the size of the bedroom which two of us had to share, - I wonder if it did any good?. Mrs Murning paid me off in full including the day I left which happened to be my day off. I took a room with cooking facilities at The Grange, 307 Willis Street and prepared to wait for the answer to my application for the job in Dunedin. Meanwhile I rejoiced at having a room to myself. Bill Western came over from Picton for one weekend. We went a sightseeing bus tour and to the cinema. On Sunday evening we went to a concert organised by the Legion of Frontiersmen. He returned to Picton next day.
At last on 26th May I heard that I had got the job at the Dunedin YWCA Hostel and was expected there on Wednesday 31st May. I was glad to think that at last I might see something of Laila. She worked in the club part of the YWCA running the 'keep-fit' classes and some other duties. On 31st May I arrived at Dunedin at 4.30 p.m. having that night crossed to Lyttelton on the ferry steamer Rangatira. I was met by Miss Rosevear the matron and Laila and we walked up to the hostel. Tea was at 5.30, when I met a number of the girls boarding there. They were mostly young women from the country come to jobs in Dunedin and aged under 21. After they became twenty-one they were expected to find board elsewhere. There were between fifty and sixty of these young women, and two or three high school girls. The hostel was shut at 10 p.m. but twice a week a girl could have a 'late key' allowing her to be out until 11 p.m. not later, and she had to sign the book when she came in. The person on duty, (matron or I) would not go to bed until everyone was home. Thus these girls had a certain amount of supervision. Miss Rosevear was a real mother to them.
The hostel had just come under the Hotel Workers' Union, so Miss Rosevear had to wrestle with the problem of the staff hours to comply with the union's requirements. Matron and I were off duty alternate afternoons from about 2 to 5 p.m. She had Tuesday as her 'halfday' and I had Wednesday. We were off duty alternate Sunday afternoons. During the morning I had bedrooms to inspect and clean linen to give out on Friday. Matron and I also helped out in the kitchen with such jobs as cutting up fruit for pies. I was in charge of the linen and all that entailed. The washing was done on the premises. In wet weather getting it all dry was a problem. There were pull-up and down racks in the big kitchen ceiling. The towels dried there used to smell of whatever had been cooking; saveloys were the worst! There were two treadle sewing machines in the boiler room in one of the two houses, where I could go and mend linen; but when I was on duty in the afternoon I had to be in the office in the main house. So I bought myself a secondhand portable machine so that I could use it in the office in the afternoon, where the one on duty had to be ready for perhaps someone coming to book a room. Most of the rooms were occupied by the regular boarders but we kept a few for transients. The building in those days consisted of two fairly old large houses side by side with a passage on the ground floor joining them. The main one had the office and the kitchen, dining-room and one public sitting-room. The second house, where my room was on the ground floor, also had a sitting-room and the sewing room where the hot water boiler was for the baths. That house was getting rather old and was propped up with big wooden stays on one side.
I was fortunate in finding a music group I could join with my banjo-mandolin. A Mr Hutton in the Octogon gave me several lessons and then let me join his group music class on Friday nights. It was mostly mandolins but there were two violin players, a man and a woman. On the evening of 16th November five of us went to the Coronation Hall, Mosgiel to give some items at a concert in aid of the Plunket Society. We were called Mr Huttons Novelty String Band, and we had a lady singer with us. The comperes were Baldy McLean, well-known taxi driver, dressed up as a baby and another local celebrity whose name I forget, dressed up as a Plunket Nurse.
Once a week the Evening Star newspaper published a short report on the YWCA. I had to prepare these notes, getting the information from our General Secretary for Dunedin, Miss Lovell-Smith.
I did not have the pleasure of being near my sister for long, for on 5th August she went to Wellington to be interviewed for a job newly created by the Physical Welfare and Recreation branch of the Department of Internal Affairs. Six young people were chosen and sent in pairs to Invercargill, Hamilton and Wellington. They were called Area Officers for Welfare and Recreation and their job was to organise and run keep-fit classes in their districts, but especially to train leaders for this work. Laila and Lloyd Wood were sent to Invercargill. Her itinerary included Lumsden, Queenstown, Arrowtown, Central Otago; which meant much bus travelling and staying in hotels. Laila came back to the YWCA to collect her belongings and left for Invercargill on 29th August. A Mrs Kral took over the YWCA keep-fit classes which were then not nearly so attractive as she used no music. Laila was keen on 'Music and Movement' and good at it.
On 8th December I was given a long weekend off to go by the Central Otago railway to Cromwell and thence by bus to Queenstown, where Laila would be at Eikhart's Hotel for the weekend. I stayed at Hamilton House. On the Saturday morning I went with Laila and Mr Wigley to the Queenstown airport where he had a plane. In the afternoon I did a bit of exploring about Queenstown. On Sunday I went with Laila and the others on a launch trip to Glenorchy and then by big open char-a-banc 12 miles up the Rees Valley where we had a picnic lunch in a clearing in the bush. Laila returned to Queenstown with Mr and Mrs Wigley in their plane. I joined Laila for dinner at Aikhart's when the launch got back. On Monday morning I had Laila's company in the bus on my way home as far as Lumsden. She had to take a keep-fit class there that day. After lunch together I caught the train back to Dunedin, having had a very pleasant round trip holiday.
As a newcomer to Dunedin I knew no-one except old Mrs Schnapp who had been on the Rangitane with me and was now living with her daughter and son-in-law, Rosel and Max Simenauer and there two sons Frank and Wilfred, schoolboys. Max Simenauer was a dental surgeon; his rooms were in the Capital building in Princes Street. The YWCA Club Department was good to the many German-Jewish refugees in the town; organising entertainments and activities for them. Mrs Schnapp used to have afternoon tea with me when I was on duty at the hostel on Tuesdays, Miss Rosevear's day off. We continued our German lessons begun on the Rangitane. She invited me up to 83 Highgate to meet the family. Thereafter I occasionally went to tea at their place.
One evening I was invited for Laila for tea with some friends of hers, Mr and Mrs Roland Ellis. It was a very cold day in July, so they had a nice warm fire in the sitting-room. But as we were to be shown slides of Mount Aspiring Station they put a screen in front of the fire to make the room darker. Laila and I were together on the sofa, and Mrs Ellis brought a big eiderdown to put over us on account of the cold. Quite innocently I declared that I had bought myself an eiderdown in Dunedin, "It was called a Fairydown, but it had not got much stuffing in it". Laila kicked me under the eiderdown, I did not know that these were the people who manufactured the Fairydown quilts!
Near the end of July, Dunedin had a big snow-fall; there was skiing and tobogganing on the hills up behind the town. All the young people went mad with snowballing; what a time we had at the hostel with the girls in and out with wet clothes. Some girls bought tin trays at Woolworths on which to toboggan down View Street. Most shops were shut and schools were closed. The milkman could not get in until the afternoon. Dunedin was snowbound; roads were impassable and trams could not proceed. The people were so unused to snow they were mad with excitement. By the third day the snow began to melt and life gradually went back to normal.
At 4.30 one Friday afternoon two small schoolgirls came all alone to book in for the night. I thought it very strange and told Miss Rosevear when she came on duty. I thought to myself, 'We'll see what happens'. Next morning a plain-clothes police officer took away our runaway schoolgirls and in the afternoon the mother of one of them came to pay the bill. The hostel did have several schoolgirl boarders who were rather a responsibility. One of them had to be sent home because she played truant from school and went to the baths instead.
Through the YWCA I met Miss Roberts, an Englishwoman who had lived sixteen years in New Zealand and had been a French teacher. She lived at the last house in Helensburgh Road before you reach the steep path that goes down to Fraser's Gully. So I could go to her place by taking the Rattray Street Cable Car right to it's terminus in Kaikorai valley and walking along Fraser's Gully to the steep path up to Helensburgh Road. I had some nice picnic expeditions with Miss Roberts. One one occasion we walked over the top of Flagstaff Hill and down by Ross Creek Reservoir. Another time we took a bus to Portobello and walked to Hooper's Inlet where we boiled the billy, but a cold wind made us retreat sooner than we had intended. I forgot to mention we found three varieties of wild field orchid on Flagstaff.
One evening in December at the hostel we had a Christmas three and carols, before many of the girls went away for the Christmas holidays. In the evening on Christmas day I was invited to a jolly party at the home of Dr and Mrs Skinner. He was the director of the Otago Museum and she was on the YWCA board.
In January when so many of the boarders were away the opportunity was taken to wash the hostel blankets. Two extra women were employed for this task; I used to help with hanging out and bringing in the clean blankets. How lucky we were with the weather! On 16th February Miss Rosevear left for her four weeks holiday. I was not left entirely on my own as Miss Forsythe came to relieve me at times. During this time, Dorothy, the kitchen-maid had to go to hospital with appendicitis; so I had to engage a temporary girl. I was kept busy making jam for the hostel. I went to the fruit market and chose the cases of fruit. On various days I made 28 pounds of blackberry and rhubarb, 24 pounds of plum, 20 pounds of blackberry rhubarb and apple, 28 pounds of peach; a total of 100 pounds, made in a big jam pan on the coal range.
Miss Rosevear arrived nack on 14th March. Next day was YWCA Street Day. I was out on my allotted corner from 8 a.m. to 9 a.m. and again from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m. Then it was my turn to go for my four weeks holiday. On Saturday 16th March I took the train to Christchurch for a weekend to see friends and relations. On Monday I continued to Picton. At that time the South Island main trunk line was not completed, one could only go as far as Hundalee, where one had to get the service car on to Picton. Bill Western met me at Blenheim, where we had tea and he then drove me to Rawhite Guest House in Picton, where I stayed just over a fortnight. One thing I had to do was to inspect the little house I had had built and to meet the Mackie family who were the tenants. After that I went to see Mr Flood the builder about one or two things to do with the house. I had good weather and a pleasant time seeing my brothers Teddy and Basil.
On 2nd April I crossed to Wellington to stay with the Truebridges for the rest of my holiday. Marion Truebridge was my brother Pat's sister in-law. The New Zealand Centenial Exhibition was still on in Wellington and there was a lot to see. I had a day out at Paraparaumu beach to see Miss Page and Miss Holywell and Mrs Ornberg. I left for the South Island on 10th April, having one day in Christchurch on my way back to Dunedin and work as usual. Friday 19th was 'Poppy Day', I was selling poppies on the street 4 to 5 p.m. Dunedin raised £15,000. The 15th was Anzac Day when the Governor-General Lord Galway attended the soldiers parade at the Cenotaph.
Miss Roberts introduced me to the Dunedin Naturalists Field Club of which she was a member. On Saturday afternoons once a fortnight there was generally an out-door meeting, an expedition to some place of interest to study some aspect of nature. Owing to petrol shortages during the war, we could not go any long distances. But there was plenty of interesting things to see around Dunedin. This was followed up on Monday night by an evening meeting in the Red Lecture Room of the Otago Medical School. Sometimes I played badminton in the club next door. In May the Opera Faust was produced at His Majesty's Theatre, with famous overseas artists in the principle parts; Heddle Nash, Isobel Baillie, Gladys Ripley and others; it was most enjoyable. With all these pleasant diversions as well as my work, life was never dull.
One day Mrs Schnapp was ill in bed so could not come to afternoon tea with me. I went up to Highgate to visit her. At her bedside I met a nice little lady with a pretty straw hat with flowers on it, Mrs Annie Webster. Her husband James Webster had a flourishing photographic business on the top floor of the Capital building., just above Max Simenauers dental surgery. The Websters were English, came to New Zealand from Bradford in 1912. They had a daughter Marion, married to a Naval officer, away in England and a son Vaughan, in New Zealand, I did not know what he was doing. Mrs Webster came to afternoon tea with me at the hostel. So then I sometimes used to visit her in Belgrave Crescent. She used to talk of her 'clever brother' who lived in Mosgiel, making me very curious about him.
At the Labour Weekend I went on a bus trip to Te Anau and Eglington Valley. The other half of my seat was occupied by Mr James Stevenson, Chief Engineer on a ship berthed at Port Chalmers. The weather was very bad with much heavy rain and thunder and lightening. So when we went to see how the Homer Tunnel was getting on, all we could do was have our picnic lunch in the public works dining-room. Mr Stevenson was, I think, in his late fifties. He was fond of choral music and he took me to the town hall to hear The Messiah. He went up on stage in the second half and sang with the choir. He took me to the cinema several times and came to tea at the hostel. On 20th November he came with me to a musical evening at the Webster's. Also there were Mona and Mrs Jones and Zoe Meyer, (Vaughan's fiancee), and Annie Webster's brother Harold North. So I met him at last. Mona and Mrs Jones had been boarders at the hostel when they came from Auckland for Mona to go to a job at one of the convents to teach the Montessori Method and instruct the nuns in it. Then they dispensed with her services. After that she earned a certain of selling 'novelties' (which she made herself, to the shops and giving piano lessons. I think she was about my age. They found a house in Lynn Street and Mr Stevenson came with the Websters and me to a musical evening there before his ship finally left Port Chalmers. I met Harold again at a second musical evening at the Webster's. On these occasions I really did not have any conversation with him, so I cannot say I got to know him.
During the Christmas and New Year period many of the regular boarders were away from the hostel and we had to fit in the domestic staff holidays. Temporary staff were difficult to find at that time, so Miss Rosevear and I did some 'filling in'. That is why I sometimes had as many as fifteen beds to make up with clean linen. On Christmas Day I had eleven beds to make. We had Christmas dinner at 12.45 p.m. As it was a Wednesday I was off duty for the rest of the day. I had tea and afternoon tea with the Misses Dalrymple and in the evening the Websters took me out to Mosgiel to see the caravan that Harold had been building on the chassis of an old Buick car. He planned to go away with his friend Arthur Birley for the Christmas and New Year holiday. The next time I met Harold was one Friday night in Woolworths. I had looked in there to say hello to Zoe and he invited me to go to the cinema. Two days before that I had had a wisdom tooth extracted and now my face was very swollen so I had it wrapped in a scarf. Unfortunately Harold had to leave before the end of the film to catch his train home, leaving me alone to see the end of the film. The following Friday I was at the Websters in the evening; Harold was there and walked down the hill with me afterwards. On 22nd Harold took me to the concert at the town hall given by Noel Coward. which was delightful. I was seeing Harold quite often now. He worked at Milliss' Garage in Moray Place, in the workshop, coming in by train from Mosgiel each day.
On Wednesday evening 29th January Harold and I went for a walk up the Leith Valley road, past Ross Creek Reservoir and on up to Wakari. Standing waiting for the cable car he asked me to marry him; I was very happy. Next afternoon I went to see Annie Webster and was happy that she was pleased. Next evening Harold and I went together to the Websters for the evening. On Sunday afternoon I took the train to Mosgiel and had the afternoon and evening with Harold. Later the Websters came and drove me back in their car. Harold's wee house was a very dilapidated place which he has planning to improve with the aid of some money left to him by his Aunt Ethel who died about a year ago. There was a little porch from which the front door opened into the little sitting room, with a bedroom off that. There was no passage, one went straight through to the tiny kitchenette and another small bedroom. There was a very small electric cooker on a stand, an old wooden sink-bench with enamel sink, two taps but no hot water. All the water for toilet had to be heated by an immersion heater in a tub and the same for dishwashing. The tin bath was outside in the washhouse a little was up the yard. Water was heated in the copper and baled into the bath, also clothes washing had to wait for the copper to heat up, and as the copper was not lagged this took some time. The lavatory was a hut a little was up the garden path and the 'night-soil' man came once a week to change the can. The kitchen floor was loose and when it rained water came up through the loose boards. At first Harold said he would fix up the house before we were married; but as we were not so young I finally agreed to our getting married first and then he would see to the house.
My holidays were just coming due; I was to go first this year as Miss Rosevear had her's first last year. On Friday 7th February Harold saw me off by train to Christchurch. I went there for the weekend so as to see brother Basil who was in Burnham Camp. Then I went by bus through the Lewis Pass to Westport for one night, just to see the place and on the next day through the Buller Gorge to Nelson, where Bill Western met me. After two days to see something of Nelson, unfortunately in the pouring rain, we went on to Picton via Blenheim. On the way at Grovetown we called to see Mr and Mrs J.W. Adams who were the parents of George E. Adams, 'Dan' who used to come to Aunt Bessie's for his leave during the first World War. I still have the teaspoons that Mr and Mrs Adams sent us for a wedding present. Dan was now living in Auckland. I spent a week in Picton at Teddy's place, which had been mother's. I had to see the tenants in my little house and then to engage Flood the builder to put up a back fence for them. Then I went to stay with the Truebridges in Wellington for five days during which I say Laila and brother Ralph and various friends. I went to see Miss Law our YWCA New Zealand General Secretary. She helped me to write out my 'notice' for leaving the Y.W. to get married. When I embarked on the ferry steamer for Lyttelton, none of my friends or family could come to the wharf to say goodbye, because there were 500 soldiers on final leave embarking. I had four days in Christchurch, then back to Dunedin on Tuesday 4th March. I was not due back at the hostel until Friday; I stayed at the Leviathan Hotel, going out to Mosgiel when Harold was home. We settled that the wedding should be on Saturday 12th April, Easter Saturday, as Harold had some holiday time at Easter. I went to see Miss Rosevear to tell her of our plans. As I had no parents now, Miss Rosevear said she would 'give me away'. I went to Saltzman the tailor to arrange to have a light grey costume made as my wedding suit. Harold and I went to see Dean Cruickshank at St. Paul's Cathedral to arrange for the wedding to be at 9 a.m. on 12th April. This being in Lent we were not allowed to have any music. Then we went to the jewellers to buy the wedding ring and up to tea at the Webster's. Friday 7th March I resumed duty at the hostel. Harold came to the hostel that evening to meet Miss Rosevear; she said she would 'give me away' at the wedding. Next day Miss Rosevear went away for her holiday.
I had a very busy four weeks with shortage of staff owing to holidays. Temporary staff were very hard to get, so I spent much time filling in as waitress or housemaid as required. A Mrs Irving came to be my assistant; but she fell ill with 'flu' and was mostly in bed for a fortnight. Once or twice Miss Lovell-Smith General Secretary from the club relieved me so that I could go shopping with Harold, or go out to see him in Mosgiel. Also I had some jam to make like last year. On Friday 21st we had our street appeal day and a street stall. Vaughan Webster and Zoe Meyer were married on Saturday 29th March in the Congregational Church in Moray Place. The 'breakfast' was at the Webster's. I managed to get to the ceremony and the breakfast, but had to return to the hostel on duty from 4.30 to 7.45, when I was able to go to the evening party at the Webster's.
Miss Rosevear arrived back from holiday at 6.30 on Monday 7th May. I was very glad to see her back. Next day was my last morning of hostel work. I went out to Mosgiel to have tea with Harold. Next morning I wrote the hostel report for the hostel committee meeting held that afternoon. At 5.25 I had to meet Miss Lovell-Smith to go for what she called a mystery walk, which brought us back eventually to the hostel again, where a special surprise tea had been prepared. There was a speech from Sylvia Calder and from all the boarders a beautiful brass fire screen and a morning tea set on a tray. I was so overcome that I dissolved in tears.
Laila came down from Wellington to be my bridesmaid; I put her up at the Leviathan Hotel. She was teaching physical education at the Wellington Teacher's College at the time. My last 'single' day was spent at Mosgiel helping to get the caravan ready for our going away next day. Laila joined us for dinner and afternoon tea, when she met Ian McLean who was to be Harold's best man. Ian came to tea with Harold and me. Then we collected Laila and went to the Webster's for the evening. Harold had the loan of a car belonging to his friend MacIntosh (known as Mac).
Saturday, 12th April was a beautiful day. Harold and I were married at 9 a.m. at St. Paul's Cathedral by Dean Cruickshank; a quiet wedding with a few interested people present. Jim Webster gave us our wedding photos as a wedding present, so we went off to his studio before the wedding breakfast which the YWCA gave us; a lovely party of twelve, in the sports room. Dean Cruickshank presided. After 'goodbyes' to the hostel staff we were off in Mac's car to Mosgiel, Ian driving with Laila in front and Harold and I behind. We changed into holiday clothes. After that lovely wedding breakfast we did not need a meal so just had a cup of tea and biscuits before setting off in the caravan which was a sit in and drive one. we left Ian and Laila the use of the car while we were away. Our destination was the motor camp in Oamaru Gardens.
On the Monday we moved up to the Waihao River where Harold fished a bit but with no success. On Wednesday we went to Timaru where we left the caravan in the main street for four hours while we had a meal and went shopping. We received a summons from the Traffic Officer. We camped in the show grounds motor camp. Next day we went to see about the summons and were 'let off' when I said we were on honey-moon. We went to Charlie Chaplain's film 'The Great Dictator'. Next day, Friday, we headed south, camping at Waitaki Bridge for one night. On Saturday we made for home. Ian McLean came to tea with us. He told us that he and Laila were engaged to be married; so that was a whirlwind courtship!. Laila had of course had to go back to her job in Wellington.
We were just tidying up a bit and thinking of going to bed when there was an awful row outside of someone banging on an old water tank Harold had out behind the house. This was 'tincanning'. On other words it was the neighbours and friends come to welcome us home and me to the district; somehow we crammed nineteen people into the wee house. The honeymoon was over and we settled into a new life together.
We were married for thirty-six years, until Harold fell ill in June 1977 and died on 12th August; just three months before his 89th birthday. We had two sons when I was 37 and 42 years old, which made a busy life for an older-than-usual mother. Now at 81 years old I have been turning my diaries into a narrative for the family, who are too young and too busy to be interested yet, but may be later on.
FINISH