Comings and Goings

Chapter 1: Bingfield and Origins

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 14^th 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.

Chapter 2: Dalkey

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.

Chapter 3: Cheltenham

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.

Chapter 4: Home to Ireland

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 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.

Chapter 5: London University

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.

Chapter 6: French Trip

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.

Chapter 7: Lyons Teashops

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