Blew a gale in the night from south, right in watch box door. Father very cold, says he feels the cold, with having had flu’ so recently. Stayed in bed until 12 o’ clock as it was so wet. Jean went to school early, as it was so rough, in case she had to walk, but wind had moderated a bit by then, it is quite still now but either the sea is bumping very hard or A.A. guns are going. I rather think guns. Will stay up until 10 I think as I don’t want to get up, and Ger seems to come on “nuisance” raids, somewhere, most nights. It is not nearly as cold as yesterday. If fine tomorrow will try to wash a few things before Rene comes. She is still feeling seedy after cold. She went to the W.I. [Women’s Institute] meeting today. Took Bill home first, to his immense disgust, as he had just settled down to afternoon nap. She wanted to look at her fire as it is so cold to go in and make fire just at teatime. Saw Elsie going home before 4.30 so Rene would not be rushed. Eff came to borrow potatoes tonight. Said she had not been to W.I. she never remembered it as the day is altered from the Hogsthorpe day, now Chapel has its own.

Have written for Pet[rol] coups and also for permit for pig to be killed. Wrote to Em L [sister – Emily] last night. Had an egg for tea as I did not want cold mutton for dinner. Very good it was too. Made a chop hot for Jean and potatoes in pan and a pancake left from dinner. She ate a Lyon’s fruit? tart after. Mrs. Hall asked if we should like some. Jean had gone to get sweets, she had no coup. on Sat, and brought two. Father took one for lunch on watch. Don’t think they are very great. Can’t decide whether it is the sea or guns, tide is certainly nearly in. Have turned the heel of Father’s sock and done some rug. Went to sleep after Rene went. I am better from cold but seem very tired after dinner. Have had two bad nights, (sleepless not asthma).

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Rene came today and thinks perhaps scarf may be fine wool. The stockings look quite decent on. Father has gone on watch 8p.m to 2am. Radio announces that we shall have to grow more green veg. for next winter as transport for them would not be available, the trains and lorries will be needed for war purposes. We usually grow enough for ourselves, as do most people in scattered districts but it would do no harm to grow more I suppose as they can always be given to rabbits or pigs if not wanted otherwise. I think there must be a big tide tonight again as I can hear it bumping and the wind seems to keep perking up too. Hope we have a quiet night. It was a sharp frost this morning with ice and wht [white] rime. It will do land good if it doesn’t come more wet. A few good frosts would do good. I washed Jean’s blouse and pinafore today ready for school tomorrow and a few other oddments. Jean ironed them after tea. She has been doing H.W. [homework] nearly ever since and is very tired, as soon as water for bottles is ready we shall go to bed. The soft water for the morning wash is nearly hot. The alum[inium] bottle in Kapok stuffed case is quite a success. She puts it amongst blankets at foot of bed and it is warm for morning. Much better than cold hard water and she doesn’t like water from rubber bed bottles. She says it smells of rubber.

‘Father’ – Will – Sketched by Jean for School Homework

Rene’s cold a bit better but she doesn’t seem very well yet. We did not do much today. My cold is getting better but I was glad to rest after dinner. Did a bit of Father’s sock as Jean seems to have given it up. Frank has a piece of glass which will do for car window and H Simpson is going to look at brakes. Shall be pleased when job is done and invalid Petrol cou[pon] exchanged. Rene had written to Ron but Jean had taken mine to post so she was posting hers this afternoon. I put 2½^D st[amp] on mine as I enclosed phrase book from Jessie.

Mavis was quite thrilled yesterday with Wom[en]’s Mags I had let Jean bring down from cubby hole at top of stairs. They are very nice books but date from 1926 to sometime in 1928. 2 years of them. Monthlies. I stopped taking them when Rene left home that spring to go to Nott[ingha]m as I did not have time to read them. I have thought of giving them for salvage or to the wom[en’s] Services but Jean and Mav can read them first anyway. There are beautiful pictures in them and good reading too, but the illustrations and fashion advts are of the most ugly type of dress we have ever had, with waistline round over hips and skirts as short as now. A short fat woman looked dreadful in them, but if I remember right they were very comfortable and we were not poured into them as we appear to be now, so many people now look as if they had outgrown their clothes and they are tailored to fit so tightly that they look as if the seams would burst. They are no kinder to the short and stout than the 1928 fashions and to see an elderly lady of this build in a fur coat barely reaching her knees and the thin spindly legs some fat people have coming from underneath makes me feel all hot and uncomfortable for the poor dears. Perhaps I look no better but as the parody of Burns runs, “Oh wad some power the giftie gie ’em to see theirsels as I can see ’em.”

Some R.A.F boys called just as Father was going on watch, evidently a fresh lot come to And[erby]. Wanted to know if there was an inn near. It is so out of the way there and no amusements and I doubt if there is a W.V.S. I feel so sorry that there should be nowhere else for them to go, but don’t know what we can do about it with Father away so many evenings and Jean just growing up.

Frank, who supplied the car window glass, was probably May’s brother, Frank Simpson, but possibly Frank Raynor.

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These pages are so thin, I find I have turned two together again, must copy some of my “poems” into them. Mustn’t waste paper in these days. Had a beastly cold or perhaps the 48 hour flu’ Dr. M told Father was going about. Very nasty but no temperature he said. Well I was very hot and cold Thursday and kept Jean at home until 10.30. and was not too bad tho’ about whacked by tea-time. Rather better Sat. morning and kept improving. Jean went to see how Rene was yesterday afternoon and found her very seedy. She has gone again now. As it was Sun I thought they would manage even if she was in bed. It is time she was back again as it will soon be dark. She has lamps and there is a slim new moon, but it won’t give much light. The sea settles as if it was going to be a frost. Father has just been to cover his car down. It has been cold and showery today, rain and snow mixed, tho’ at times the sun shone quite warmly. It gets a bit of power now in the middle of the day.

Jean just came back again. Rene is much better and says she shall be here early tomorrow ready for work after her rest? Think we had better have a quiet day. Young John Short (stockings) has gone in forces also Laurence. Her[bert] Fau[lkner] had to join H.G. Mary has 3 boys in forces now. Ray[mond] in Iraq. Ke[ith] is in Wales and now Laurence has gone. It will be an anxious time for them.

Had a long interesting letter from Ron on Thursday dated 11 Jan so only about 3 weeks coming. Very quiet I think. Says natives very dirty and ragged no shoes. He has 1000 francs in N.A.A.F.I as the boys had to lend money for stock. Sounds opulent but Jean thinks francs may be only worth 2^D. Tobacco 10^D oz Players cigs for 20 [?] and very good quality at that. Quite a smoker’s paradise. They had had a sudden storm just a few puffs of wind then a terrible gale, torrents of rain and the worst lightning he has ever seen. It did not last long and the tents stood up to it and very little wet came in. His corner being quite dry. Tom says he hasn’t seen a gale yet if the tents weren’t blown down or quite away. Hope he doesn’t. Says the tents are warm and comfortable and fitted with E.L. [electric light]. Tom thinks this is a luxury! Ron says natives have a lot of little donkeys which they pile up with loads, poor little beggars. He has seen camels but there aren’t any where he is now.

Flora came to call for Jean to go to S.S. [Sunday school]. I gave her an apple, she was very pleased. Mrs Balding senr. brought me a few. Elsie G brought me 1doz eggs 3/1, they are lovely big ones. If we get any at the shops they are always small think they must shrink, as there must be a lot of big ones collected off the farms. Eff brought me 3 but would only take 6^D for hers. They are nice and fresh but the farm eggs are best now as the hens get corn. Had Cant[erbury] lamb for dinner today and preserved kidney beans. I forgot them until after Xmas. They were put down in dry salt and kept perfectly. The lamb too was extra good. We opened a tin of Pork sau[sage] meat again this week and made sau. rolls, very good too. There is enough fat to make ¾ lb flour up. Must get another tin as they need only 9 points. Now 2/6 tin. Tinned fruit on sale tomorrow, must see what they have got and how many pts wanted. 60 pts a month don’t go far and I am owing two from this week. Got ½ pound dates and ½ pound raisins yesterday. Grandma better again and as quirky as ever. Eff wished Jean Many Hap[py] Ret[urns] of her Birthday and Gma wished her M.H. Ret. of the year. Jean had to put her tea-party off as I was so seedy. Flora said “Mrs Hill would be badly as she was coming to tea.” They must come this week. I gave her a pair of stockings for school and Rene a dark blue scarf 3/6½, cotton, the poorest thing. Jean chose it and it looks quite nice on.

John Short was nicknamed ‘stockings’ after the long black stockings he used to wear. He lived with his parents at ‘Ashleigh Villa’ near Tylers Bridge (see Village Map).

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Father exchanged car to-day 8 H.P. to 9. Special Standard Big 9, rated as 10 H.P. for licence. Hope it will soon pay for itself. I have also bought 1 cwt. barley today to be ground up for pig. Hope it fattens up well. Shall kill it as soon as B.M. is done if all is well weather etc. Shall be very pleased as we have had an expensive time lately. Also it is time little pigs were having more.

Stalingrad has been completely captured now and all Gers. left there, killed, captured or surrendered. We dropped 2000 tons bombs in 20 mins last night. On Cologne. Let’s hope this terrible war is soon over. It was a rime frost this morning then it turned damp and finally turned to cold showers. After one very heavy shower this afternoon it turned warmer. Fortunately Rene would just about get home before it was very bad. Hope she got her clothes in. Mine were practically dry yesterday and finished over-night. I folded them this morning and Rene mangled this afternoon, but have not ironed yet. My asthma has been rather troublesome today. Rene has a chesty cold.

We had the fowl Elsie brought, for dinner today. Broth particularly good. Must send Grandma some as she is so fond of it. Lots of planes about again tonight. Went to bed 10 pm last night and slept until Father came off watch at 2 a.m. in spite of a lot of planes returning from the Cologne raid (I expect). Father still full of aches and pains, not to be wondered at with all this rain. Chicken-pox about. Rene thinks little Valerie Hutton has it as she has a bad cough and spots, but is running about in the wet and cold.

B.M. – abbreviation – here most probably represents ‘barley-meal’.

Valerie Hutton has not been identified. She was NOT a daughter of Mrs Hutton of an evacuee family, later mentioned.

 

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Jessie has a R.A. [Royal Artillery] officer and wife in her rooms, batman comes to light fire and clean boots. Rumours of 70 soldiers coming on Thurs.

Sunday’s wild morning developed into a gale after dinner. Rene came with Jean’s cycle-lamp which she borrowed Sat. night. She had a cup of tea and was preparing to go when a sudden squall of wind and rain struck the house and the air was filled with paper, leaves, and all sorts of debris, half a hut roof went up and over the sandhills there was a terrific roaring sound and Rene is confident a plane went by just over the S. hills only showing a wing tip now and then. Maddison who was on watch says no plane however. Some damage to roofs was done, Warners garage roof taken completely off, tiles stripped and the whole building collapsed with a foot or two only of bricks left standing. I can see tiles are off another bung[alow] on Landseer Av. Kirk says field between them and Warners strewn with bricks, tiles etc. Arthur Graves is credited with 60 miles an hour on his cycle, coming from work at Butlins’. He stopped and dismounted as soon as a convenient bush broke the force of the wind. If it had struck him broadside it would have blown him off most likely. We were so pleased Rene had not started. It poured torrents of rain for a time then died away to almost a calm. It rained early Monday then turned a fine day, windy in the morning but settling after dinner. Rene went early as I did not wash, and got all her Red + [Cross] 1d a week collecting done. We did a big wash today – mostly dry. I am very tired, have not done any rug so far. Father is on watch until 2.a.m. and there are a lot of planes about. I am still nervous.

H.S. [Harry Simpson?] brought car to show Father tonight, think they’ll make a bargain. It is a little bigger than ours and better. Jean has a lot of homework tonight. It continues mild tho’ a fresh wind today. Several primroses in bloom violets and snowdrops in bud and daffs and tulips and bluebells peeping up. A wee flower showing on my aubrietia near the door which I sowed from seed Rene brought. Anemones growing well but no flowers. Elsie Grantham brought a fowl today. They had 3 killed by a dog. I bought it for 3/0. “It’s an ill wind that blows nobody any good.” Like Charles’ it was a good big one. She was keeping it for a brooder.

Last night Jean dreamed of bananas, said “Joey Sharp gave her 3 off a big bunch, and best of all, she ate one before she woke.” She has always woken first before. I dreamed Ron was home from N.A. [North Africa] but thought he had not long to stop. He was tanned a deep brown all over his face and it looked exactly like him, tho’ he had very brown eyes instead of hazel. I kissed him and then he vanished or else I woke. He looked so well. Father went to Sk[egness] to see if Dr. M would give him another bottle of medicine. He did and some more liniment. Dr. says he has had flu’ which is going about. No temperature but it leaves a lot of people with lumbago and pain in the joints. Hope he will soon be better. He went to Alford St[ation] to fetch Mrs Dandison and Michael Stow. Mi. had a new bicycle. Hope the fresh car will prove a good investment. It is a bit of a worry changing cars, insurance, petrol coupons, and registration book etc. think it will be settled tomorrow. Betty Elston has left school and is at Stow’s post office at present. She is clever so probably won’t be there long.

Mrs Pilgrim is at school now again, but Rene says she gets very tired, has informed Ed[ucation] Authorities that she won’t be able to keep on thro’ the summer. Her heart is not very good I think.

Oh! Dear, planes again. W. Ch. [Winston Churchill] been to Turkey for weekend was in Cairo last night. His arrival home not been announced yet.

Jean made a “pomme de terre au gratin” i.e. potatoes and cheese sauce. Cooked potatoes mixed with sauce and browned. We are not fond of cheese but papers say we ought to eat our ration as it balances our diet in vitamins. I am cooking a second veg. most days as we seem to lack something. Jean’s psoriasis doesn’t clear off and Father’s seems troublesome again too and my skin itches as if my blood was overheated. It certainly isn’t too much heat, think it is fresh fruit and veg we want tho’ we get a good deal of the latter. I cooked young shoots that had grown on stalks of cabbage cut in the autumn and a young savoy. Very good too, with mashed potato, Father likes his whole so saved one or two, hot gravy and slices of cold meat. The beef was so tender and sweet it seemed a shame to heat it. Had a sago pudding after. I had toast, not liking sago and as I had a cup of Horlicks with milk for lunch was alright. How still it is now the gale has gone. If it would keep fair we could do with a little wind to dry things up. Standard bags of flour are being put up in case bread is rationed. I don’t know exactly what that means. Whether we have to make own bread or whether that will be for the puddings, cakes and pastry we make at home. I put a root or two of lilys of the valley in on Sat. I always thought they had bulb but not so, only roots. Mrs Spencer gave Rene them for me, at least she said Rene told her her Grandmother! could not get any to grow. Re thinks she has mixed her with somebody else but knew I wanted some so she did not try to explain, but thanked her. I hope they grow. I have never had any. Mavis says she promised me some and I was to bring some from Yeadon but forgot.

Warners (see 14 Dec. 1941) whose bungalow was the further edge of Kirks’ ‘Point Farm’ (see Village Map) were meant here.

Arthur Graves had been one of the coastguards. His work at ‘Butlins’ must have been as a civilian employee at ‘HMS Royal Arthur’.

H.S. probably refers to Harry Simpson, not related, proprietor of Ingoldmells Garage.

A ‘brooder’, or broody hen, was used to keep eggs (not necessarily her own) warm for hatching, sometimes avoiding the need for heated housing for that purpose.

Cyril (‘Joey’) Sharpe was the son of greengrocer Arthur Sharpe (see 15 Jul. 1941).

Betty Elston was the daughter of Mr Elston of ‘Morfields’ (see 20 Jan. 1941).

Mrs Pilgrim, who was living in South Road near the village centre, had been Jean’s head teacher at the village school.

Mr and Mrs Spence (as later written and believed correct) were probably the couple who lived in a cottage associated with ‘The Sycamores’ on South Road, owned by the Misses Crow (see 2 Jan. 1941), as near neighbours of Rene and Tom.

Mavis Harness, wife of nephew, Tom Harness, Harriet’s son, may have been meant here (see 26 Sep. 1941).

 

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Sunday morning the last day of January, a wild wet day blowing a gale from S.E. and heavy showers of rain. Ashley’s field at the back of our house is almost water-logged. If it doesn’t soon dry, it will be very serious as the autumn sown corn will rot in the sodden ground, and most, if not all, of our wheat is sown in the autumn. If our harvest is a failure what shall we do for bread next winter if this continues? We think we may be getting a bit more master over the U-boats but they are a very serious menace at present. We are shipping wheat to India now. I think we as a people must have a large faith in providence. We either have a lot of faith or a lot of confidence, perhaps a mixture of both. Ron says they get no bread only biscuits tho’ there is no shortage of food. We had a letter on Thursday. I am afraid he won’t get my air-graph very quickly as no air-mail is accepted for N. Africa at present. There is an Air Mail Letter Card from John Meldrum this week again, I am enclosing it in today’s letter to Ron who says John’s APO [Army Post Office] number is the same as his. If that is just for N.A. there is a possibility that they may meet sometime. Ron has received the snaps of Rene’s wedding and Sprogg and Father sent on Dec. 13.42. Our letter was between 3 and 4 weeks coming this time. Ron had had a chill and been to M.O. [Medical Officer], said it was bitterly cold and he did not get warm until in bed. It was Sunday night and he was writing in bed and was quite warm then. He says hardly anything about Xmas only that they had pork and not a bad time considering conditions so I’m afraid it wasn’t a very “Happy Xmas”. When we have finished fighting in N.A. which may be soon, I wonder if he will go further away still.

Yesterday we bombed Berlin twice during the day. It is terrible, and were over Ger. again last night. It cannot, must not, go on, this wholesale murder is not war but destruction. In fair and open fight we can pray for our side to win and we do, but bombs and fire appal us and choke our prayers. We have sorely mismanaged this world given to us to rule for God. May he turn the hearts of all men towards Him that we may live in peace and destroy the Evil one who is having so much of his own way now.

Father and Jean are not up yet, suppose I had better call Jean. She has a bit of homework to do yet and it won’t be fit to go to Chapel I think this morning. It is Fa’s day off, but he has to take Mr. Walker to W[illoughby] Stn this afternoon, he is on 36 hours leave. Sprogg has just come in, don’t know where he lodges but is not wet. Of course the windows are open at Corbie so he can get in there if he wants to, a lot of R.A.s came to Canning’s houses yesterday, but we have none so far, tho’ a Cpl called one day to inquire which were Corbie and Red Tiles.

Houses built by John Henry Canning on Sea Bank Road (nearer to ‘Lenton Lodge’ than those on Sea Road) are probably meant here. See Village Map.

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Another book of scraps

From our doings of everyday

Odds and ends of trouble and strife

And happenings grave and gay.

Just over three years ago, I started to keep a little diary. I thought I might get tired of it but I still write fairly frequently and sometimes it comes in useful to refer to. Early in the first book I recorded that Tony [Hill] was missing. He has never returned and now his mother has gone too. Peggy his wife is a Land Girl. Now Ken [Hill] is missing and another mother (both widows) is bearing the same trial and anxious waiting for news.

Tony Hill with mother Rose and wife Peggy, c.1939

I hope we have a letter from Ron today. We had so many letters from him before he went abroad. It is 2 weeks now since we had one, but of course that is not unusual. We have really got Libya at last and now for Tunisia, then I suppose the great strife will really start. I wonder if we shall see more of it here, certainly some of the country will, at least I fear so. We may not survive it, no one can say they are safe now, whether they are in the forces or factories or quiet homes. Quiet! The terrible raid last week when the school at Lewisham was bombed and machine-gunned shocked us all. 42 children and teachers killed and many more badly hurt. Balloons were down for work on them, they say it was necessary and nobody’s fault, but when the planes came in they thought they were not heading for London. Some of them did go, but sirens were not sounded, otherwise children would have been in shelters. Why do we not always be ready? Of course they say we lose so much work when sirens are sounded that they don’t want to do so unless necessary but children must not pay for misjudgement. Churchill and Roosevelt have met in Africa. I had been wondering where Winston was these days. Wrote to Amy last night. Made Dennis a pair of pyjama trousers.

The first (undiscovered) Diary was believed to have been started in January 1940.

Tony Hill, May’s nephew, went missing and was presumed to have died, aged 24, in active service in the RAF, on 21^st February 1940, as a flight sergeant pilot of a Wellington bomber (38 Squadron). His aircraft failed to return to RAF Marham, Norfolk, from a mission searching for enemy shipping in the North Sea. He was honoured in the village war memorial and one at Runnymede. He was the youngest son of Will’s brother, George (who died in 1931) and Rose (whose death on 2^nd November 1941 had been mentioned in May’s diary entry of 11 Nov. 1942). Tony, his mother Rose and wife Peggy (née Truman) are shown together in the photograph which was probably taken around 1939. (Some information is from the Commonwealth War Graves Commission Casualty Register.)

Ken Hill, Tony’s cousin, was also serving in the RAF when reported missing (see 1 Jan. 1943).

The school at Sandhurst Road, Catford, in the London Borough of Lewisham, was bombed on January 20^th 1943. May expressed her feelings about the tragedy in her poem ‘Bombing at Noon of School at Lewisham’.

Churchill, Roosevelt and de Gaulle were meeting at the Casablanca Conference which proclaimed the aim of  achieving ‘unconditional surrender’ of the Axis forces.

Dennis Raynor was the nephew for whom May had made pyjamas.

 

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A very wet morning after a lovely, breezy winter’s day Thur. with sunshine all day and the birds singing and roads drying. Now the roads will be as bad as ever and Jean foolishly left her Wellingtons at school and came home in her shoes. So she has had to take shoes and stockings to change into. She has a cold too, so hope she gets no more. Father not up yet as he was on watch until two a.m. and is on again at 8 to-night, and a journey to Skegness this afternoon. Our pig is getting fat slowly. There is not enough meal to feed it properly and now the R.As have gone we get no bits from them.

Had another letter from Mrs Jock. She got the tray and slippers safely, they were a perfect fit she says. Jock came back to Sk[egness] but was sent to Suffolk and after a day there went back to Sc[otland] on 4 days emb[arkation] leave. He left there on 13^th and she had not heard any more from him when she wrote. He was attached to a Tank corps. Poor old Jock.

I find I am on the last page of my diary, I have another exercise book in the drawer tho’ and Jean owes me one as she decided to keep a diary this year. We had two letters and Air Mail letter card from Ron last week. They were all a month on the way, not too bad. Our Airgraph not been returned so presume it has been sent. I hope he has got it. Keith and Marian have been on leave both looking well and happy, they came for tea on last Thursday 14^th and Colin of course. I wrote to Em. Vic and Mrs Jock last night and have several more letters to answer yet. Had a photo of May [niece] and her husband yesterday. May in long white dress and veil. Must really get her tray sent. Harriet came Tue. for a few minutes to fetch a rabbit and Mary called on her way to Belton’s [garage/ shop] and brought a few apples, also half pig’s head. Father likes it but I don’t care much for it. The soup is good tho’. I see one or two snowdrops are pushing up this week. They are late this year in spite of mild winter. There are a few stray primroses. I have no flowers in the house this week.

My book of words is like a chain of beads

Strung by a little child

Some near together when each day is marked

Some large and far apart with days like lengths of string between.

Some bright and gay, “red letter” days

And some of sombre hue.

 ______________

The following lines from ‘Epitaph on a Jacobite’ by Thomas Babbington Macaulay (1800-1859) were written inside the back cover of the exercise book used for the Diary to January 22^nd 1943:

“Beheld each night my home in fevered sleep,

Each morning started from the dream to weep;

Till God, who saw me tried too sorely, gave

The resting place I asked, an early grave.”

Macaulay

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Jean has gone off to school this morning after Xmas holidays. I have remade her school bag as it was shabby and too small. I put in fresh side-pieces to bag and pocket, from an old leather coat surviving from last war. Hope it hangs together. If not I shall send it to cobblers to be machine stitched. Yesterday we heard that the Grange at Huttoft was not demolished but windows blown out and serious damage done both to it and other property. Also there were some people killed but I think not Ailsby’s. Edie A’s young man, a soldier, was accidentally killed and now the war has blitzed their property. Once the war machine gets going it spares neither just or unjust but marches on over everything. I always think the tank is typical of war, just keeping on relentlessly over all obstacles crushing and mounting everything in its path leaving a trail of mangled remains behind. So it goes, but with it progress in science and engineering develops in leaps and bounds too. Strange how war inspires so many new ideas in these things, and best of all, perhaps, in surgery and healing. Well, if we are spared to the end of the war, we may see the beginning of this “brave new world” they speak of. Let’s hope it does not prove a “mirage”. It seems to me they don’t allow God his proper place in all these schemes. One day in seven he asks, and the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. I interpret that as meaning that one Day given up to rest and the worship of God is necessary to the bodily and spiritual development of man, and that the omission of this is the root of all our troubles. Only through God is Life and if he is ignored how can we hope for Life Everlasting. All Life must have sustenance to continue and if we neglect the Source of Everlasting Life our souls must surely die of starvation.

Had a letter and wedding? cake from Mrs Jock a very nice letter. She says, on Tues. night Jock had a wire recalling him immediately but he stayed to be married on Wed. and returned on Thursday. He will wire when settled. Yesterday we posted a tray (like Ron’s) and the slippers Jean made, to Mrs Jock, so hope they arrive safely. Rene put a note in and told her I would write later, so will wait until I hear that she has got them. The W. cake was pale and dry with a kind of almond cream on top, very war-time cake. Our people were very fortunate in theirs. The cause of E[lectric] L[ight] failure last week was a runaway balloon and the bombing on Sun. put it out of action again on Sunday for an hour or two, but it did not inconvenience us except for radio, as it was before tea-time. It is wet and stormy again, but so hope Rene will wash to-day, then I can have mine done tomorrow, but not a big wash so late in the week. Father finishes his patrol to-day. I am sorry, as when on patrol he has all his nights at home and I am rather nervous when he is out.

The Ailsbys of Huttoft were farmer Ben (brother of Harold – see 21 Dec. 1940) and wife Ada. Edie Ailsby was their daughter.

‘Mrs Jock’ was Mrs ‘Jock’ Brown, wife of the Army cook (see poem “January 12. 1943 or ‘to J.B. and C.T.’ celebrating their wedding.)

Have you read an introduction to May Hill & family (includes photographs) and explored ‘The Casualties Were Small’?

Sunday in January 1943. Community singing on the wireless and they have just sung the hymn “Oh God of love, oh King of Peace”. More than 40 years ago we sang it at school each day until the Boer War was over. “Beneath the angel-strains have rolled, two thousand years of wrong. Oh hush your strife ye men of blood, and hear the Angels sing.”

About 1.15 pm. a single raider probably a Dornier flew over the coast round by Huttoft and bombed the [Huttoft] Grange flat except the kitchen and did more damage in the village. It shook us and we heard machine gun fire, and (very foolishly) looking out saw the plane coming over S Kirks house-top height. It was so low and near the Swastika or rather cross on the plane was visible. It gave one or two bursts of machine-gun fire, putting a bullet through Mrs Blakely’s window in Landseer Av. No one hurt, then flew off over the sea. If it had dropped its bomb then it might have demolished us or the soldiers billets and killed many of them. Jean did not seem at all afraid and went to S[unday] S[chool]. After it had passed I went outside, and it was really amusing. Outside all the bungalows and houses were people and soldiers returning from dining-hall and there was a chattering of all of them talking at once like a lot of starlings or another burst of M.gunfire. It reminded me most of when we used to have teas in chapel, and when the door was opened to go in, a burst of chatter and clatter of cups used to meet us.

It was snowing fast when we got up at 7.15. this a.m. and there was about 3” of snow. It thawed later and the nervous start I give when it slides down our rather steep roof shows my nerves are still shaky. The infantry billeted near us moved away to-day. Yesterday afternoon 2 of them – young ones, came and asked if I would lend them a saucepan to heat up soup and beans (tinned) which they had got from Halls, “without points” one of them beamed. I asked if they had enough bread, and they grinned and said “Yes, pinched it from the dining hall.” I lent them the pan and they brought it back washed clean later on. Jean went to the door and she asked if it had been alright and they said “Yes, very good”. Poor boys. “Like lambs to the slaughter.” I wonder if we shall have any more near us. Father saw one of the R.As when on patrol today and he says Jock was recalled from leave, and has been posted, but not abroad. He did, however, get married. Poor old gloomy, he would moan. Not without reason tho’ this time. Keith and Marian are home. Roy was recalled from leave, sent to Weston-Super-Mare for a 12 weeks course, when they arrived they found it did not start until 14 Jan so asked for and obtained leave until 13^th. Roy arrived back at Joan’s at 7.a.m. Sat morning. Rene came this afternoon but not Tom. He was resting but might meet her. It is not nearly so cold. Hope this thaw doesn’t mean more snow. Father took Jim Coupland to Wil[lough]by Stn. to catch 3.30. train this afternoon as roads too snowy to cycle.

Sampson Kirk’s property was ‘Nelson Villa’, west of May’s home ‘Lenton Lodge’. (See 11 Jan. 1942 and Village Map).

Mrs Blakey (corrected spelling), a widow, lived in ‘Alpha’, Landseer Avenue. Her son, Fred, a decorator, who also lived there, was serving in the forces away from home at that time.

May’s nephew Roy, married to Joan, (see 30 Apr. 1942) was attending a boat-building course, related to his RAF post in Air-Sea Rescue.

Have you read an introduction to May Hill & family (includes photographs) and explored ‘The Casualties Were Small’?