All posts tagged Boston

Sun June 25 10.40 P.M. [1944]
# BLACKOUTS AND LIGHTING PROBLEMS
# FLYING BOMBS SHOT DOWN AND LOCAL VICTIM
# SOFT TOY SALES ADMIN
# PENSION FORMS AGAIN

I am in bed, have put up Bl[ack].O[u]t Curtain and tied string to E[ectric].L[ight] switch. Usually I can switch off with it but sometimes the string comes off. Light is jumpy to-night, decidedly AC [alternating current] I think. I don’t often B.O now either up or down[stairs] as it is light most of the night and will be for a time while this moon lasts. Tonight’s news opened with “Germans say we have taken Cherbourg.” Why on earth couldn’t they say whether we have or haven’t, instead of Gers say. An Ingoldmells boy, Smalley, was killed by a “Robot Plane” in S.E. and brought home to be buried this week. Lily Monks has two brothers wounded in France. Rob. Pl. continue to come over in fairly large numbers I think. We shoot a lot down. A Lincs. boy, it was Nurse Musgrave’s nephew, shot the first down. Mrs Hutton’s baby born Friday.

Emmie sent me £2 Thursday, 15/0 of it was for toys and 25/0 for 5 weeks rent. After this she is sending me 7/6 week from her and Ron. She wants more toys. I am still in the throes of red tape and Form so and so about them. Have sent to Dutton’s for latest form, must fill it in when it comes and await answer. Man from Sup[plementary] Pen[sion] Office Boston came Thurs. Very nice, but oh! what a lot they want to know and proof of everything even wanting to see my Birth Cert. It seems I am quite eligible as I am receiving Pen. for child, tho’ it will be done I reckon before they ravel this out. I hope I shall find I can do without it soon.

Smalley was a local (Ingoldmells) boy killed by a V-1, one of the early victims.

Lily Monk’s brothers, wounded in France were Reg (Green Howards) and George Boddice (Royal Engineers), both of whom recovered (see 22 March 1942).

Nurse Musgrave was the District Nurse based in Willoughby, whose working area, covered by bicycle, included the village.

Mrs Hutton, here, may have been Valerie’s mother (see 9 Feb 1943). She was NOT Mrs Hutton of the evacuee family (see 5 March 1944) but was probably the one meant with reference to toys, later.

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

Sun April 16. 44 2.o’c. p.m.
# EERIE STILLNESS WITH WILL NO LONGER AROUND
# ANSWERING LETTERS OF CONDOLENCE
# ANTICIPATING MOVING HOUSE

After dinner, I have just washed and changed (into my black dress). Jean has gone to a Youth Parade to Hogsthorpe Chapel. I detest these parades and uniforms. It seems so still, no Father coming in and sitting reading and smoking, or asleep in his chair. I have no interest in the radio yet. It seems to trouble me, tho’ I like Jean to play her piano. There are still a lot of letters to answer. I wrote to Laurence [Hill] and John Gibson this morning. I am trying not to worry over the car selling and the other things. His bicycle has gone. It was of no use to keep it, but it seems like taking bits of me with it parting from the things he used. In time they say we get used to it, and indeed during the last war we got used to his being away, but there was a letter every day, and looking forward to his return. Always now there is the queer little feeling of fear in my mind, like I used to feel in air-raids when he was out, or if he was driving in a fog. Yet he never seems so far away, but I cannot see him or touch him.

We shall soon know whether we can have a Council House. It will be like tearing up roots to leave here. We have grown to love it and have had less worry the last 3 years from business than we ever had.

John Gibson was the husband of Ron’s wife Emmie’s cousin Annie.

During WWI, Will had worked on the land and would probably have been assigned to different locations. At the end of the War, in 1918, he had been on a farm in Sibsey, near Boston, as recalled in May’s Diary (see 11th November 1942).

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