March 21st

Aunt Pamela – Childhood memories (Part 2)

[KPD left – as well as her diaries – an old exercise book, falling apart, and not by any means full, but containing some family history information. Inside the front cover she has written: ‘I meant to rewrite this book…I hope I have not repeated myself too much”. I have tried to remove such repetition, and to have reordered the contents to make more sense, giving headings, leaving out simply genealogical material etc. I have also added some explanatory footnotes. But the text is all her own.]

3. Memories of the First World War and Schooling

• During the war Daddy was a special constable & had a truncheon. For a time he worked up the line (Leighton Buzzard) at an ammunition factory¹. We did not have any bombs but saw a zeppelin. Mother used to go to the other side of the town to fetch lunch from a kitchen some days. She had a large basket under the seat of Christopher’s² pushchair. It was made of wood with [a] carpet seat & he could sit either way.
• We had two soldiers billeted on us for a short time. Others who were with at the baker’s near[by] came in on a Sunday evening & we sang round the piano. One was Mr Fuller [who] gave me lovely presents. I imagine he was killed as he suddenly stopped writing. Last card from Salonika.³
• Martin & Gerald⁴ went to Berk.[hamsted] school & Anthony⁵ to a dame school⁶ in North Road; Miss Hudson We had two soldiers billeted on us for a short time. Others who were at the bakers near [by] came in on Sunday evenings & we sang around. The pianist one was Mr Fuller (?) gave me lovely presents. I imagine he was killed as he suddenly stopped writing. called “Huddies”. He then joined the other [brothers].
• I had a morning governess & went to the Girls’ School when I was 7 – September 1917. We had a day off school on Armistice Day. I was there 10 years, the last year as a boarder when we moved to Blandford.

4. Life in Berkhamsted after the first World War

4. There was a Town Crier at Berkhamsted, also a man who came round with muffins & crumpets. Sometimes an organ grinder with a monkey in [the] High Street.
5. The fire engine & dustcart had the same horse so when there was a fire summoned by a hooter the dustcart sped along scattering rubbish on the way (or if far away the horse was ridden[back]).
6. We always had a cleaner (known as a char-‘charlady’) mostly mornings, but after Veronica⁷ was born we had “Esther” in her late teens. She had 18/- a week and arrived about 8.30 am & went about 6pm, came Sunday mornings until after lunch & possibly had a half day as well⁸. She used to take V[Veronica] out in the afternoon & gave her tea. We took her to S. Bersted Vicarage when we changed houses with the Eversheds⁹. Esther had never seen the sea before. She cried when we moved to Blandford & left her behind.
7. We did not go away much & when we did it was to “apartments” – rooms with service, & food cooked, which Mother bought. We went to Bogner & to Worthing. Uncle Cecil Braithwaite¹⁰ often helped with expenses & Mother wore a lot of Aunt Annette’s clothes though they were rather big. The shoes fitted me when I grew up & I had real lizard & crocodile shoes. I also had a number of cast offs from older cousins.

[More to come from Aunt Pamela’s memories of childhood soon!]

1 Not long before her death, I asked my mother why her father had seemingly painted less after the First World War – she thought he had problems with his eyes and wondered if that had something to do with his war work (Of course she was born in 1922, so only knew this second hand; I didn’t get the idea that she had ever discussed it with him.)

2 He was born in February 1915, so this must refer to sometime after then.

3 KPD’s mother kept an album with these cards stuck into it all her life, and it was then past on to Christopher (to whom many of the cards were addressed) and after his death to KPD. Before her death I tried to find if he was killed during the war, but could find no record on the Commonwealth War Graves website: perhaps he survived the war, but was badly injured, or possibly we had his name slightly wrong (which makes tracking him down much more difficult).

4 KPD’s oldest two brothers, born November 1904 & December 1905 respectively.

5 Anthony, born February 1909, was the closest sibling to KPD.

6 ‘Dame’ schools – private elementary schools – were common in the 18^th and 19^th Centuries, but had mostly died out. I suspect KPD was referring to a private nursery school.

7 Veronica Dell, born May 1922, was the 6^th and last of the Dell children.

8 18/- (£0.90) a week, of £46.80 a year, whilst not generous, isn’t quite as bad as it sounds. Depending on the way it is measured – according to a calculator measuring wealth over time, this is worth around £10,000 today.

9 Presumably her Uncle, Rev. Trevor Evershed, an Anglican clergyman.

10 Cecil Braithwaite was married to KPD’s maternal Aunt, Annette. A successful stockbroker, it seems likely that he was very generous in supporting his wife’s less well off relatives. When he died in 1948 he estate’s probate was over £82,000 – worth between £.5 and £12 million today (depending on which type of measurement is used).

KPD’s closest brother, Anthony and her sister, Veronica. At this time Anthony was about 18 and Veronica about 5.