Diary Entry: Got off early. Hitched Reading (lunch) & on Pangbourne. Stayed Lewis’ White House. June home.

Diary notes: KPD spoke of hitching during WW2 in later life, saying that wearing a uniform made it easier (and perhaps safer?) Even though the war was finally over, she was still prepared to hitch (and was still serving, so almost certainly used her uniform!)

The Lewis family, old friends and near neighbours of KPD and her family in Orpington, seem to have moved to Pangbourne – this is the first mention of visiting them there, but KPD’s diaries show many other visits in the post-war years. 

Diary Entry: Spent evening Cosgroves.

Diary notes: Another evening KPD mentions spending with the ‘Cosgroves’. Could they be her landlords/ladies?

Diary Entry: Towed to Putney with 513. Saw “The Great Lie” at Neasden.

Diary notes: Clearly the day working yesterday didn’t get her car back on the road. 

“The Great Lie” is a 1941 US drama film starring Bette Davis and Mary Astor (who won an Oscar for her performance). See:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Great_Lie 

Diary Entry: Car V.O.R. [Vehicle Off Road] again. Changed wheels.

Diary notes: Another day when KPD could not work driving for the  Army Kinematograph Service.

Diary Entry: Returned Wembley.

Diary notes: Back to her duties, but as the war was completely over, she must have been counting the days! 

Diary Entry: V.J. [Victory over Japan] leave.

Diary notes: A slightly surprising leave – ‘Victory over Japan’ leave two months after the actually victory. Could KPD have somehow been given this as she was working earlier? 

Diary Entry: Home 9.30pm C. Oakley there.

Diary notes: Home for KPD was still her Mother’s house in Orpington. ‘C. Oakley’ seems to have been a friend of Nellie Dell. 

Diary Entry: Rushes London, Gerrards X[Cross] & Denham. Went Tun. Wells. Tea V.M.S. [Violet M Stevens] Night Aunt Consie. 

Diary notes: ‘Rushes’ refers to the raw film shot during one day. See: https://www.mediacollege.com/glossary/r/rushes.html 

Quite a busy day – Gerrard’s Cross and Denham from Wembley is around 30 miles, then to Tunbridge Wells another trip of nearly 80. (To get there by teatime she surely went by car?)

‘Aunt Consie’ is Edith Constance Beckwith Evershed (1868-1951), unmarried elder sister of Nellie Dell, and perhaps the closest of her Aunts to KPD, who visited and stayed with her in or near Tunbridge Wells on many occasions.

Violet Stephens (born 1883 and listed in the 1939 Register as a ‘Housekeeper’, was a friend of KPD she kept visiting until her death in 1948). It seems they met when V.M.S. came to look after KPD and her siblings in 1914 when her parents went on holiday to Bruges – just before WW1. Like with some other friends, KPD showed herself to be a very loyal friend to V.M.S. 

Diary Entry: London district

Diary notes: Presumably a pretty ordinary day’s work for KPD as she doesn’t say specifically where she went it may well have been a number of local stops, too many to list. 

Diary Entry: London a.m. Croydon, then Perivale Southall & Feltham. Evening Valerie. 

Diary notes: KPD spent another day driving round London.

‘Valerie’ may well be ‘Valerie Evans’, who was a friend KPD had met after joining the A.T.S., but there are other Valeries she knew around this time.