Category Archives: Uncategorized

Diary Entry: Went to stay M. [Marjorie] Webb, 355 Tring Road, Aylesbury. Diary Notes: The Webbs( especially Dorothy and Marjorie) were friends KPD often stayed with or met up with.

Diary Entry: Had hair permed. Diary notes: The fact that KPD mentions this in her diary shows how unusual (and perhaps expensive) a perm was at this time. This is also a reminder that (except in Scotland) January 1st was not a Bank or Public holiday yet. (Nor would it until 1st January 1974).

Diary Entry: Went to Tun. Wells to stay A[Aunt] Consie. Diary notes: ‘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 on many occasions. This time KPD says that she was with her Aunt from …

Continue reading “Diary Date: 27th December [1941]”

Diary Entry: Go home. Diary notes: Home, where KPD’s Mother and younger sister still lived, was still 35 Broxbourne Road, Orpington.

Diary Entry: A. Cooper went to hosp[ital] with pneumonia. I went to Godalming with Miss Gardiner. Diary notes: ‘A. Cooper’ may well have been a pupil. Miss Gardiner seems to have been a colleague of KPD.

Diary Entry: Break up. Diary notes: KPD would not work in a school again until 1946.

Diary Entry: School plays. Diary notes: Drama seems to have been an imprtant part of school life at Cumnor both then and later (judging by their website!)

Diary Entry: Day at Hindhead. Diary notes:Molly Browning, who lived at Hindhead, was a friend KPD met up with regularly over many years.

Diary Entry: Registered. Diary notes: In December 1941 Parliament passed a second National Service Act. It widened the scope of conscription still further by making all unmarried women and all childless widows between the ages of 20 and 30 liable to call-up. Even though KPD was now 31, she seems to have chosen to register.

Diary Entry: Went to Ewhurst. Diary notes: Ewhurst is a village about 16 miles from Seale. The Davies’ seem to have been two sisters, Janet & (name unknown) – friends of KPD, perhaps ones she met through one of her jobs.