Category Archives: Uncategorized

Diary Entry: J.P. [‘J. Pessick’?] not well. We shopped & walked. Diary notes: Whilst ‘walking’ is an activity KPD enjoyed a mentions frequently, ‘shopping’ isn’t. This is a rare such mention!  

Diary Entry: Left 8a.m. Train. Arrived Chester in time for lunch. Stayed Pessicks. Saw Rep. Coy. [‘Repertory Company’] in “Quiet Wedding”. Diary notes: KPD travelling north to near where she served earlier in the war. This seems to be the only time she stayed with the ‘Pessicks’.  “Quiet Wedding” is a play from 1938 (made …

Continue reading “Diary Date: 14th May [1945]”

Diary Entry: Church & walked afternoon. Diary notes: All her life KPD was a keen churchgoer, though her allegiance to a specific church was less than that to churches in general. 

Diary Entry: Joe & I walked am. We all (Mrs Cassé & Michael) went car to Aberystwyth tea & shopped. Diary notes: KPD always enjoyed a good walk (as well as cycling) – right until her 80s in fact. The fact that a car is mentioned is interesting as petrol was still heavily rationed for …

Continue reading “Diary Date: 12th May [1945]”

Diary Entry: Went Borth to stay Joe Field & Christine. Diary notes: Borth is on the mid-Wales coast, north of Aberystwyth. The ‘Fields’ (‘Joe’ & ‘Christine’) seem to have been friends KPD met at other friends, the ‘Duttons’ when she was serving at Gresford, north Wales. 

Diary Entry: Lunch & tea Orc.[hard] Cot.[tage] Diary notes: Orchard Cottage, Crofton (near Farnborough, Kent) was the home of the Lewis family, former employers of KPD who became good friends.

Diary Entry: Day Tun. Wells. A[Aunt] Consie in bed. Lunch there. Tea V.M.S. [Violet M Stevens] at Miss Bradshaw. Called Elaine. 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 in or near …

Continue reading “Diary Date: 9th May [1945]”

Diary Entry: V.E. Day. Leave. Home about 11am. Diary notes: The party to end all parties – or at least to end the European part of the war! See here for further details: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victory_in_Europe_Day 

Diary Entry: Went Gerrards X[Cross] for night. Leonie there. Diary notes: Dulcia (&  her husband Ian) McDiarmid were friends of KPD’s mother, and of KPD herself and lived in Gerrards Cross.  

Diary Entry: Mother to see specialist. Diary notes: This could be a follow up from the concerns mentioned on 22nd April.