Diary Entry: Interview C.O. [Commanding Officer] about W.O.S.B. [War Office Selection Board]. Diary notes: Interesting that KPD was considered for officer training – was it her wish, or was she selected due to her abilities? Or, perhaps, because she had a public school education? I’d like to think it was the former, allied to her …
Category Archives: Uncategorized
Diary Date: 28th February [1943]
Diary Entry: Lunch Swan. Bike ride Eaton Hall etc. Diary Notes: The Swan, which may be the 16th Century inn at Taporley near Chester, was a regular eating place for KPD in those days. (For a photograph of The Swan today, see the blog post for February 7th last). Eaton Hall, the country house of …
Diary Date: 27th February [1943]
Diary Entry: Stayed night Nancy. Diary notes: Nancy was a friend, presumably in the A.T.S., with whom KPD socialised regularly during the war years.
Diary Date: 26th February [1943]
Diary Entry: Ensa. “The Bishops Candlesticks”, “Dear Departed”, “Heaven & Earth”. Diary notes: These seem to have been (presumably short) plays put on by ENSA. It’s possible that the “The Bishop’s Candlesticks” is the one act play based on a story from “Les Miserables” (which had been filmed in 1929 – the first appearance of …
Diary Date: 25th February [1943]
Diary Entry: Convoy. Accident with Law. Inspection by Lady Carlisle etc. Diary notes: One would like to know more of the details of the ‘accident’! “Lady Carlisle” refers to Bridget Monckton, later the 11th Lady Ruthven of Freeland, then the Countess of Carlisle and the Senior Controller of the A.T.S. at the start of WW2. …
Diary Date: 23rd February [1943]
Diary Entry: Tea Nanny & Theatre. Diary notes: Nanny was a friend from pre-war days. It may have been common for the time, or perhaps KPD’s own preference, to use nicknames when writing in her diary; it does, however, remind us the diaries were written for her to remember and organise her life, not for …
Diary Date: 21st February [1943]
Diary Entry: Duty. Diary notes: For some reason KPD thought it worth saying that she was ‘on duty’, but not what she did, or where she went. She may well have been acting as the driver ‘on call’ that day.
Diary Date: 20th February [1943]
Diary Entry: Met Flora tea Wrexham. Went Shirley Temple in “Miss Annie Rooney”. Diary notes: ‘Flora’ is Flora Gardner, a friend from a family living near Berkhamsted, where KPD had lived years before. “Miss Annie Rooney” was an American dramatic film, in which Shirley Temple (now 14 years old) received her first screen kiss! See: …
Diary Date: 18th February [1943]
Diary Entry: B. Coy. [‘Company’] at home to R.S.M. Diary notes: ‘R.S.M.’ presumably refers to the Regimental Sergeant-Major.
Diary Date: 16th February [1943]
Diary Entry: Tea Nancy & to theatre. Diary notes: KPD enjoying going to the the theatre nearly as much as going to the cinema, but unusually here she doesn’t record what she (and perhaps Nancy) saw.
Aunt Pamela's War 