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Diary Entry: Duty car. Pay Kenton. Diary notes: A less strenuous day than the one before; presumably being ‘duty’ car was a lottery and could either be quiet or very busy, depending. 

Diary Entry: Took Maj. Crawford to Warminster via Slough, Reading, Newbury, Marlborough & Westbury. Very wet a.m. Diary notes: The bad weather must have made this a very long (over 210 miles) and unpleasant drive. 

Diary Entry: Bert Parker & I went to Croydon aerodrome am. Perivale. G.E.C. & Selfridge’s ground. Diary notes: ‘Bert Parker’ was presumably a colleague at the Army Kinematograph Service; this is the only mention of him in KPD’s diaries. This would have been a busy day of driving, over 50 miles altogether. 

Diary Entry: Up Curzon St. Then Wardour St. Spent evening Cosgroves. Diary notes: Both Curzon and Wardour Streets had strong links to the film industry, so this was probably a normal run of KPDS in her work at the Army Kinematograph Service.

Diary Entry: Took Capt Read to St James St. Major N. shops. On rushes evening. Diary notes: Another day of driving for officers (shopping, perhaps) and the regular job of transporting the ‘rushes’ (film shot that day) back to the studio for developing. 

Diary Entry: Church Parade. Tea & supper Webbs. Marjorie there. Diary notes: Back to Wembley for Sunday Church parade, then to Chesham (Buckinghamshire) to see the Webbs, long term family friends. 

Diary Entry: Home for tea & supper. Diary notes: Home for KPD was still her mother’s house in Orpington. 

Diary Entry: Went to “Mr Skeffington” at Neasden. Diary notes: “Mr Skeffington” is a 1944 American film starring Bette Davis and Claude Rains. For more background, see: http://www.hollywoodsgoldenage.com/movies/mr.skeffington.html 

Diary Entry: Met Miss Noyes in town & went Trumans. Lunch Quality Inn. Diary notes:  Miss Noyes was with KPD on the latter’s birthday in April 1954, but died 9 days later. Her full name seems to have been ‘Catherine Muriel Northcote Noyes’. During the 1930s & 1940s KPD saw ‘Moona’, as she often called …

Continue reading “Diary Date: 13th September [1945]”

Diary Entry: A.T.S. pay. Wembley & Hendon. Saw “Henry V”. Diary notes: A typical day’s work for KPD,. Followed by attending one of the most famous British films of the decade – Laurence Olivier’s ‘Henry V’ (which also starred Robert Newton and Leslie Banks). For more information see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_V_(1944_film)