Diary Entry: Tea Elaine & then called Jerviswood. Diary notes: Jerviswood (a house in Lower Green Road, Rusthall, Tunbridge Wells) was the home of KPD’s Uncle Claude Evershed and his wife, Clara. Elaine Dell (KPD’s sister-in-law) also lived in the Tunbridge Wells area. Claude and Clara Evershed at the time of their marriage in 1896. …
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Diary Date: 23rd January [1943]
Diary Entry: Went to Tun. Wells & stayed 31 Birling Road with 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. Constance Evershed (at front, darker blouse), with …
Diary Date: 22nd January [1943]
Diary Entry: Tea & supper Orc.[hard] Cot[tage]. Martin for night. Diary notes: ‘Martin’ is Robert Martin Cromwell Dell (1904-1958), KPD’s eldest brother; ‘Elaine’ is Elaine Dell, née Pitt, Martin’s first wife and mother of his two eldest children (Tessa & Michael). Martin Dell, c. 1932, with his younger brother (right) and a friend of the …
Diary Date: 21st January [1943]
Diary Entry: Lewis family to tea. Diary notes: The Lewis’ were a family KPD worked for as a nanny, who became friends in Crofton, near Farnborough, living at Orchard Cottage. Apparently KPD got to drive their Bentley!
Diary Date: 20th January [1943]
Diary entry: Left early. Met Mrs Kemp on bus & had coffee. Lunch Smallwoods & tea Ingleside. Then home. Peggy & G [Grahame] there. Diary notes: The ‘Kemps’ were friends and former neighbours (when the Dells had lived in Berkhamsted). One, Chrissie, remained a friend until then end of her life. The Smallwoods were friends …
Diary Date: 19th January [1943]
Diary entry: Went to Bletchley & round with M[Marjorie] went to “In which we serve”. Diary notes: ‘Bletchley’ may well refer to Bletchley Park, the GB Government ‘Code & Cypher School’, whose work in breaking Axis Powers codes may have shortened the war by 2 years. ‘In Which We Serve’ is one of the best …
Diary Date: 18th January [1943]
Diary Entry: Started leave. Left 2.30 & went to stay with Marjorie Webb & Miss Beardshaw. Diary notes: The Webbs, who lived at a house called Ingleside in Chesham, were friends whom KPD frequently visited, esp. Dorothy and Marjorie.
Diary Date: 17th January [1943]
Diary Entry: Went to Concert with José, Liverpool Phil. Orchestra. Diary notes: José [McLelland]was a friend of KPD, and probably also in the A.T.S. KPD socialised with her, and even went on holidays with her over some years. It would be interesting to know what music was being played.
Diary Date: 14th January [1943]
Diary Entry: Convoy & “no lunch”. Diary notes: No sure why KPD put “no lunch” in inverted commas. Does she actually mean she was working over the lunch break (something surely not unusual on military service), or perhaps it is a code for something else. A mystery!
Diary Date: 12th January [1943]
Diary Entry: Went on exercise, Drove O.C. Film – Rio Rita. Diary notes: ‘O.C’ refers to the Officer in Charge of a sub or minor unit, and is usually a Major. ‘Rio Rita’ probably refers to the 1942 Abbott and Costello film, rather than the 1929 film of the same name. See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rio_Rita_(1942_film)
Aunt Pamela's War 