North Harrow was blessed with a number of parks and gardens. Our nearest was Stream-Side Walk a winding ash felted path leading you beside the River Pinn with stone bridges, seating, flower beds and an abundance of trees. The Park Keeper had his hut and it was his job to control the children and keep the walkways clean and tidy. All cycling and rowdiness forbidden. Pinner Park was further up the road the park where we played cricket. The tennis courts and children’s playground ensured this was where the park the majority of children made for.
Headstone Park was accessed from Hatch End one side and North Harrow, on the other. This is where the bands played on the bandstand in the summer and Besborough Cricket Team had their ground, surrounded by tall poplar trees. The moated Farm House and Stables provided an enclosed area when raining, for the band to play, plays to be acted out and Council meetings staged. It is now a heritage area with a museum and library.
The 2nd World War was relayed by radio and film to a fearful audience who were not prevented from knowing the worst tidings. At our county’s most trying period the populous was gripping the arms of its chairs cheering on the unbelievable heroics of the Russian Forces as the Germans were forced back from Moscow. If ever the Russian’s needed supporters the bulk of Britain were there, ever in their debt, cheering them on. The Russian Bear in the form of Marshal Zhukov 1846-1974, leading the charge.
The period is remembered by certain tunes and voices that immediately, when heard, take one back– they painted a picture and were synonymous with the times. Sailing By – composed by Ronald Binge 1910-1979. By the Sleepy Lagoon – by Eric Coates 1886-1957. Dreaming – by Sydney Baynes 1879-1938. The Watermill by Ronald Binge 1910-1979. Marigold by Billy Mayerl 1903-1059.
Derek McCullock (Radio’s Uncle Mac) 1897-1959. Ed Murrow 1908-1965 war correspondent. Jean Metcalf 1923-2000 Radio presenter. Eamon Andrews 1922-1987 Radio presenter.
The newspapers traced our army’s defeats and advances using maps to explain each movement. These we studied learning as much about geography as any school lesson. For us boys it was exciting the worrying aspects not realised nor spoken about by our parents. It wasn’t a question of losing a war because that was never given a possibility it was about winning battles, pushing the Germans back, who had the fastest plane, who had the longest gun, and who had the heaviest tank.
I dreamt of German parachutists, spies and sabotage, listened to Lord Haw-Haw on the radio proclaiming Britain’s defeat, whilst tracking the retreats and advances of British troops throughout the world, as the Nation listened to Victor Sylvester’s Orchestra on the radio and Vera Lyne singing, ‘We’ll meet again’.
How did the country survived the unbelievable catastrophes caused by tragic mismanagement wrought by The War Office and Chiefs of Staff, allowing such bad decisions to be continued – to become ultimate disasters – is difficult to imagine. To go to war without knowing what you are up against knowing that the other-side have been preparing for war for almost ten years was criminal.
As for America coming into the war at such a late stage, as if unable to see the wood from the trees, led to the lives of many, redeeming themselves only by Lend Lease, conveyer-belt weapons production and timely on the ground intervention. They too turned a blind eye on the obvious.
I cast my mind back to thoughts of home, when my parent’s, and us children, were happy and secure. ‘The war,’ not long over, and the country’s families, together at last… after six long years – steadily getting used to a war- free existence. I see the family sitting down before the fire, bathed in its warming glow, the radio playing softly in the background…
We listened to Wilfred Pickles, ‘Have a Go’ with Mabel at the table. Tommy Handley in ‘ITMA’, ‘The Diary of a Nobody’, ‘the Private Life of Mrs Mop’, ‘the Will Hay Programme’. ‘Monday Night at Eight’ and Billy Cotton.
My father smoked a pipe and had done so since his twenties. My mother smoked cigarettes. When she started I never found out. During the war my mother saved her stubs to roll-up later in a machine. Her motto was ‘Make do and Mend.’ Our clothes were in the main second-hand, travelling up to London to visit a second-hand clothing shop. My father being the acme of miserliness.
Smoking was now accepted for both men and women. The tobacco industry never still from promoting their wares concentrated on attracting women. Most of the films of the period showed both sexes smoking. The Hollywood greats sealed permission for the public in Britain to smoke.
I never worked out when my parents had a bath. As our back-boiler was temperamental, at the best of times, baths had to be topped up with kettles and buckets of hot water. Newspaper on many occasions used as a toilet roll. Solid toothpaste kept in a round tin which we all scrubbed at.
My father had no natural teeth having had them all taken out when he was twenty by a pavement dentist in 1909. It is difficult to imagine how primitive life was at the turn off the century, and the war kept life locked in its basic form only 4” of bath water allowed during the war. Filling a bath up never shifted the ice build-up on the windows in winter.
This is a look back to times never to be repeated, to a Nation that has pulled itself together, to defeat a tyrant, and in the struggle made itself bankrupt. It was also a time when the Empire started to crumble, fall apart, never to heal itself from earlier inhuman practices. Today, ‘Black people matter’ is recognised necessary to reverse a massive failing throughout the ages. Knowing that there are countries where democratic governments are not given a chance to develop, by oppressive dictators.
Rationing was considered by the government as essential. When writing about history it is difficult to nail down a particular time or event – there has to be a lead-in…perhaps I should start now in 2021, as the country leaves the European Community and women’s liberation increases, and start off at a time when, just after the First World War, William Beveridge, the Liberal economist, urged the government to allow his welfare reforms to become law, to allow reconstruction reforms to help prevent: disease, ignorance, poor housing and disorganized labour, to exist. Eventually his reforms brought about the National Health Service in 1948.
In 1918, only 58% of the male population could vote. The Representation of the People Act was passed which allowed women to vote, it wasn’t until 1928 that all women over the age of twenty-one could do so. Today’s voting rights require registration as over 18, as a British or Commonwealth citizen or as a Republic of Ireland resident. In Wales, Scotland, and for resident foreign nationals, aged over 16 necessary.
David Lloyd George, Prime Minister 1916-1922, during WW1, took action to promote technical investigations into food preparation, preservation, storage and transport. The outbreak of war in 1939 prompted plans for rationing which took place in January 1940, to last until the fifties.
The official Government leaflets in 1940 promoted fitness for all its citizens to carry on the fight after Dunkirk which would need its people to live healthier lives by consuming healthier food, by taking regard of foods nutritional worth.
During the great depression in the 1920s when unemployment exceeded two million the poorest citizens could just about buy enough calories to stay alive, although unable to buy vegetable, milk and fruit.
Ten years later in 1930, a study made by the British Medical Association (BMA) proved that only the richest received a surplus of basic food constituents. The rest of the population went without. Lack of calcium being the greatest problem which galvanized the Government to institute a programme of school milk provision.
The outbreak of the 1940s War hastened plans for rationing and distribution. The Ministry of Food was overseen by Lord Woolton, who had seen first-hand the effects of malnutrition and neglect in Liverpool. Sir Jack Drummond who was the then scientific adviser to the Government was a biochemist. These two men made it their job to improve the nation’s diet. This led to a national food policy that promoted sufficient nourishment and economical use of all food.
It was expected that British farmers would be able to supply a third of the nation’s food energy requirements two thirds of the calcium and a third of vitamin A, two fifths of B and all of C due to an increase of potato production. It was decided to up the production of milk and vegetables and import dried and condensed milk, canned fish, beans and peas. The supply of foreign fruit was considered wasteful of shipping but that fruit farming needed to be increased. An emphasis for the production of oilseed rape, oils, fats, canned meats and sugar.
Alcohol and cigarettes were never rationed nor: coffee, offal, chicken, rabbit, game, fish, horsemeat, corned beef, spam, whale-meat or snoek. In 1942, a week’s ration was 4oz (100g) bacon, 1s 2d (6p) worth of meat, 2-4oz (50-100g) cheese, 4oz (100g) margarine, 8ozs (225) sugar, 2oz (50g) tea, 1 egg; 2-3 pints (1.2-1.8 litres) milk, 350g (12oz) sweets, and every two months 1lb (450g) jam.
A survey was carried out to find out what unfamiliar foods were being used such as dried egg, powder milk and skimmed milk. In the end it was decided to have an extensive programme of cookery lessons. Rationing was introduced in January 1940 with the introduction of a points rationing scheme.
Every man, woman and child had a ration book and food prices were pegged. Everyone was entitled to the same. Household had to register with a local shop who were only delivered sufficient for registered customers. The shop-keeper removed some stamps from the ration book and at other times crossed off that which had been used.
I remember there was much in the newspapers about English stoicism – queuing, using the family’s ration books for that week’s shopping, both inside and outside each shop – parking the bike or pram at a distance from its owner without fear that it would be stolen.
The police were patrolling the streets night and day, looked upon as trustworthy guardians, ever watchful and concerned almost akin to a faithful uncle checking every padlocked shop door. The local police sergeant parked his bike and phoned into the Police Station to make a daily report using the blue telephone boxes.
My mother carrying a shopping bag would pay a call to the International Stores and Hovis bakery, owned by Ranks Hovis McDougall Ltd., and the local butchers. I can imagine her now in her long coat and hat, gripping her canvas bag, pushing Stan, her first born – in the coach built pram. It is spring 1935, she is pregnant with me, due to give birth that July.
Elsie had not long left Somerset and village life, where she went to school, learnt to work a number of looms, and became a respected Ladies’ Maid, before the age of twenty-five, to finally live in an Ancient Abbey with her mistress, to become part of the Household Staff.
Elsie was to marry a man who worked daily within a main railway transportation hub, engaged in: packaging, milk delivery, market stall hustle and bustle. Albert’s job was to organize the marshalling and the harnessing of 600 dray horses and carriages, to deliver within London a variety of materials and objects having to negotiate through narrow, congested, and cobbled streets, amid the uproar and filth caused by overcrowding, by the shouting of street sellers, touts, doormen, and delivery boys
In 1910, when Albert was 21, he attended a mechanic shop to be instructed in the maintenance of petrol motors, and to learn to drive the first heavy duty waggons. The object was to be able to pass on his knowledge of motor mechanics to new members of staff, knowing the necessity to maintain such vehicles in the future when horses no longer required. Albert took it upon himself to drive every new motor to assess it worthwhileness and adaptability.
There is no doubt that Albert knew he was an outsider being employed by Thompson McKay and not a member of the Transport Union or Railwaymen’s Union. He was considered to be a Cartage Manager of a delivery company not a Railwayman therefore unable to apply for Western Railway vacancies. This made him unable to apply for higher managerial work within all the railway companies.
This suppression by the Unions may have been made because Albert had been against the National Strike of 1929 and actively kept work continuing throughout the strike period. The National Union of Railwaymen (NUR) was founded in 1913, by 1914 the union had joined forces with the National Transport Workers federation (NTW).
In 1919 the NUR and ASLEF organized the strike for increased wages. This became the shortest strike ever the government maintaining its present wage rates for another year with the union’s agreement. The General Strike of 1926 included the Railwaymen striking to support the Miners Union. Within nine days the dispute ended. Stanley Baldwin’s 1927 Trade Disputes Act banned sympathy strikes forever. It was payment of coal in reparation for the 1914-18 war by Germany which undercut coal prices that caused the strike. The fear of Communism, galvanised the government… to act quickly.
By the end of the 30s the marriage rate in Britain was the highest it had ever been. The combination of smaller families and higher marriage numbers led to higher expectations, this provided a major stimulus for the house-building boom of the thirties.
In the time-span covered women were still only emancipating themselves from prudery and ignorance. In sexual matter it was advocated that women were as entitled as men to obtain pleasure and satisfaction from sexual techniques. Guilt, embarrassment, frustration and unhappiness was common. Male-dominance remained within the culture and throughout society, to the detriment of the common-good.
Class structures have remained. Upper, Middle, Lower, Landed Gentry, Aristocrat, Professor, Priest, Doctor, Manager, Foreman, Tradesman, Worker, Cleaner, all used to denote position. These titles, and others, gave a position on the ladder of life which it was assumed attributed worthwhileness, and something to be achieved driving individuals along to increase production.
Women, prior to 1940, have been characteristically employed in unskilled jobs mainly in trade, cleaning, catering or clerical. It was as if women were second-class citizens who were incapable of skilled, intricate work, and not worth educating or training. It was the employment of men in the forces that created vacancies in industry. It was found that eventually women were better at the less heavy work with a greater dexterity than men in all aspects of industry and manufacture.
Albert was at the time a Territorial Army Volunteer since the age of seventeen in 1906, making the rank of lance corporal, then by the time of war in 1914, Company Sergeant, being accepted into The Kensington Freemasons Lodge. Later, as Warrant Officer, a highly decorated Regimental Sergeant Major, as one of the founder members of the Old Contemptables in 1925. He did not leave the army until 1919 still retaining his Territorial status.
By 1932, about to be married, Albert was a man about town in a man’s world here he was getting married to a 27 year old Ladies Maid who had never left a Somerset village. The marriage ceremony, carried out in the local church before relations, neighbours and friends to a man totally outside to Elsie’s known world. Throughout married life Elsie supported her husband contentedly, staying at home whilst Bert continues to serve his Regiment’s social life, Freemason’s Lodge as organist, and local Old Contemptible Club.
Elsie now lived in one of London’s Green Suburbs with her first child… to be pregnant again. Being a housewife must have felt very strange – an out of this world feeling. However she was contented and happy to be married with a family even though a member of a male-dominated world.
I do not remember any woman or school girl commenting on their role in society nor complain that they were in any way inferior, unfitting, not considered or banned from certain types of work. That they were all of these things, looking back, was obviously detrimental, and almost criminal. Just as I accepted my position in society that I would have to work I accepted without fuss. The same applied to the girls in the class. They too accepted their position and did not complain that that was not what they wanted, the general consensus was that you were going to get married buy a house and have children.
There were no Synagogues, Temples, Mosques or Catholic Churches in North Harrow. I do not remember persons of colour. There were in the Borough: Cubs, Brownies, Scouts, Girl Guides, Venture Scouts, Boys Brigade, Church Lads Brigade and Cadets, of all three services. All the above Associations were expected to attend Church Parades and celebrate Empire Day.
My gaze through the open kitchen door… rests on the table, it was the place the family met, it served as an ironing board, sometimes a place for jigsaws and board games, where we had those super splendid meals my mother turned out every day. Nothing was wasted, and mother had her own mother’s experience behind her catering for a large family, to help her stretch out the food.
We bred our own chickens so had plenty of eggs. Bacon rind saved as was fatty ends of meat to lay on the weekend joint, this contributed to the quantity and quality of the dripping. Fat that was used to make countless numbers of dishes and the bottom, brown jelly perfect to spread on bread with a dash of salt. One-pot steamed meals, hot-pot, fish stew, Scotch broth, dumplings, Toad-in-the-hole, suet crust, summer puddings with stale bread. Bread and Butter puddings all looked forward to. Thank goodness potatoes contain the same vitamin C as do oranges, so potato water makes excellent soups and gravies which we had in abundance.
School dinners were not just the meal of the day. Both my schools instructed the day’s monitor and teacher to circulate the dining tables, to make sure all was eaten and nothing wasted. Pupils instructed how to sit and hold their knife, fork and spoon. Why they should keep their elbow’s down not prop up chins, not to speak with their mouths full, how to breathe through their nose and why, cough and sneeze in a hank-a-chief, ask to be excused from the table and to lift up their chairs not just push them back. These simple points of behaviour resulted in better socialization and acceptance. Children learn better watching and listening to others.
The five years between nineteen thirty-five and the start of war, was a gradual improvement in the labour market, soaking up the unemployed. It took the following three years to increase production methods – before Britain’s mass rearmament took off under Minister of Works, Ernest Bevin – becoming able to compete with the Axis Forces, including Japan.
Work directed, shaped and identified individuals. Jobs for men included: industry, commerce that led the field, followed by agriculture, mining, quarrying, refining, vehicle manufacture, weaving and clothing. A third of the workforce were women two-thirds of which were previously in service. The growth of white-collar workers grew apace in the thirties in retaining, government both local and central. Wholesale and retail distribution, entertainment, sport, and personal services increased massively.
In 1935, over half of all workers worked in factories, plants and sheds employing five-hundred or more. Half of all office workers were working in companies with twenty-six or less staff. Gradually throughout the thirties the numbers of workers in all work places began to expand there was an urgency and a will to increase production and to grow the business and profits.
The Axis had begun in the 1930s to invest in weapons to compete with other European Forces in all arms: forms of weaponry, tactics and men, having been with-held during the period of peace and unrest after WW1. By the outbreak of war in 1939 they were well ahead and psychologically prepared to engage any European country.
The thought of the possibility of war had stirred up the government to put in hand plans for rationing. By the time war declared ration cards had been printed and distributed. The use of the ration card soon became accepted and easily worked as the shop keepers marked off the goods bought with a pencil.
Later on, in the first two years of the war, when so many transport ships were being sunk, sufficient imported food was considered unlikely to feed the nation unless a new plan was put into place that would work.
The American manufacture of the long-range Liberator, the British Sunderland, and Walrus planes patrolled the Atlantic, and guarded the coast. The manufacture of multiple depth-charge projectiles, improved sonar and revised escort manoeuvres finally defeated the U-Boats in late 1943.
My mother would cook sufficient meat for the ration to last for five evening meals, including the weekends keeping the dripping in a bowl. Comprising of: stews, shepherds or cottage pies, liver and bacon, and suet puddings. Sausages, corned beef or fish for the remainder of the week.
The mincer was clamped to the kitchen table it was our job, Stan and I, to turn the handle as mum fed in the meat, onion, bread and carrots – the taste I can confirm so much better than just minced-meat. The mixture was used for shepherds, cottage pie or savoury pie.
The Government promoted ‘Dig for Britain’ to make sure people received sufficient vegetables. Chickens, ducks and rabbits were kept, field, hedge, and trees provided fruit, berries, mushrooms and nuts. Saccharine, powdered potato, powdered milk, spam and margarine.
It was fortunate that the nation had a Minister of food Lord Woolton whose main aim was to obliterate malnutrition and child neglect. I can remember Charles Hill the radio doctor extolling the use of porridge in such a friendly voice. The answer lay in taking cod liver oil and malt and concentrated orange juice.
Keynes’s policies in 1941 advised stopping pre-war economic restraints. A far greater increase in government expenditure was begun, an extension of state control led to massive arms production, which eventually crippled the state and exhausted the nation.
When my class had sat its eleven-plus exam four years before in 1946, at Longfield School, you could look around the class and pick out those few who were likely to pass to a Grammar School. The Local Authority in 1950 had a number of Grammar School places which they wished to fill. The numbers of children necessary to fill these school places were provided by local Junior Schools. The children most likely to benefit from higher learning courses are chosen by examination. It is patently obvious that there are a number of children who would benefit that have been left out. Some effort is made the following year to give those children a second chance.
Headstone Secondary Modern School, Pinner Road started life in 1929, when the district was expanding to encompass the house building by Cutler and Nash. As the population increased class sizes kept pace to take in over forty students – during the introductory first year. In World War 2, under the headship of Mr Manson 1943-1963. Gradually the school increased its size taking over The Pinner Annex, a building that provided space to teach art and technical drawing. The main school taught gardening, home economics, metalwork and woodwork as well as the conventional syllabus. The school uniform of navy blue jacket was introduced in 1946 and is still today’s uniform.
Comprehensive Education believes that this selection is wasteful – that more children can be given the chance to partake of greater facilities and smaller classes. However, this requires far greater financial resources which is promised but not fulfilled.
What is it then that can be done to help children achieve a higher standard? It has to be assumed that the parents play a big part in their children’s successes by giving them home tuition particularly in their younger years: reading to them, playing adventurous revealing games, teaching basic language and sums, reciting stories, adventures and experiences.
Probably the answer lies with the parents more so than the children. If the parents are united in their aim, meaning to help their child as best they can, and are willing to start them off taking them through their early years, teaching the alphabet, nursery rhymes, counting and reading, half the battle is won. If the parents supplement the school’s work by applauding the use of homework the battle to give their children a good start in life has been made – but the effort and interest must be maintained.
Eighty years ago, the world was a very different place than today. The Labour Party, under its leader Clement Atlee 1883-1967, Prime Minister 1945-1951, was considered by many the most successful British Prime Minister ever.
Atlee improved an enlarged social services, creating the National Health Service, whilst nationalising industries and utilities. His reputation was as a blunt, efficient leader, able to make quick decisive decisions. If only the Nation could have been relied upon to back his conception of a modern society we would be a totally different society today.
In comparison to today’s society there was very little leisure and recreation. My working hours did not leave much evening entertainment time. Summer holidays for northern factory workers revolved mainly around well-known coastal venues in the north when their factories shut down for maintenance.
Cheap holidays in the sun initially in Benidorm began in 1950. The National Trust was founded in 1895, English Heritage in 1983 and Historic England 2015. Extended holiday periods have stimulated visits to historic English country houses, parks and gardens. These parks and buildings claim an increasing band of supporters, finance and interest.
My parents, as a united couple, did not at any time discuss or describe to us children what they hoped we would achieve in life, nor did they give us a set of guiding principles, perspectives or best interests to hold on to. They had not even described their own childhoods to give us a glimmer of what they had gone through. So necessary, if parents are to guide their children to miss the same pitfalls and to rise above daily traumas.
They did not tell us anything about sex, how babies were a natural expectation, what body parts contributed to procreation or what the difference was between a Vagina and Volva. As for couples masturbating, to achieve a climax in foreplay. Sex in all its forms a banned if not hidden subject.
My father wrote a small piece about his life and school days praising his last head master for taking such a keen interest in his work. This does seem strange in that my father played little part in my education. You would have thought by his praises that he valued education highly to the degree that he would pass this interest on to his children but he didn’t. Nor did he take a great deal of interest in my first job other than to attend my interview with the owners of the firm.
They copied past generation’s behaviour and fortitude they were days when you got on with life as best you could – to follow prescribed avenues suitable for your place in society. That all sounds terribly cold and unfeeling but that is how most couples behaved at the time.
Christmas Eve 1945, tea in the front room (then the dining room) before a highly decorated tree surrounded by hung: paper chains, balls and bells. The room appears in my mind’s eye little different from the room at the start of the war five years before. The decorations, the same as the room, its fire and fare. It could be said fairly that this continuing picture lasted all my life. Mum and Dad enjoyed Christmas and passed on their love for the occasion to us children.
My father started playing carols on the piano in the next room (then, the sitting room) Derek just two, in his play-pen with his toys. The three grown-ups were happy, mum and Nan talkative and excited, the war now ended, the house aglow with good-will. Stan out with his friends. I was at his side turning over the music and selecting the pieces.
Chapter 2
Last days at school, June 1950
The scene: 1950s classroom, a gramophone plays, the desks pulled back, the class shuffles in a horseshoe within the desks, a general feeling of embarrassment…
…It all seemed quite unreal, we all knew our school days were going to end at some point – well, here it was…! School was now over. For six months I had been painting a picture with Michael Gilbert of the Pinner school annex, now it was finished and I felt unattached, it was somehow all rather unreal.
I looked around at the class of fifteen year olds’ they appeared adults, no longer children. Our teacher had acquired a gramophone… she put on a popular waltz. The socially adept dance buffs asked the girls for a dance… they appeared to glide round the space allowed by the desks being pushed back. We, the unpolished outcasts, looked on enviously. As a group, we were jealous. There was little point in remaining. I knew then that I was going to have to learn to dance.
I walked slowly home… this time on my own…past the shops and cinema… to turn left at the cross-roads…I had left secondary school with the school prize for Technical Drawing tucked under my arm – my classmates had scattered before the wind. It was now up to me. I was going to have to work many things out for myself.
My parents had not prepared me for my future, how could they? My father, a sixty-one year old Victorian who was mentally captured by his experiences during WW1. My mother, a forty-two year old ex. Lace-mill worker from a country village in Somerset had never stepped outside her own village boundary now she was married, with two boys in a suburban town.
School curriculums were beginning to change to concentrate on academic subjects rather than subjects allied to work. Educational reforms meant more options – the possibility to increase your learning beyond school leaving age of 14, the national school leaving age. The 1936 Education Act raise that to 15, Exceptions could be made for families where children were required to work to help support the family.
