Jambusters

by Julie Summers

  British troops, Women’s Land Army, Civil Defence units, RAF and the WAAF were familiar territory and easy to deal with. The influx of hundreds of thousands of Americans leading up to D-Day was a slightly different issue for the WI and those counties that had US military camps were encouraged to make friends with their guests. The majority of the 426,000 US airmen in Britain in 1944 were stationed in Norfolk and Suffolk and their camps and air-fields swallowed up over 100,000 acres of the countryside in those two counties alone. Suffolk also had 71,000 GIs, which had a profound impact on the population of the county which, in 1943, stood at 400,000. In Wiltshire there were so many Americans that, according to historian Juliet Gardiner, the English only just outnumbered the GIs by two to one. The WI were encouraged set up welcome clubs: ‘The aim of these clubs is to give American troops the chance of meeting English people socially and to introduce some of them to English family life . . . it may be an opportunity of giving Americans who are missing home life the chance of being welcomed by Institute members.’31 The letter went on to describe how members should familiarise themselves with the geography of the USA and find out the difference in character between the eastern states, those in the Midwest and those on the Pacific coast. They might find their customs and speech easier to understand if they took the trouble to do the research before the visitors arrived. In fact there was relatively little opportunity for any organised mixing since the Americans were to some extent cocooned in their camps and entertained with American food, movies and even their own daily newspaper. There were of course encounters between Americans and the British and many, famously, led to relationships, but in terms of what the WI could do to entertain them, that was limited.

  By 1945 there were over 155,000 Italian and 400,000 German POWs in hundreds of camps around the country. These men frequently worked on farms and local families often had contact with the camps. The prisoners, missing their own families, particularly liked to see the children and many school-aged boys and girls were given hand-made toys by POWs. A few WIs adopted local prisoners of war and offered to help out with mending and sewing for them, though not with cooking. The Italians were particularly inventive with cooking even with the most basic rations and the smells coming from their camps were delicious. ‘They seemed to have knowledge of wild herbs and used them in their cooking pots to make their rations tasty,’ said Sara Downey.

  Most WIs were more concerned with the 300,000 British POWs in Europe and the Far East and contributed to the weekly Red Cross parcels that were prepared by the thousand after Dunkirk. Nella Last and a group of women in Barrow managed to negotiate the loan of a small shop from which they could sell merchandise, all donated, to raise money for POW parcels.

  While busy entertaining others at parties and dances, the institutes also kept up their own talks and demonstrations as well as their social half-hour. Some talks were topical, others were deliberately light-hearted debates and still more helped them to understand the plight of individuals in the war. In 1942 members of Bickleigh WI had a ‘nice talk on Chemical Warfare which everyone thoroughly enjoyed’. Mrs Ward recorded more detail than most secretaries about the content of talks given to her institute. In 1943 they had a visit from a refugee which made a strong impression: ‘Mrs Eiffler gave us a most interesting talk on her native land, Poland. Her description of the picturesque customs and ways of peace-time Poland made the present condition of that unhappy country seem all the more ghastly. The speaker herself had escaped shortly before the German attack but her brothers are now in concentration camps and her mother and sister deported by the Russians to Siberia.’ A few meetings later they had a talk from Mrs Hall, ‘a refugee from Nazi oppression who spoke of life in Nazi Germany as she had known it. Though she spoke with a studied restraint she brought home to her audience the sufferings endured in Germany by those who are not of the favoured race. Members found the talk absorbingly interesting and realized more than ever that it is indeed Evil things which we are fighting.’

  Sometimes the lecturers and demonstrators failed to arrive at meetings, often due to transport problems, so it fell to members to entertain one another. Mrs Ward recorded one such event in Bradfield when Mrs Wilson ‘stepped valiantly into the breach’ and said that she would demonstrate trussing if a chicken could be produced. ‘By good chance a fowl was forthcoming and members watched fascinated as her expert fingers performed the job over which our own had often fumbled.’ How did that chicken materialise? Unfortunately Mrs Ward did not reveal that secret.

  The editor of Home & Country enjoyed collecting stories and would publish brief anecdotes that caught her fancy. In November 1943 she entertained the readership with stories from all over the country: Reculver in East Kent put on a show written by a member called Women Who Wait, which looked at what happened when the men were away fighting. It was extremely popular in the village and there was so much pressure for tickets from WI and non-WI alike that the president had to ask for ‘four thinnish people’ to take tea round after the performance. At Alphington WI in Devon there was a competition for the perfect husband. The answer had to be no more than ten words and the winning answer was: ‘Makes plenty dough, never crusty, calls me his little flour.’ A debate held in several institutes was ‘Should husbands help with the housework?’ One WI concluded that there was no point in taking a vote since ‘useful or not, we shouldn’t like to be without them’. Another debate on a similar subject held in Kirkham, Lancashire, ‘that it is advisable for menfolk to help in the kitchen’, was won, after a brief discussion. These and other debates such as ‘Should husband or wife get up first in the morning?’ or ‘Should women wear trousers?’ are a reminder of how very different life was for women seventy years ago.

  Competitions remained a feature of WI monthly meetings. Some institutes were more inventive than others in their ideas for what could be fairly set as a competition and judged. The funniest potato, the longest carrot or the most peculiar-shaped vegetable were all staple competitions. Some were serious and highly competitive, with certain members being serial winners. Edith Jones often won at Smethcote: ‘Our WI meeting at Leebotwood. I win 1st prize with Victoria Sponge sandwich (Green’s competition). There were 27 entries. Olive Gretton 2nd and Phyllis Munslow 3rd. I must be a fair cook as this is the 3rd time I have won prizes for cakes in big competitions.’ And then there were more creative competitions that delighted the membership and drew comment: the most inventive buttonhole, the best decorated hat, the best thrift shirt and the best hand-made toy. Thrift competitions were great favourites, with Findon in West Sussex inviting members to come along wearing or carrying something they had made which, the minutes secretary wrote, ‘turned into a whole exhibition’. Almost as important as the competitions were the prizes. One prize that absolutely stunned members at Goffs Oak in Hertfordshire in 1942 was a lemon brought from South America by a member’s seaman son. Such was the reverence in which this precious delicacy was held that no one remembered what the competition was, merely the prize, and it was written in the record book in capital letters and underlined several times. Crowthorne in Berkshire held a whistling competition which silenced the birds outside their hall.

  Members always tried to find a light side to work that was mundane. Salvage collection might not seem to be particularly amusing but Mrs Thompson, the president of Wigtoft WI in Lincolnshire, wrote: ‘Our institute has derived a lot of fun from our salvage efforts. At the time of writing our depot (a disused cottage) is stocked with empty tins so we have appealed to the County Surveyor for his help and he has promised to send a steam-roller to our aid for flattening operations. I hope that before this letter is in print our tins will be well on their way to help meet the great demand.’32

  Sharing stories was an important part of keeping up morale. One of the most extraordinary was that of two women who belonged to Ningwood and Shalfleet WI on the Isle of Wight. They met regularly at meetings, Mrs B, the elder, having returned to the island from living abroad for many years.
Mrs T, the younger, came from Sussex to live at Ningwood during the war. One day they were chatting over a cup of tea and discovered that they were sisters, who had been separated for thirty years. Mrs T suddenly discovered to her surprise and delight that she had eight nephews and great nephews, all in the forces.

  Communication was important during the war, and in addition to writing letters to friends and family, the WI communicated with institutes abroad. In February 1940 the NFWI announced a push to establish letter friendships between villages in this country and villages in neutral European countries, in America and in the Empire. Hundreds of institutes were involved in the scheme and people delighted in tales from all over the world. They were particularly grateful for supportive letters during the Blitz but what really interested them were stories of what was happening in countries where the war was further away. A letter from New Zealand made Mrs Denny from Billericay smile: ‘You will be pleased to know, well rather, I am to tell you that “New Zealand Home & Country” is adopting the same cover as your Home & Country: that is, the map of NZ, and it was through you it has come about . . . Up to now we have had photographs of towns, and this has caused controversy one way and another because the North Island have never had a picture in. The map will stop all that.’33

  At the end of June 1944 Miss Mary Leslie looked back on the women who had welcomed her into their institute in a little south-east coast village when she was evacuated from her home in London in September 1939. She wrote: ‘Each year, when June approaches, when the chestnut trees lift their splendour to the skies and buttercups carpet the green fields, my thoughts return to a small village near the South-East Coast which was my home at the time of Dunkirk. Those were days of anguish when all day the guns thundered across the Channel and we saw the little ships return from hell with their human cargo.‘34She remembered the last meeting she attended when the strain of the past weeks showed on the faces of all the members present but how with great determination they conducted the business in the usual fashion, followed by a demonstration and then a sing-song to lift their spirits before they each went their separate ways.

  I looked around at that little group of women in their sombre blacks and browns, their shabby housekeeping purses clasped in work-worn hands, at their patient kindly faces, now infinitely sad in the golden evening sun. The thought came to my mind ‘. . . we are all members one of another’ and I felt strangely comforted. The next week I left my village, but they stayed on, working, knitting, preserving and keeping the wheels of life turning in that perilous corner of our small island home. Their names may not be written in the annals of history, but to me they are heroines – these, my fellow members.35

  9

  BUILDING FOR THE FUTURE

  While our country is at war our duty is generally obvious, but when peace comes it will need much thought to make certain that we strive for those reforms which are essential for the well being of country people and especially country children.

  Lady Denman, AGM 1943

  On 20 July 1944, Edith Jones noted in her little brown diary: ‘Hitler’s life threatened by bomb. Puppy is very lousy, so Margaret is sorry for him & gives him a sound bathing and dressing.’ Two weeks before the attempt on Hitler’s life, the D-Day landings had taken place and the long, drawn-out end-phase of the war in Europe had begun. Around 24,500 British, American, Canadian and Free-French airborne troops landed in occupied France shortly after midnight on 6 June, and six hours later 160,000 troops made amphibious landings on the beaches of Normandy. By the end of the month the Allies had established a firm foothold in Normandy and by mid-August they had crossed the River Seine. The cost was high with over 12,000 casualties but there was a great feeling of excitement in the country that there was serious movement against the Germans. ‘Announcers of the BBC cannot conceal their delight at being able to give such good news, and the war correspondents nearly tumble over themselves with the thrill of telling the story of this most spectacular advance. As Robin Duff told his story we could hear the victory bells ringing from the French church nearby,’1 wrote Mrs Milburn on 18 August.

  People sensed that the war would soon be over and for the WI this was the time to redouble their efforts and focus on rebuildIng after the war. Mrs Ward, in her perceptive way, contemplated the role the WI would have. She wrote in her 1944 end-of-year report for Bradfield:

  Membership and attendance has fallen off considerably of late. It is difficult to say how much this is due to everyone being harder worked and more tired as this war goes on and how much that we are not providing the type of programme to attract attendance. I think a great drive for increased membership is called for . . . When the war ends there should be great scope for organizations such as this if those who return from the services and other war activities are not to feel village life [is] empty. Meanwhile in a world largely reverted to barbarism and destruction it is up to us to keep the light of civilization and kindliness burning as brightly as is in our small power to do.

  From the outbreak of the war Lady Denman and the National Executive had tried to reinforce the message that the war should not stop the WI from its campaigns for improving life in the countryside. Although the war interrupted normal proceedings of the administration in many ways, the WI tried as hard as it could to keep going with national committees and urged their county colleagues to try to keep to their regular schedule of meetings as well. The annual general meeting was traditionally held in London but for the first four years of the war this was not possible. Restrictions on travel prevented many women from attending and the bombing meant that all but essential visits to the capital were to be avoided. Other national meetings could take place in cities outside London. In March 1941 Lady Denman announced at a Consultative Council meeting that the WI should begin preparing for a post-war world. Planning for reconstruction was not easy, she conceded, since so many WI officers at national and county level were committed to other jobs and the work had to get done with fewer meetings. But it was vital work and the meetings had to go on so that they could get stimulus and guidance from one another.

  A great opportunity has been given us through the food production and preservation work. We should not forget the permanent results: (a) sounder diet, (b) the opportunity to get more County Council teachers. To carry out this work, the best possible machinery – WI and Council Meetings, Produce Guild rallies – are all as necessary as in peacetime; so is the election of good committees. Only through WI meetings can members realize the importance of their contribution to the national effort.2

  This last point underlines once again the extraordinary reach of the WI, from the grass roots in rural villages to the National Executive Committees who had the ear of government. Now, in the middle of the war, Lady Denman urged institute presidents not to overlook their WI work while helping with other war work such as the Red Cross or WVS. ‘We are a permanent body and reforms such as an increase in the number of women police, the provision of milk for necessitous town evacuees and of school meals for children are very much our concern, more so than that of the wartime organizations.’3

  It was the permanence of the WI over the other organisations and the many bodies concerned with wartime food and rationing that gave planning for the future relevance. Issues that had been of concern to the movement in the lead-up to the war – rural housing, sewage and electricity provision, more women police, equal pay, school meals, analgesics for women giving birth at home – continued to occupy the WI throughout the 1940s. They lobbied ministries and badgered MPs as much as they had ever done.

  In June 1942 Lady Denman broadcast a fifteen-minute speech on the BBC to her membership. It was a propaganda coup since many more listened in to the broadcast, including non-WI members, than could possibly have heard her speak at an AGM. She talked about how hard it was to run the WI in wartime when meetings were so difficult to organise, particularly national ones, and she likened herself to a captain of a ship unable to get messages to her crew about their destinati
on:

  The crew carries on, but it must do its best to guess what course to take. If I am considered as captain of the ship I must say that all the other members of the crew have done their utmost to find out the wishes of Institutes who should be directing our course; and we look forward to the day when you can again take charge. I do not want to press this simile too far but you Institute members not only direct the course of the ship of the National Federation, you also provide its motive power, its engines. Engines of about 300,000 woman-power sound pretty powerful to me.4

  Never one to miss the opportunity to point out the value of the WI, she went on to say: ‘I hope that this figure will also impress those who are planning for the future and that they will remember that our powerful woman-power machine should be used to the full for the improvement of country life . . .’

  One issue that had been bothering the WI since the 1930s was the question of water and sewerage in villages. A questionnaire had been sent to institutes in 1942 and the response had been overwhelming. In 1939 some 30 per cent of villages had no running water and over half were not on main drains. Pumping and carrying water was a daily chore for thousands of households and made the task of washing and cleaning that much more difficult, especially in frosty or especially dry conditions. In 1944 the National Federation circulated the results of the questionnaire, which showed that in some villages 75 per cent of inhabitants had no piped water in their homes and nearly 100 per cent had no main drains. Herefordshire, which had a particularly bad water supply, commented: ‘No village in time of drought or frost has an adequate supply and quite 50 per cent have an inadequate supply at all times.’5

  Bradfield took part in the survey and Mrs Ward made notes about who surveyed which parts of the village. The request had come from the county and she wrote: ‘The question of water and sanitation in rural areas was considered so urgent that it was decided to undertake the detailed survey asked for in the letter.’ Nine members volunteered to conduct the house-to-house survey with Mrs Ward taking responsibility for Mariner’s Road. Their survey revealed that most houses managed with ‘earth closets or primitive water closets that drained into malodorous cess pits or more scientific septic tanks’. It was not until the mid-1950s that the village would get main drains. Ann Tetlow remembered perennial problems with the septic tank at their house which constantly overflowed, leaving the garden and the farmer’s field beyond in a smelly, soggy condition. ‘The trouble was that my father had a cold bath every morning, my mother bathed us every evening and she herself would have a bath before she went to bed so that the septic tank was overwhelmed and the garden was often a bit rank.’ When Ann moved into her own cottage in 1966 just down the road from her family home it had no mains water, no drains and a bucket loo. Electricity was also missing. All these were speedily rectified but it illustrates just how much work had to be done even in villages that were not so far from towns with good amenities.