A Family's Duty

by Maggie Bennett

  Other parents, other families of men in the Royal Air Force continued to fear for their sons. The Luftwaffe continued to bomb London and other provincial cities: centres of industry and shipbuilding. Liverpool, Belfast and Clydebank were battered, and in the south, Portsmouth and Southampton. Mary and Sidney Goddard received a shock when Dora wrote to tell them that she had accepted a transfer to London, to play a more active part in the war. A directive from the War Office recommended that the ATS should learn how to operate the huge searchlights used to spot and track enemy aircraft in the night sky. Caught in the crossed beams of two or three searchlights, the bombers became visible to the anti-aircraft gunners.

  ‘Gwen and I are with a smashing bunch of girls,’ she wrote. ‘Every night we put on huge thick overcoats and boots, with tin hats on our heads, and we yell like fury when we catch a Jerry plane in a beam – it’s like a game, and when one’s brought down, it’s such a thrill, we enjoy every minute. Look after yourselves, Mum and Dad, and don’t let Bully Billy or Pregnant Pam get you down!’

  Mary Goddard missed her daughter more than she could confide in Sidney, not wanting to worry him further, as he looked so tired, working six long days a week – seven if there was extra work to be done. Pam was expecting another baby, and Sam was crawling into every room and every kind of mischief. Sidney, did she but know it, worried in much the same way about her. Old Mrs Yeomans was unable to be of much assistance to Mary, and tried not to be a ‘nuisance’, as she put it, though her memory was failing, and she was unable to go up or downstairs without help, usually from Mary. The downstairs lavatory was outside, and in bad or wet weather Mary produced a chamber pot for the old lady, shutting the parlour door for privacy.

  At least the food rationing did not affect farmers as much as the butchers who had to deal with their registered customers. The Yeomanses were not short of milk or eggs, and when Billy killed a pig he had pork enough to sell directly to favoured customers as well as to supply Seabrook’s. Being no philanthropist, he charged high prices for his off-the-ration meat, and resentment grew among families on limited incomes against the better off such as the Nevilles of Hassett Manor who had an extra family of evacuees to feed.

  ‘It isn’t as if we ate more than our fair share, Mother,’ said Rebecca. ‘It’s the children who help themselves from the pantry, and make Sally’s life a misery—’

  ‘I know, I know,’ said Isabel wearily. ‘The irony of it is that I spend quite a lot of my time helping families who have problems with evacuees. I’ve been inclined to leave ours to Sally to deal with.’

  ‘Yes, and it’s most unfair, Mother. We need to discipline Lily and Jimmy, Mother. I shall draw up a list of rules which must be obeyed, mealtimes and bedtimes, no wandering around the house and getting into mischief in the bedrooms. And I’m sorry, but you and Dad will have to do your share in training them, and where necessary, punishing them.’

  ‘Oh, Becky, that sounds very hard!’

  ‘No harder than it is for Sally – I’m more concerned about her than for them. Hasn’t she told you about their dirty habits? No, because she doesn’t want you to be bothered, when you’re so often out on WVS work, and besides, there’s the constant worry about Paul. No, Mother, we’ve got to be firmer, starting today – and by the way, I’ve got a sweetener for them. Philip Saville is taking the Perrin boys and his own evacuee, Nick, to see the film of Pinocchio next week, the Saturday matinee. And I’ll join them with Lily and Jimmy. We’ve asked Valerie Pearson to come along with us because we’ll need an extra helper.’

  ‘That does sound like a very good idea!’ Isabel nodded approvingly. ‘Valerie has blossomed out remarkably since she started working at that Everham nursery.’

  ‘All thanks to you, Mother, and the same can be said for Philip Saville. Right, now let’s have some tea before I get down to a pile of paperwork – there’s never enough time to do it in the office. And we’ve got another big problem coming up – literally hundreds of Italian prisoners of war coming to work on the land. They’ve been taken in the Western Desert, and don’t sound to have put up much of a fight. It’ll be up to local WLA representatives to place as many as we’re given, and heaven knows how we shall communicate with them. Ah, well.’

  When Sir Cedric heard about Rebecca’s plans to get the two evacuees more usefully occupied, he brightened at once.

  ‘My dear Isabel, why wasn’t I told about this? I shall take more part in dealing with these children – take them round the estate with me, show them the horses, the chickens, and get them interested in country life.’

  When told of the new arrangement, Sally at first was sceptical. ‘Get ’em on muck-spreading,’ she muttered. ‘That’d be right up their street.’

  Saturday dawned. Mrs Pearson was feeling rather neglected. ‘I have to manage all through the week without any help, but I don’t expect you to disappear on a Saturday,’ she complained.

  ‘I’m sorry, Mother, but Miss Neville asked me to help with this outing to the cinema,’ Valerie apologised, half inclined to regret her acceptance of Miss Neville’s offer. ‘There are five children going, three of them evacuees, and I, er, agreed to go with her and Mr Saville.’

  ‘And what has Mr Saville to do with evacuees?’

  ‘He has one of them – I mean Miss Temple has taken a ten-year-old boy, and there are two at Hassett Manor, a girl and a boy, quite young.’

  ‘That’s not very wise of Enid Temple!’ answered her mother. ‘I hope you don’t make a habit of this sort of thing.’

  Valerie made no reply, but as she did the shopping that morning, she kept an eye on the time; she was to meet Mr Saville and the boy, Nick, at North Camp station at one o’clock, where Miss Neville would join them with the Perrin twins, Charlie and Joe, now ten years old, and the little girl and boy staying at Hassett Manor.

  But Miss Neville was not there; Lady Neville met them with the children and brought apologies from her daughter who had a severe headache.

  ‘Rebecca’s very sorry, but she really needs to rest, Mr Saville – and Miss Pearson,’ she said. ‘I’m sure you two will be able to cope with the children. Here is the amount you will need for the cinema and train fares – no, I insist, you are doing such a good service for these children who don’t get many treats. I hope you all enjoy the film – I’ve heard it’s very good.’

  Valerie smiled politely and said she hoped Miss Neville would soon recover. She noticed how Philip Saville blushed and stammered as he thanked the lady for the money.

  The train arrived, and the excited children scrambled on board, settling in a compartment that already contained a well-dressed lady and gentleman.

  ‘Oh, dear, it looks as if we’re being invaded,’ the lady murmured to her husband, and gave them a patronising smile. ‘Are you off to somewhere nice?’

  ‘Yeah, we’re orf to the pictures,’ said Lily, and raising her voice, began to sing:

  ‘We’re orf to see the Wizard, the wonderful Wizard of Oz!’

  The rest, except for Nick, joined in with gusto.

  ‘Because, because, because, because, because – because o’ the wonderful fings he does!’

  ‘We’re going to see Pinocchio, actually,’ said Valerie, and the lady looked pained.

  ‘Whatever it is, they make enough noise about it!’ she said. ‘Can you quieten them down a little?’

  ‘Er – I’m sorry, they’re just a little excited, they don’t get many treats, you see,’ Valerie apologised, smiling at solemn-faced Nick and frowning at the Perrin twins who giggled and blamed Lily.

  ‘It’s ’er what’s makin’ all the noise, so tell ’er orf, not us!’

  For answer Lily stuck out her tongue at them. ‘Turnip ’eads!’

  ‘Be quiet at once, children!’ ordered Philip, his face flaming with embarrassment. ‘People will think you’re very rude.’

  The Perrin twins hung their heads briefly, but Lily was defiant.

  ‘Bet they’re Jerry spies,’ she muttered h
alf under her breath, prompting her young brother to utter the rudest words he knew:

  ‘Arse ’oles!’

  This was too much for the lady, who got up and beckoned to her husband to do likewise. ‘What disgusting behaviour! Come on, Charles, we’ll go to another compartment, and get away from them.’ Turning to Philip and with a glance at Valerie, she added, ‘And you can be sure that I’ll complain to the railway authorities. Children like yours are a menace to law-abiding passengers!’

  As the couple swept out of the compartment, Lily shouted after them, ‘Mrs Knicker Elastic! Spyin’ for ol’ ’Itler, that’s what you are!’

  Valerie and Philip looked at each other helplessly. Turning to the silent boy beside him Philip said quietly, ‘I’m sorry about this, Nick.’

  The boy shrugged. ‘It’s all right, Uncle Philip, I know plenty o’ worse words than them.’

  Valerie looked severely at the other four. ‘One more rude word, and we’ll take you home – you won’t see Pinocchio. Do you understand?’

  Silence descended on their compartment until they arrived at Everham.

  ‘Miss Pearson, do you mind taking charge of Nick and er, Lily,’ asked Philip, ‘and I’ll take the twins and her brother. We’d better keep together.’ Raising his voice, he added, ‘And we’d better behave ourselves!’

  They arrived at the cinema just as the doors were opening to let in the patrons who had been queuing outside. When Philip paid for the tickets, Lily and Jimmy demanded sweets, but being rationed, the only sweets available were a tube of wine-gums, and only one.

  Reaching a row about halfway down, ‘Uncle Philip’ said that he and ‘Auntie Valerie’ should sit at each end of seven seats, with himself at the end, Jimmy at his side, then Nick, then Charlie and Joe, Lily and Valerie. He looked across at her with raised eyebrows, as if asking whether she was satisfied with the arrangement, and she nodded back; they exchanged wry smiles.

  What a sensible girl she is, he thought, and willing to give up a Saturday afternoon for what he privately thought of as a penance. Then the lights went down and the curtains drew back to show the certificate for Pinocchio. The children joined in the happy screaming of others in the audience, and the film began.

  It was Jimmy who first said he wanted to wee-wee, and Uncle Philip got up to accompany him to the men’s lavatories. Then it was Lily’s turn, and Auntie Valerie got up to take her to the Ladies, only to find that the girl did not really need it.

  ‘I can’t go, Auntie Valerie,’ she said, pulling up her knickers, and Valerie, who by this time wanted to go herself, but didn’t care to sit on the toilet seat in front of the little girl, and not inclined to leave her unattended, accompanied her back to their seats. Then it was Joe’s turn, and Charlie’s; people were shuffling and fidgeting impatiently at the to-ing and fro-ing, and when Jimmy wanted to go again, Valerie took him to the Ladies this time, much to the annoyance of the others, having to draw up their knees to let the pair of them go past and then come back again.

  ‘Right, that’s enough,’ said Philip, ‘no more visits for anybody until the interval!’ It meant that Valerie also had to wait for the interval, and leaving the children with Philip, she made her visit as quickly as she could. Each child was given the reward of a wine-gum.

  ‘Now, I want you to be very, very good during the second half,’ Philip told them, and caught Valerie’s eye. Their faces simultaneously broke into smiles.

  ‘D’ye think we make good parents, Miss Pearson?’ he asked.

  ‘You ain’t our parents!’ interposed Lily. ‘My Dad could knock you out in one go!’

  ‘Then I’m very thankful your Dad’s not around,’ Philip answered, followed by fidgetings and whisperings all around them.

  ‘That family’s very naughty, aren’t they, Mama?’ piped up a little voice two rows behind them.

  ‘They won’t keep quiet, and we can’t hear Jiminy Cricket,’ said another.

  ‘Between them they’ve been to the lavatory thirteen times’, said an older boy’s voice, ending on a laugh in which the others joined.

  ‘Now then, keep quiet yourselves,’ said a lady’s voice firmly, ‘or the film will be spoilt for everybody.’

  At that moment a message was flashed across the screen: An air raid alert has been sounded. A few people got up to leave, but the majority stayed to enjoy the rest of the story of the little wooden boy’s adventures and the voice of his ‘conscience’, Jiminy Cricket. The children gaped at the screen, and Philip looked across at Valerie, just as she turned to look at him: they dared not speak across the five children, but he gave her a wink and she smiled back. Apart for a demand for another wine-gum, the rest of the film was shown without disturbance, either from toilet necessities or enemy action.

  ‘Hey diddle de dee! an actor’s life for me!’ sang Lily, Jimmy and the Perrin twins, skipping along the street back to Everham station, having picked up the song from the film.

  ‘Come on, Nick, we’d better catch up,’ said Philip, and Valerie too increased her pace behind them.

  ‘Hey, diddle de dum, an actor’s life is fun!’

  It was impossible to keep a straight face, and when Philip turned round to ask Valerie if they were going too fast for her, and added, ‘I’d join in with them, only people would think I was drunk!’ she laughed aloud, and he responded, as if he was seeing this shy, quiet girl for the first time.

  The North Camp train was waiting on the spur line. ‘Let’s see if we can find an empty compartment this time,’ he said, shepherding the children on board; but the train was filled with other families who had been to see Pinocchio, and they resigned themselves to a rowdy journey.

  Lady Neville was waiting at the station with the ponytrap.

  ‘I hope you’ve all been good,’ she said with a smile, and Philip avoided her eyes in some confusion. Valerie was more forthcoming.

  ‘We’ve tried to be good, Lady Isabel, but some of us were more good than others!’

  Isabel laughed. ‘Well, as long as you tried,’ she said, pleased that her little white lie had worked, and Rebecca had been able to get on with a backlog of paperwork.

  ‘I can squeeze Charlie, Joe, Lily and Jimmy into the trap,’ she said. ‘Philip, will you and Nick take Valerie home? It’s a lovely evening.’

  ‘Certainly we will,’ said Philip, and the three of them set off for the Pearsons’ cottage. ‘You’ve been marvellous, Miss, er, Valerie, I don’t think I would have survived without you,’ he told her.

  ‘It’s all right, er, Philip, I think we both did very well, don’t you? We’ll be able to look back and laugh about it!’

  And just as naughty Georgie Tonks at the nursery had made Valerie Pearson wonder how it would feel to be a mother, this afternoon’s outing had made her imagine herself as a wife with a family. Better behaved, of course.

  It was Devora Munday’s idea to take the whole family to see the Saturday matinee of Pinocchio. There were six children now, with the addition of the two little girl evacuees, Ruth and Sarah. Jonny Pascoe was now a tall lad of sixteen, and had left school to help in the office of Munday and Pascoe; in another year’s time he would be due for call-up, and Ernest banished the thought from his mind.

  ‘Yes, it will be a treat for us all,’ he agreed, ‘especially for little Ruth and Sarah.’

  All that week the children talked about Saturday in happy anticipation; Devora too looked forward to this family outing and the pleasure she and Ernest would get from the children’s enjoyment.

  Saturday dawned, and Devora prepared an early lunch, to give them plenty of time to join the queue outside the Embassy Cinema.

  And it was just as they sat down to eat that Ayesha began to wheeze and pant, her eyes stared as if in terror, and her nose and lips turned a purplish blue. She opened her mouth and gasped, but no words came out. It was a severe and therefore frightening asthmatic attack.

  Ernest rose from his chair. ‘You stay with her, Devora, and I’ll fetch a phial.’


  On a top shelf in a kitchen cupboard were the glass phials containing the instantly effective iodine compound with menthol and chloroform; he folded one of them in a large handkerchief, broke it and returned to hold the vapour to Ayesha’s nose and mouth. Jonny was standing beside her, whispering reassurances, and Devora was serving the others with their lunch, her mouth set in a firm straight line.

  Ayesha started to take breaths again, shallow at first, becoming deeper as the vapour took effect. ‘Stay with me, Jonny,’ she panted, ‘don’t leave me, please.’ Jonny said he would stay with her, and told Ernest to go to the cinema with the others.

  ‘I understand her, Dad, I’ll be fine,’ he said.

  Ernest lifted Ayesha up in his arms and took her into the parlour where he laid her on the sofa, propping her up with cushions.

  ‘I can’t risk it, she might have another attack,’ he told Jonny, ‘and I’d only worry about her. I’m happy to stay, and you go to help your mother with the others.’

  Jonny reluctantly agreed, and Devora had no choice; she hid her resentment as well as she could, and at the cinema she and Jonny were shown into a row of seats with her at one end and him at the other. The curtains drew back, the children cheered, and the film began.

  While the younger children stared in wonder at the screen, Jonny and David’s amused attention was taken up with the antics of a family two rows below them, not very well controlled by the couple who were presumably the parents. When the second part of the programme began, the parents had a brisk exchange with the children.

  ‘That family’s very naughty, aren’t they, Mama?’ said little Ruth.