Book 19

Tuesday 5^th November 1940

No fireworks or bonfires today & even the night raid didn’t produce any fireworks.  Up at 10.  Alarm from 10.12 till 10.47am.  All quiet.  Another from 11.6 till 12.3pm.  All quiet.  In the afternoon I painted the back of the front door of No 30.  Just as I was going to start Mrs Rose came to finish clearing the house.  While she was here we had a 3^rd alarm from 2.52 till 3.30pm.  Heard planes.  4^th alarm 4.9 till 4.46pm  & we heard planes.  At the end of the raid we saw one plane & I don’t think it was British.  Night alarm at 6.22pm till 8.21 am. It lasted 14 hrs all but a minute.  If only we could have some more atrocious weather to keep the devils away at nights.  I was in with Bert. The raid wasn’t too bad.  Bed 1am

Wednesday 6^th November 1940

Up at 9.30.  I got on cataloguing my music & in the afternoon just after our 2^nd raid mum went out.  The 2 raids were: 2.43pm 3.15pm all quiet

                                3.31pm 3.52pm all quiet

After mum went out I sat playing the piano.  While I was in the middle of “You made me Love you” about 4.10pm I heard a terrific rat tat on the door, wondering who on earth it was I went and opened it.  Mrs Clay was there & she gasped out something about “Is your stirrup pump any good for a fire,  there’s a woman got all her bedclothes alight”.  I dashed out to the back and grabbed the pump & bucket of water & dashed back again into the street.  Meanwhile Mrs Clay had seen Bob & yelled over to him & he was racing over.  I went to dash into 33 where the fire was (at 33 lives a young married woman & at 35 lives the rest of her family) when Mrs Clay yelled not there next door so I followed Bob into 35.  It was a job to get through the kitchen for all round the place was piled the air raid shelter bedclothes & the table had been pushed on the skew wiff.  I had pump in one had & bucket in the other & while manoeuvring round I spilt some of the water on the floor (it’s strange how your brain remembers certain things & forgets others).  I recall that vividly yet other things only a blurred vision is all I have (there was a gate in the fence & we ran through that).  One glance told us that it was hopeless to try and fight the fire with a S.P.  I thought the fire was in the bedroom & Mrs Clay said bedclothes but it was the air raid shelter bedclothes being aired in the kitchen which caught.  I said to Bob “I’ll call the brigade & darted out again.  In the ¼ minute I had been going through & coming back through 35 a decent sized crowd had assembled.  I yelled something about “get water, plenty of water” as I started to run towards the phone box in North St.  As I ran down Tweedmouth Rd I yelled out to some people about the fire & they went chasing down to see what they could do.  When I got to the phone box I saw it was occupied by some woman gassing away. As my knowledge of psychology told me that if I opened the door & told her I wanted to make an emergency call she would have just gaped at me & in less that the time it would take to tell her the story I could get round to the phone outside the Post Office.  When I got there I dialled 999 – nothing happed – 999 brr brr emergency service calling.  

Me Plaistow fire station please.  

Operator Plaistow fire – what is your number.  

Me Graywood 0480 (or whatever it was)

A new voice Prince Regent House Fire Stn.

Me there is a fire in Edinburgh Rd if you’ll send the fire engine to North St library I’ll direct it.

New voice ‘it’s just going.

Me thank you.

Then I doubled back to the corner of Stirling Rd to wait for the engine.  While I was there I saw Miss Elson & her mother.  She will let me know when she comes back for good.  I waited what seemed ages for the fire engine.  When it did come, instead of coming to me it went on round towards the High St.  I yelled out to it & a taxi just behind it saw me & went down Stirling Rd.  One of the firemen on the engine saw me and yelled to the driver who backed & went down Stirling Rd.  I was too late to jump on it or I would have enjoyed the ride home because I was nearly home.  I managed to run back however but when I got back I was too exhausted, as I was unused to such strenuous exercise. It must be a couple of years since I did any real running, to do anything but stand & watch.  While I had gone a gang of men had formed a bucket chain & had subdued the fire.  Keeping it to the kitchen and scullery.

Mrs Tunnage the woman ARP warden had gone up to the Broadway & broken the fire alarm.  That was the reason the girl at the station said the men were just leaving & also why the engine went on up the Broadway, they thought someone would be at the fire alarm.  The firemen ran one hose out from the engine & got the water from a hydrant outside Browns.  Other people had got all the furniture out of the front room.  

What actually happened was this. The young woman was airing the shelter bedclothes in front of the open fire & had then gone into her mother’s round the back way.  While she was in there a spark must have fallen on the blankets & set them alight.  When she went back – I should think not more than 5 minutes after the spark fell – the place was beginning to flare.  She ran out through the back way again – incidentally fanning the flames & making it worse than it would have been, by leaving the doors open – & had run into the street screaming.  She was half hysterical & Mrs Clay who was out there did all the calling for people.  The firemen arrived about 4.15 or 4.20 & they had got it out in about 5 minutes after that.  I had to go through for my pump & bucket. In the garden had been thrown all the furniture with bits burnt off it & laying in the mud was a pile of partly burnt blankets.  A fireman was just emptying a dustbin full of ashes on the garden. The firemen were around until nearly 5.15, clearing up etc.  I helped the driver of the Taxi to back into Southern Rd.  He had to take the pump off to do it & it got caught in the drain outside.  The wood shop & I had to help him push it before it would move.  It started to rain then & I helped to move the furniture that was in the street into No 35.  There was a car full of police there & one of them got the woman’s bag & the paper money although charred was ok.  The last car left about 5.30 & except for a smell of burnt stuff & the window frame out & the emptiness of the front room of no 33 everything was again normal.  People brought stirrup pumps from all round.  But the bucket gang was most successful I think.

I went round to the library and got back just as the siren went at 6.21pm.  I went into Bert’s & we nearly finished the plane.  I came in about 11.  The raid was noisier than usual – the moon is waxing and it now at its first quarter – it gradually quietened although at 5 & 6 the guns were firing.  I went to bed at 2.  AC at 7.53am.

Thursday 7^th November 1940

Spent the morning & afternoon cataloguing my music.  Ern & Vic went up West to see a film in the afternoon.  We had an ARW at 12.15 till 1.7pm.  We heard planes & guns at the beginning, but after it was quiet.  The night alarm went at 6.55pm.  I went in with Bert.  When I left at 1 there was very little to be done to the plane.  The raid was fairly bad at first.  About 9.30 there was a lull & for some reason we had all stopped talking and then ——— CRASH ! ——- something had come through the roof.  We looked at one another with frightened expressions on our faces & then I said “Come on. Its upstairs”.  Bert however, insisted it was the front windows.  We went & looked in the front room & as I expected found nothing – then I, Bert, Stan & Joyce went upstairs.  There was nothing in the back or middle rooms.  But when we pulled down the blinds & switched on the light we found a neat little hole in the ceiling about as big as this    

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& on the bed I found the bottom of an AA shell.  It was a relief to find it was only that as I had been expecting an incendiary bomb.  It frightened Joyce a bit and she cried but she was o.k.  when I came in.  

Mum saw the young woman at 33 this morning & she was asked to thank me for what I did.  That was the 2^nd fire I’ve been in.  At the junior school a lot of bees’ wax caught fire & Mr Reavely in trying to turn out the gas tipped it all over the floor round by the door.  We almost had to jump through flames to get out of the classroom. 

Besides that we’ve had a fire at the wood shop, one at Mahoney’s and one in Glasgow Rd.  Well I’ve often wondered what happened when you dial 999 & I found out yesterday.  The raid was still fairly bad at 11 but after that it quietened.  I went to the library this afternoon & got “William the Dictator” R Crompton & “Laughing Gas “ Wodehouse.  Bed 1.30 am.

Friday 8^th November 1940

AC at 3.15am.  Up at 8.20.  ARW at 10.15 till 11.50am.  Heard a few planes.  About 10.45 the van arrived with Aunt Lily’s furniture in it, with Mr Rose to superintend.  I helped the men move the stuff in & we laid the lino in the kitchen.  The ‘Boss’ & ‘Arthur’ finished & left about 1.30.  The Boss told me once, while we were waiting for Arthur that yesterday he saw the council fellow who is in charge of the councils free removing & complained that he was taking away his living.  At one time during the argument that followed the council chap said “all he was concerned with was getting the stuff shifted & if anything was damaged the owners would get no recompense.  He was supposed to have said this in front of a witness.  The boss said that what he & Arthur had done in a few hours would have taken 6 council men all day & they would have taken 4 or 5 times as much room.  That is a fact.  Lily has a lot of stuff & the way it was packed the van was not full & I bet it would have taken two vans if the council road sweepers & dustmen cum furniture removers had done it, – but they would probably have done what they usually do – tied them all on with rope.  Arthurs sister or sister-in-law had her piano spoilt by them the other week, and the other day in Whitwell Rd they dropped a piano out of a 3^rd floor window on to the ground – or so the ‘Boss’ said.  We had another ARW from 1.47 to 2.37.

When the men left Mum, Mr Rose & I went upstairs to lay the front bedroom lino.  At 1.47 the siren went & even as it did so we heard the drone of planes & 2 bombs dropped.  We all dashed out of the bedroom & as we did so 2 more bombs dropped.  As I got to the front door I head 2 kiddies screaming, I was just going to rush and grab them when their mother darted out for them.  When the planes had gone we went over home with Mr Rose.  Some more planes went over & I saw one flying very low.  Mr Rose told us that he had an incendiary bomb fall in his garden. 3 feet from the house.  He said they put it out with earth.

Another raid from 4.50 to 5.16.  heard planes.  When Leslie came home I helped him fix up a blackout & showed him where some of the things were put.  

The night alarm went at 6.23 pm & as the raid began we could see some planes towards the S.E.   Went in Bert’s.  We started to camouflage the plane, played a game of chess. I won.  At 8.30 bombs were dropped and at 8.40, the loudest guns I’ve ever heard were fired.  Came in about 10.45.  When Ern came in he said bombs had fallen near Star Lane where we used to live.  Bed 1.30am.

Mrs Clay found today that the AA shell bottom actually struck the hearth & then bounced onto the bed.   

Saturday 9^th November 1940

AC at 5.50 am.  Up 12.10.  Did some music cataloguing after dinner.  ARW at 2.4 guns fired no siren sounded.  Mum went out at 3.  Noisy at 3.15.  Again at 4 to 4.15.  The AC went at 4.22 just after mum came back.  Bert showed me today what actually happed with the shell bottom fell through the roof.  It struck floor, wall and ceiling before landing on the bed like this.

• 

Went to library & got “Half a Million Tramps” by W.A. Gape & “Coming Sir” D. Marlowe.  

Just before I left the library we had an ARW, time 5pm.  AC 5.39 heard planes and guns.  16 minutes after at 5.55 the night alarm went.  I went into Bert’s.  The raid was fairly noisy at first.  Came in at 10.30. the raid was quiet after 11.30.  I went to bed at 12.30am.

Dad found out today that 4 houses were demolished in Durham Rd where Mr Rose lives & bombs fell in the road where Mr Cooper lives.  A plane crashed at Bromley Kent.  

The AC went at 12.55.  I listened to it for about 5 minutes gradually louder then, at its peak when our siren sounded & then gradually diminishing when it had almost died away a nearer siren decided to sound it & after that had died away it was quiet.  The AC is certainly the sweetest music today & ARWs – a hideous cacophony of sound – up & down up & down, an absolutely fear inspiring sound.

About 1.10 Ern came in, he brought one of his pals in & he slept downstairs all night.

Sunday 10^th November 1940

ARW from 3.55 to 7.20am.  Planes & guns heard. Ern woke me at 9.15.  Got up and washed.  After breakfast, I went for a short walk.  Mum went over to A Lily’s & she gave mum 3d for some screws I had bought to screw the casters in the kitchen table last Friday.  

Bert came in in the afternoon & we held a jam session.  Night alarm at 6.30 pm just after I went into Bert’s. But the guns were firing at 6.20.  The raid was fairly noisy at first.  Bert nearly finished camouflaging the plane while I played with the others, various games.  I lost my first game of shove-halfpenny, to Stan – the expert.  Before I came in we all played pontoon.  As we weren’t playing for money – only lending.  I won over a 1/-but still, better win in fun than lose in earnest, as I would do if we really played for money.  I came in at 10.50.  At 10.57 I heard an AC sound on the wireless, the programme wasn’t coming from Portland Place though, because the local sirens did not sound.

1 bomb dropped about 12.  At 1am when I went to bed 4 more were dropped & again at 2.30 Jerry left visiting cards.

Monday 11^th November 1940

AC at 5.5am.  ARW at 9.20am. Up 9.30. Planes went over AC at 10.24am.  Another alarm at 10.40am AC at 11.12am.  Went to barbers.  The alarm went just after I got in the barbers.  The guns fired on some planes at the start but it was quiet after.

When Dad came in Rose, Lily’s sister, was with him.  She had come up from where she is evacuated to get some stuff & had been in Woodmansee’s.  AR warning at 1.18 to 1.40 heard planes.  Another alarm from 2.48 to 3.13.  I wrote 2 letters to firms I got from the Daily Telegraph.  The 2.4 alarm was fairly quiet.  ARW 4.0 to 5.36.  The guns were heavy. Once or twice other planes came over.  

During the heavy period Freddie came into shelter.  He left before the AC.  Night raid began at 6.  Played Draughts with Ern.  I didn’t go into Bert’s as I wanted to do some book-keeping.  The raid wasn’t very noisy & at 9.5pm the AC went.  Although today is Armistice Day I didn’t see one poppy seller.  One of those bombs last night hit The Cedars at West Ham Park and killed a sergeant & injured 21 men.  Bed 12.30

Tuesday 12^th November 1940

Up 12.  ARW at 11.35am till 12.11, it was quiet.

Went to library in afternoon got “Raggle Taggle” Starkie & “The Submerged Tenth” Bentley.

ARW 3.39 till 3.49.  Heard nil.  Night alarm at 6.43pm just before it went locally I heard a hooter give 2 quick, low, blasts on the wireless.

I went & stood out in the garden.  It was quiet for between 5 & 10 minutes, then away to the N.N.W. I saw a couple of shells explode – then a line of them slightly further north.  After about 15 secs I heard the rumble of guns from the same direction.  It was quiet again for a while, then from N to S there went a shooting star, leaving a tail behind it.  It went in about 3 secs.

In a couple of minutes, I heard the rumble of guns this time from the direction of Tilbury.  I heard them for a long while.  It was nearly as light as day in the garden for we will have a full moon on the 15^th. 

Bert came out after a while & he, I, and Dad, who also came out, stood & watched the shells bursting & listening to the gunfire drawing nearer.  We heard the first plane go over & die away & then the guns died down & it was silent again.  

I went in Bert’s house then & after steaming the Hurricane over a kettle to tighten the tissue we covered it with, we played 2 games of chess.  Bert won the first & I won the 2^nd – after nearly losing it.  

I came in at 10.15.  At 11.5 some bombs dropped nearby.  The planes haven’t been so frequent for the past hour.  I may as well be off to bed now. 

Wednesday 13^th November 1940

Up 10.45.  ARW 11 till 11.49.  Quiet.  Went to library saw an ad. & wrote a letter to them.  When Dad went back to work from dinner I went with him & bought some envelopes at Whittle’s, paid the gas bill & bought some stamps.  When I got home I posted my letter.  Had 2 ARWs  1.26pm 2.55pm.  Heard guns & planes.  Saw 1 plane.  3.21pm 4.5pm Heard guns & planes.  Fight towards E.  Night alarm at 6.12.  Played 3 games of chess in Bert’s house.  He won 1^st, I won 2^nd & 3^rd.  AC went about 9.45 when I came in at 10.15 no one had heard it so we don’t know the exact time & as Dad is not going in tomorrow morning – they’ve got a scheme to give days off because of the ARW’s – we shan’t know the exact time till Friday when Dad sees the AR warden he knows.

Thursday 14^th November 1940

Up 10.30 ARW 11.8am 11.35am Heard nothing.

Dad went to the city to get some wines & had a walk round.

ARW 1.30pm to 1.43pm Heard nothing.

Went to library & got “Mr Mullins Speaking” Wodehouse & “Volume 81 of Pearson’s Magazine”.^I

Ern & I went to the Carlton in the evening.  Saw “3 Faces West” & Busman Holiday”.

The guns started at 6.30 but the ARW didn’t go till 7.  We came out when the show ended at 7.50.  it was quiet from 7.30 to 11 or so.  Fairly noisy after.  Went into Bert’s.  Played 5 chess games.  Winners Bert 1, Don 2, Bert 3 Don 4, Don 5.

Friday 15^th November 1940

AC at 6.15am.

Up 10.45. alarm 10.51 to 11.4.  Heard nothing.  Went to library & got “Tropes on the Chess Board”.  ARW 1.22 to 2.14.  Guns fired on planes just after the ARW & we got our evening – Friday – afternoon – just -after – dinner pay packet.  They dropped about 4 or 6 bombs.

Night raid 6.17pm to 7.3am.  the guns were heavy & bombs were dropped.  Went in Bert’s.  Played 5 games of chess.  Results 1 Bert, 2 Don,3 Done, 4 Done ,5 Bert.

Bed 2am.

Saturday 16^th November 1940

Up 11.30.  Heard that a bomb had dropped in Kent St.  Auntie Maud came to see us.  She had come up from Bromley Kent where she’s gone with the firm where one of the boys has gone.  She was staying with Lily.  I went to see Freddie after dinner while Aunt Maud was still here.  Mum had been told that there were houses down in Kent St & 1 person had been killed but when I got there it must have been a100lb bomb that fell.  It is in this position 

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The house it fell beside had had an oil bomb in front of it, directly on the railing & there is a small crater there.  

The H.E.^II fell by the garden fence.  The crater is about 5 ft deep by 10 ft wide.  The garden fence is down & one or 2 windows are out but it did no real damage except to cut the water supply off Kent St.  Freddie didn’t even know a bomb had fallen till he saw the crater this morning.

Bert got “Until you Fall in Love” 1/- in the afternoon when he was out.

ARW at 5.50pm went into Bert’s house.  Played 3 games of chess.  Bert won one, we drew the 2^nd & I won the 3^rd.  Came in about 10.30.  Bed 12.30am.  AC at 12.55am.

The raid was fairly noisy.

Sunday 17^th November 1940

ARW 4.35 am to 6.45.  Guns & planes heard same time as siren.  The raid was fairly noisy.  Another 9.5 to 9.30.  all quiet.  I got up at 11.

In the afternoon I went in Bert’s house & we mended his drum.  (He cut the skin slightly so we put a rubber patch to stop it spreading).

Later we went in the front room for some Rhythm – as we were preparing A Lily & A Maud knocked to give mum A Lily’s rent for Mr Fox.

When Bert had gone Aunt Maud wanted to know if we were in a jazz band. (we must be good).  ARW 6.53pm.  I went in Bert’s. 3 games of chess.  Winners Bert, Don, Don.

4 bombs dropped at 7.30 or just before – fairly near.  AC at 7.34 another alarm 7.57 about 9 some more bombs dropped but we didn’t hear them – Ern told me about them.  I came in at 10.45.  Ern & I played cards when the others were asleep.  At 11.45 some more bombs dropped – uncomfortably close & at 12.20 a breadbasket fell very nearby.  We could hear the small bombs popping off. (they don’t make enough noise to be called explosions).

Bed 2am.  More bombs at 3am.

Monday 18^th November 1940

Up 8.45.  went to Electricity Office, in morning to change some bulbs and bought some paint at Page Calnan.  ARW 1.2 to 1.17.  Heard nothing.  In the afternoon I painted 2 doors & round the kitchen hearth.  We don’t like it green so I did it mid stone.  

Went into Bert’s.  He’s got a new job starts next Monday. 

We played 2 games of Chess, I won both.

ARW 8.25 to 9.50.  Heard plane before alarm.  Heard nothing during alert. Another raid 10.18 to 11.55.  Heard nothing.  Came in & played cards with Ern.  ARW 12.30am bed 1.15.

Tuesday 19^th November 1940

AC 3.55am.  We heard 2 planes before alarm & after the siren it was fairly noisy.  ARW 5.40.  noisy.  Bombs dropped.  Guns fairly near.  AC 7.40am.  up 9am.  Messed about all day. 

Went in Bert’s after ARW at 6.5pm.  We played cards etc.  Came in 10.15.  Played cards with Ern.

Wednesday 20^th November 1940

Bed 1.15am. AC at 6.35. the raid was fairly noisy to 11 quiet after.  Up 9.15.  Went to library.  Wrote after a job.  Spent the afternoon painting doors etc.  Went into Bert’s after ARW at 6.58.  Played cards.  Came in 10.15. Bed 12.30

Thursday 21^st November 1940

Woken up at 4.10 by terrific explosions.  Found after that they were bombs.  Hit Prince Regents Lane near Beckton Rd.  AC 7.55am.  Up 9am.  ARW 11.33 – 11.44 all quiet.  Same 11.54 – 12.4.

Same also 1.59 to 2.55.  ARW at 7.3.  Went into Bert’s till 10.15.  I’ve caught what Dad had a week or so ago – impetigo.  The stuff Dad used I applied to my bad places & does it burn – I will have to give up sugar till it goes.  Bed 12.30am.  AC 12.15pm.  The raid wasn’t very noisy but there were some planes & guns heard.

Friday 22^nd November 1940

ARW 2.45pm to 3.40am.  Fairly noisy towards end of raid.  Up 9am.  When mum went out she met Doris.  Doris came home with her.  They are moving to Shrewsbury Rd today.  

Went up library.  In Daily Telegraph I saw an ad for junior Clerks (Male & Female) that had been in there yesterday so I decided to go after it.  The address was J. Collett 41.3 Charterhouse Sq E.C.1.  It took me from 11.0 to 12.15 to get to the place – it’s a hat manufacturing place.  The chap I saw asked me to call back about 1.20 as the chap who did the interviewing was at lunch.  I called back at 1.20 & another fellow saw me, so I told him what I wanted & he did some phoning & a chap who looked like this boss came & asked me what I wanted, then he vanished & after a while another man came over & took me to his desk & took down all particulars.  When he had nearly finished another man came and said that if I got the job I would get 25/- per week, but there was a chap he had to see tomorrow.  If I got the job they would write me a letter & I could start as soon as I got the letter.  I got home at 2.35.  the damage round the entrance to the actual underground is terrific nearly all the wall is down & there is hardly a house standing nearby.

Went to Library & got “Strategy & Tactics in Chess” Dr. Max Euwe^III & “Dry batteries & how to make Them” Haybee.

ARW at 6.16pm.  Dad & I played draughts & then mum & I played.  Bed 12.30

Saturday 23^rd November 1940

AC 8pm.  The raid was quiet mostly.  Up 8.45.

Walter came just after we had an ARW at 9.6.  AC 9.26 all quiet.  About 9.20 he took Ern to work in his car.  Went to Erns shop with Bert & then we bought some music at the British Home Stores.  Got “Memories Live Longer than Dreams” & “Arm in Arm Together”.  ARW 1.30pm to 1.55pm.  All quiet.

Bert & I played some music.  ARW 4pm.  Many planes came over & the air was filled with their noise.  Few guns fired at them.  Quiet after about 15 mins.  AC 4.45.

Bert called over the fence at about 7.45 & said that a warning had gone at 6.50 (App) and an AC at 7.20 (app) but they were only just audible.  So Dad will ask the Warden he knows about them, and see whether they applied to us, if so we will record them, if they don’t we will merely note them.  Went in Bert’s.  Beat him twice at Chess.  Bed 12.30.

Sunday 24^th November 1940

Up 11am.  AC 7am.  The raid was quiet mostly.  Freddie called just before 11, that’s why I got up.

ARW 1.23pm to 1.56.  Heard planes.  Bathed.  Bert came in.  After tea Leslie & Doris came over with the rent.  ARW 6.49 to 7.2.

Guns were firing at a couple of planes before alarm.  Quiet after. ARW.  I went to the off licence after the AC.  The searchlights were out as I came back & the guns started to fire in the distance as I came in.  Heavy gunfire at 7.10 & again at 7.35 when the ARW sounded.  Mum Dad Ern & I played games during the evening.  AC at 10.17.  We heard about ½ a dozen planes during the raid.  Guns heavy 2 or 3 times.   Bed 11.45.

Monday 25^th November 1940

MY 16^th Birthday

Mum gave me 2/6 & Dad promised a £1.  I didn’t get a letter from Collett’s.  In the afternoon Harold called with his girl Edie.  She’s not bad.  Went to Library & got Volume 85 of Pearson’s Magazine.  Hillyer had my November “GSM” in.  

I’ve got rid of most of the scabs on my face.  

We had one alarm from 11.50 to 12.18.  Guns fired on a lone plane about 12.10.  Bed 11.30pm.

Tuesday 26^th November 1940

Up 8.30.  Stopped in all day.  In afternoon we had a raid 1.40- 1.55 heard nothing.  We had 25 hours of quiet before that alarm.

Another alarm 7.25 to 10.58 heard plane before ARW.  Only a couple of planes over after alarm and a few guns. Bert came in & I beat him at chess twice. Bed 12.30

Wednesday 27^th November 1940

Up 8.38.  went up library.  ARW 6.55 am to 7.40.  Guns fired.  4 bombs dropped on Barking.  Planes heard.

ARW 11am to 11.16 all quiet.

ARW 3.45 pm 4.23pm.  All quiet.

ARW heard very faintly at 7.20.  Our alarm went 7.22.  Bert & I stood in the garden & saw the searchlights sweep the sky then distant gun flashes – a plane in the distance – it got nearer & then the guns started.  I went in Bert’s & played cards, came in 10.15.  Bed 12.  Raid quiet after 10.45.  AC 1.40am.

Thursday 28^th November 1940

Dad didn’t have to go in today.  At 10.30 he and mum went up to Selfridges, Gamage’s, etc.  cooked my dinner at 12.  Went up library in morning & got “Do You Know” for Mr Page.  They wanted something to do in the shelter. 

ARW 6.20am to 7.50 am.  1 or 2 guns fired.  As I was having my dinner I heard some bangs & thought someone was beating their carpets.  Then Mrs Edyneats came yelling for Mrs Clay to go down her shelter so I dashed into the garden.  Stretching across the sky form E to W was a long streak left by a Jerry.  The guns were firing on him & the sky was dotted with their bursts.  That’s what I thought was someone beating a carpet.  Mr Newman stood in his garden blowing his whistle & then the siren went.  Time 12.28.  After that plane went it was quiet.  Mum & Dad said that the plane was almost over them. He was on reconnaissance & was shot down going back.  AC 12.43pm.  

ARW 2.48pm till 3.35pm.  Heard a couple of planes.  Mum & Dad home about 4.15.  They bought me 2 ties.  Night alarm at 6.40.  Bert came in & Dad, He, & I played Bagatelle.  I won Dad was 2^nd Bert lost.  Bert & I played cribbage.  He went in at 10.15.

BED 12.10.

The raid wasn’t very noisy just after 12 more planes were coming than usual.  AC 4.20am.

Friday 29^th November 1940

Up 8.45.  Fred came round in the evening.  He’s got blood poisoning caused by a bomb splinter cutting his back while helping to get people out of a place bombed just before at Cumberland Rd.  Heard planes 2 times in morning.  ARW 11.58am to 12.8pm.  All quiet.  ARW 12.48pm till 1.15pm all quiet.  1.50pm 2.45 pm alarm.  All quiet.  Night Alarm at 6.16 pm.  Planes roar over at 2 or 3 minute intervals at 6.45 dad went to the front door & called mum & I out.  There were 4 flares visible.  I in the distance over the city & 3 in the shape of a triangle/pyramid.  

They fell very slowly & we watched them.  As they got lower we began to see little red sparks going up to them & heard the poppoppop of machine guns.  They were firing belts of tracer & then several ordinary bullets at them.  The one in the bottom left of the triangle began to fall quicker & little pieces began to fall off it.  It went out soon after.  The other 2 gradually fell behind the houses & all we could see was a glow in the sky.  The raid was fairly noisy after.

Bert came in & I beat him at chess.  Ern came in & said he had seen 3 more flares and Dad later saw another 3 making 10 at least round this way.  Bert saw the staff manager at his place today and I am going up with him on Monday to see about a job.

Saturday 30^th November 1940

AC 1.55am.  Went to library in morning, got “Gibbons World Stamps Catalogue 1941”.  Went with Bert to Boardman’s where he used to work, in the afternoon after the raid which lasted from 1.30 to 2.30pm.  All quiet.  There had been a previous raid at 10.5 to 11.2am.  All quiet.  We went to Boardman’s for Bert’s pen which was being mended but it wasn’t ready so they are sending it round.  We bought 4 pieces of music “All over the Place” “I’m Nobody’s Baby” “Sing while you Work” & “Peter Maurice 8^th selection”.

When I got home I found a letter saying my book-keeping certificate was at West Ham Technical College & I could call for it & also a card from the City Libraries asking for their books.  Alarm at 10.50 till 11.22.  Plane came over as siren went.  Guns fired all quiet after.

Sunday 1^st December 1940

At 12.28am we had another ARW till 12.50 & it was identical to the last raid.  Up 11 ARW 10.23 to 10.40 all quiet.  Same 11.18 to 11.58.  same 3.12pm to 3.29pm.  At 7.7 another ARW went.  As the siren went a plane was over head & the guns were firing.  As the siren died away there was a terrific bang.  I thought was a gun but it was actually a bomb at Bow.  Quiet after.  AC 7.44.  I went in Bert’s for a while then we came in my place.  We all played on the pin table for some time.  Another alarm 9.40 to 12.25 am. The planes were soon over after the alarm and at short intervals.  Heavy gunfire.  Bed 11.30.

Monday 2^nd December 1940

Up 7.  Went out with Bert at 7.45, after a terrible bus journey got to his place.  He took me to the reception room & stopped with me till the girl came.  I waited about ¾ hour before I saw Mr Adams the staff manager & it was arranged that as I said I wouldn’t go if the firm evacuated that if on Wednesday when he would definitely know about evacuation it was decided to go I wouldn’t get a job but if they weren’t going I would get a job.  Bert would bring me a message.  Home 11.15

Bert came in in the evening & we catalogued some music.  We didn’t hear one ARW today although we had the AC at 12.25am – the first time since Aug 29^th 85 days . Bed 12.15.

Tuesday 3^rd December 1940

Up 9.  In morning went up to Coates & the City Library.  I had a bit of trouble at the library.  ARW while I was in Coates at 11.15am.  We had previous alarm 8.15 to 8.38am all quiet.  I came during alert.  Guns in distance twice.  AC 12. Another alarm 12.16 to 12.30 guns in distance once.  ARW 1.50 to 2.33.  Heard 1 or 2 planes & machine gunfire.  Went to library got “My Most Thrilling Story” & “Pearson’s Mag Vol 79”. Night alarm 5.58pm.  Bert came in at 6.15.  we all played dominoes.  The raid was fairly noisy.  A couple of bombs were dropped.  AC went not long ago at 11.35.

Wednesday 4^th December 1940

Up 11.  The bombs last night fell at the Princess Alice.  Stopped in all day.  When I saw Bert he said that Adams hadn’t said anything today about me.  He came in after the raid began at 6.24.  we saw a fire in the direction of Forest Gate.  They had dropped some more bombs at the Princess Alice again.  We all played cards.  Bert went in about 10.15.  AC heard in distance about 11.40.  Our AC went at 11.53pm.  The raid was quiet after 10pm.  Bed 12.30

Thursday 5^th December 1940

Up 11.30.  Joyce had just called. She has had trouble at home & has come to live at Lily’s place & this afternoon she & Lily are going to Stratford to get permission for her & Albert to get married.  In the afternoon Dad & I went for a walk.  Just before we went out we had an ARW from 1.52 pm to 2.8pm.  All quiet.  Sometime after we had got back Lily & Joyce called.  They went to Stratford & got a form Joyce’s parents have to sign.

After tea Bert came in ARW 6.31pm.  About 7 Walter & Doris called for the evening.  They brought their dog Bruce with them, he’s only 12 weeks old.  He’s the image of Dinah.  I wonder what did happen to Dinah & her pup.  Walter borrowed 20 pieces of my music.  We all played cards & it was more like a party than an air raid.  We heard very little during the raid & the AC went at 10.5pm.  Walter & Doris left about 10.50 & at 10.58 another alarm went till 11.56.  It was quiet mostly.  Bed 12.30.

Friday 6^th December 1940

Up 9.15.  messed about in morning in afternoon I mended the pin table – put new pins in etc.  Uncle Albert called.  Bert came in about 7.30.  ARW 7.38.  We all played cards & pintable.  AC 9.15.  the raid was very quiet – only a few guns in the distance.  I expect the wind was too much for them.  Bed 12.30.

Saturday 7^th December 1940

Up 9.15.  in the afternoon Bert & I went to the Granada & saw “ You ain’t so Tough” & “The Boys from Syracuse” & “Neighbours under Fire”. Bert came in in the evening.  No raid. Bed 12.30.

Sunday 8^th December 1940

Up 9.45. – because I had to go & get the paper.  Bert came in in the afternoon.  Joyce brought the rent over.  While she was here she said that Albert had written to her & said his firm Guedalla’s^IV had written asking him if he knew of a lad 15 to 18 for their office so he thought I might like to go up.  I’m going up tomorrow.  Bert came in in the evening & we all played Crown & Anchor.^V  ARW 5.33 pm.  Planes over soon after.  There was a break between 8 & 9.30 but after that we never ceased to hear planes.  As one began to fade away another one began to get nearer.  We heard several bombs drop & the gunfire was terrific.  We didn’t go to bed till 2.30am.  AC 7.14am. 

Monday 9^th December 1940

Up 8.15.  I left for Guedalla’s at 9.15 but I didn’t get a bus till nearly 10.  I arrived about 11 & had to wait 15 mins or so before Miss Joseph came in.  She’s very nice & I started right away.  I don’t know yet whether or not I like it.  Miss Riley the typist is jolly decent & said I was to be careful of Mr Bratt as he likes to take the rise but if you just do as he says he stops it because you don’t get wild at him.  Hours are 9.30 to 4.30 since the raids, but before they were 10 to 5.30 I think.  I left at 4.40. home 5.30.  Bert came in later on.  Bed 12.15.

Tuesday 10^th December 1940

Up 7.40, left house 8.10.  Got at the office at 9.15 & had to wait about 15 mins before the commissionaire came & unlocked the door for me.  Miss Bailey said that she forgot to tell me to take the key down with me of a night.  Miss Joseph wrote Albert a letter & while dictating it I heard Miss Joseph say that I would probably stay at the office & be trained as a law clerk.  We were busy in the afternoon & I didn’t finish till nearly 5.  Home about 6.  Bert came in later on.  Dad had got Mrs Lloyd a job at Woodmansee’s doing scrubbing.  Bed 11.45.

Wednesday 11^th December 1940

ARW at 6.0am.  first for almost 48 hrs.  AC 6.25am.  All quiet. Up 7.45.

Home from work 5.45.  Bert came in ARW 6.0pm.  fairly noisy at times.

Bed 11.45

Thursday 12^th December 1940

AC 7.55am.

Up 8.  ARW 11.9 till 11.24am.  All quiet.  ARW 11.57 to 12.19 whistles blew.  Bomb was heard dropped at home.  Home 5.30 ARW 6.20pm, the raid was very noisy at times.

Friday 13^th December 1940

AC 4.45am.  We get paid in the mornings here. I have to pay 1.4d leaving £1.3.8d.

Home 5.30.  ARW 6.5pm to 7.24 pm.  Very quiet.  Bert came in.

Saturday 14^th December 1940

Finished 12.30.  Saw Bert in the Broadway.  He had had the morning off & had bought a present for Joyce so I am looking after it so that Joyce won’t know what she will get.  I had my haircut.  Bert & I played in the front room for some time.  A week away from the piano makes a lot of difference. To me.  Bert brought Joyce a gun that shoots pictures on the wall.  ARW 6.5pm to 7.24pm. very quiet. Bed 12.

Sunday 15^th December 1940

Albert Ovens woke us up at 11.  He’s got 3 weeks leave.  His boat had a collision & has to be repaired. He’s got another fortnight after that to come.  Bert came in during the afternoon.  Walter called.  He came in while we were playing & Bert Walter Ern & I were playing & singing together for some time.  He’s going to lend us some music.    In the evening they had a little celebration at Aunt Lily’s & Ern went over there, I went in Bert’s.  ARW at 6.50 till 10.21pm.  Noisy at times.  Ern came in just after the AC.  At 11 a plane went over & the AA guns opened up.  No ARW went.  Bed 12. Ern game me one of his harmonicas.

Monday 16^th December 1940

Albert called at the office today.  One of the old typists Miss Seymour & Mr Spyer called as well.  Home 5.45pm.  Ern’s pal Bob was there but as Ern didn’t come along he left without seeing him.  Bert came in.  Guns fired at 9.15 to 9.30.  At 9.52 ARW till 10pm.  All quiet.  ARW 10.21 to 10.33pm all quiet. Bed 11.40

Beat Bert at Chess. 

Tuesday 17^th December 1940

I had to go to Park Crescent today.  I took some papers up.  I only went in the hall so I don’t know what the rest of it is like.  I went to Francis Day & Hunters in Charring X Rd.  Bought “Ferry Boat Serenade” & I got myself a Flageolet – commonly known as a tin whistle.  

Gray came in the morning & he & I were talking & I asked him if he knew any music shops & it turned out he is in a band.  He gave me a lot of tips & he is going to lend me some music already arranged for band parts.  He gets them from a club the band belongs to.  

Home 5.45.

Bert came in.  Ern, Bert & I all had some instruments – mouth organs & my Flageolet & did we make a row.

Bed 11.50

Wednesday 18^th December 1940

Up 8.00.  Terribly foggy.  I was late starting & at Aldgate we all had to wait about 10 minutes for another 15 bus as ours – a “foreigner” had something wrong with it.

When Gray came he had some music to lend me.  He had

“Basin St Blues”^VI, “Tiger Rag”^VII, “Dark town Strutters Ball”^VIII “ Song of India”^IX “I can’t give you anything but love baby”^X, “I’m getting Sentimental Over you”.^XI 

Went to D&H’s in lunch hour got “O-hi O” and “I’m Stepping out with a Memory tonight & “Camp fire : Fire Side Song Book”.

Bert came in & spent about 3 hours practising our music.  Bed 12.

Thursday 19^th December 1940

Up 8.15.

Mr Bratt took me to the Courts today.  We went to Appeal Court 2.  The case was Grand Buildings V Charing X News Theatre.  But as we had signed terms the case only lasted about 5 mins.  It seemed more like a church, when I first went in, than anything else.  The awful solemnity & husked voices are very awe inspiring at first.  When a bell rang there was a terrific scurrying about of bewigged counsels & we went in the courtroom – they are much smaller than I thought they were, incidentally.

The judges & counsels looked very dignified in their robes & wigs.  Everybody had to rise when the judges did so. The courtrooms are lovely rooms & behind the judge was a carved lion & unicorn.  Jolly fine too.

The Law Courts are extremely easy to get lost in I should think.  But when I left Bratt I found my way out without mistake.

Bert came in.  We got out a box of things we had left from last Xmas – hats, faces etc & Bert Mum & I all put on a hat and a face & Bert & I took an empty wine bottle each & Mum got Tiny & put a little hat on him & we all went in Bert’s house.  We scared Joyce & Ivy at first but it was the funniest thing.  I had seen for ages.  Soon after this I had a terrific nosebleed for about ½ an hour.  Bed 12.45.

Mum saw Hilda today.  Hilda said that the music shop John & Eva had was bombed on the Wednesday after they left on the Sunday.  I’m glad they were out of it. Hilda may be coming round home Xmas.  I hope she does.  We will have some fun then.

ARW 6.33pm 9.18pm.  a few planes heard.  Some gunfire.

Book 20

Friday 20^th December 1940   

Walter & Doris called in the evening.  Bert was in with us.  ARW 5.55pm 2.40am.  Fairly noisy.  

Doris is going to have a baby.  Both Bert & I saw that soon after she came in.  I recon it’ll be about 7 months yet.  I wonder what being an uncles’ like.

Saturday 21^st December 1940

Vic came home on leave today.  He came over and saw us soon after I got in from work.  I was late because I had gone to Coates for Dad.  I went out & got in some drinks for Xmas.  Then Bert & I went over to Stratford.  As we went an ARW went 2.58 to 3.12 all quiet.  I called in the library & got Ern’s ticket.  I got him “It Walks by Night”.  I got myself  ”Stamp Magazine” & “English Short Stories of Today”.  Over Stratford Bert bought some presents.  I bought a big Xmas cracker with a dozen novelties in it & a card game called “Rush Hour”.  Also bought “All the things you are” & “I’m Spending Xmas with the old Folks”.  Bert came in in the evening.  ARW at 5.56 till 2.50 fairly noisy.

Sunday 22^nd December 1940

Albert called over in the morning.  Aunt Maud came over during the afternoon.  Walter & Doris called in the evening.  They are coming over on Boxing Day.  

ARW 5.55 till 12.45am.  Fairly noisy.  Couple of quiet spells.

Monday 23^rd December 1940

ARW 2.50 to 4.50am. up 8.  Bert came in in the evening. Guns at 6 pm.  ARW at 6.20 till 1.40am. Noisy at times but there were 2 long quiet spells.  Bed 11.40.  Albert came to the office in the afternoon.

Tuesday 24^th December 1940

Miss Bailey left about 2pm. I left at 4.30.

Bought “If I only had Wings” Bert came in in the evening. Bed. 11.45

Wednesday 25^th December 1940 Xmas Day

Up 10.  Mum, Dad & I were all dashing about getting the front room cleared.  Bert gave me some cufflinks & I gave him a tie. We went to football and West Ham beat Arsenal 4-2 after being 2 down in about 15 minutes.  HT 2-2.  West Ham had a Leeds player a little chap – bald and he was good.  And Chapman the 17 year old boy made rings round Hopgood in the second half.  Our 3^rd goal was cheated. A West Hammer & the Arsenal goalie were lying side by side on the goal line & the hammer flicked the ball with his hand & kicked it into the net.  There was an Arsenal supporter near us & I thought we were going to have a fight with him.  When the whistle blew for time he walked off with a towerry expression on his face.  When I got home I went & got some beer & lemonade.  

Bert came in after dinner.  Freddie called round & I gave him his tie.  Ern went out in the evening.  As there was only Mum Dad I & Bert there.  We got out the faces & hats and Bert & I dressed up in them & went over to Aunt Lily’s.  Doris answered the door & I said “Good Evening” “I’m from the Prudential” & walked in followed by Bert.  Doris was saying “Wil- Wil who am I letting in” Bert & I just opened the front room door & marched in.  It took them all by surprise.  Then Bert & I went over to Stan’s house as his mother & Joyce & Ivy were there.  They said I looked like an undertaker.  With my services mask on & a bowler hat the wrong way round, lady’s raincoat & umbrella with an empty beer bottle.

We played cards & had some music after.  Bert went in about 12.  Ern came in just before. Bed 12.15.

Thursday 26^th December 1940 Boxing Day

Up 10.  After dinner Bert came in.  Walter & Doris arrived about 3.  Ern borrowed Vic’s mike & fixed it up & we did some broadcasting.  At tea there were Mum Dad Walter Doris Ern myself & Bert.  As usual when Walter is present it was one long laugh.  Before tea Mum & Doris went round to Russel Rd school where Hilda was entertaining at a concert for the troops.  They saw Hilda & she said she would come round and when she came at last she had a soldier with her.  His name was Cyril and he came from Lancashire & he gave Stanley Holloway monologue “Albert & the Lion”.  Very funny too.  Ern & I went over for Lily & then about 7 they were nearly ready when we went there.  There were Mum Dad Ern Bert Walter Doris Aunt Lily Albert Leslie Joyce Doris Hilda Cyril- 14 of us. We had a jolly fine time & poor old Bert seems to have fallen for Doris.  I don’t blame him, if I didn’t know Doris Stainsby & Doris wasn’t Leslie’s girl I would fall for her.

We spent most of the time singing but we played a few games. It was one of the best parties we’ve had.  I’m glad the Jerries kept off.  Walter Doris & Hilda went about 11.45,  the soldier had to go much earlier.  The others went about 12.40.  Bed 1.30

Friday 27^th December 1940

Work again – blast it.  Albert came up to the office.  Home 5.50.  ARW 6.39 to 10.43pm.  We didn’t get anything except guns firing but we saw a fire over towards the docks.  The AC was very sudden planes had been over just a few minutes before.  Maybe we keep a watch on their aerodromes.  Bed 12.15.  Bert came in with us during the evening.  Dad gave me 30/- to put in the bank.

Saturday 28^th December 1940

We all overslept & got up at 8.50.  I was out by 9.5 got to work in about 45 minutes.  First in.  Gray Miss Bailey & I were talking about last night’s raid.  Gray didn’t get anything dropped in his district but Miss Bailey had 2 aerial torpes come down near her besides many bombs – fire & HES.  They set Aspinall’s paint place alight which was the fire we saw last night.  Went up library & got “Vampire of N’gobe” Ridgwell Cullum . “Island of Surprises”  Edgar Wallace the book I got for Ern.  Bert came in in the evening.

Sunday 29^th December 1940

Up 12.  Hilda came in the afternoon & borrowed 32 pieces of music for a concert at Credon Rd School Tuesday night.  She asked mum dad & I to come.

ARW 6.9pm.  Bert came in soon after.  The Jerries came over soon after the alarm & we had a good bit of excitement.  A good few bombs were dropped.  Balaam St Manuel centre & the caretakers house were gutted & there were fires in the city & towards Stratford.  The smell was just like when the Blitz began.  A terrible smell of cordite & burnt paper.  It quietened after 10.30 & we had an AC at 11.43pm.

Monday 30^th December 1940

Up 8.  Heard several planes going over & mum said she heard an explosion.  There was still a terrific smell of burnt stuff everywhere.  When I went to the Greengate I found that no buses were going past Aldgate & when I got on one it took us all round Stratford.  I heard the conductor talking to some of the passengers, he said 6 time bombs were between Greengate & Blackwell Tunnel.

We came out on to the East India Dock Rd by the tunnel & we went along nearly to Aldgate & then we went round some back streets.  In Royal Mint St we saw the first of the damage.  We had to get out outside the LNER goods depot after going along over hosepipes & debris for some time.  The goods depot – or what was left of it was still burning furiously & the firemen were still playing on the flames.  Past the depot everything was in ruins all along by the tower & at the bottom of the Minories.  It was just as if the buildings had been hit by a giant hand & laid flat.  The little shops were still burning but they were paying no attention to them.  Mazawattees place was gutted & as we went up Seething Lane there was a place still burning & the firemen couldn’t get enough water pressure to deal with it properly.  I had to walk to work from Aldgate & all the way along there were fires burning.  All round St Pauls the buildings were gutted & though they were leaning over they had not been roped off.  All around were huge lumps of masonry etc.  in Ludgate Hill there was a shop still burning & in Fleet St, St Brides – a Wren church was a ruin & further on there was a shop still alight.  It was a 2^nd great fire but it extended further than the first.  I finally got to work at 10.45.  Gray was there.  Miss Bailey didn’t come in.  She rang up to say she wasn’t well. 

I got on alright by myself.  I had to go home by train to Mansion House & the walk to Aldgate & catch a bus to Plaistow.  Bert had much the same tale as I did.

Tuesday 31^st December 1940

I got to work, bus to Aldgate – train Mansion Hse to Charing X.  Home same way except it was reversed.  Coming home I saw that a whole block almost beginning at Old Jewry up to Barham & Mo, & a good way down old Jewry was gutted.  That’s why there is no city bus service  – it’s dangerous.  I can’t see why they don’t run buses down Houndsditch, Bishopsgate and Threadneedle St & back to the usual route.  It’s possible.  

The Guildhall has gone but better that than human life.

I got 2 diaries today.  They are vastly different from our usual ones and at 7d but I think they’ll do.  Bert wanted one when he saw them.  

About 7 Bert Dad Mum & I went round to Credon Rd schools to the party Hilda invited us to.  Ern came later.  We had a jolly good time.  Florrie’s sister Peggy was there – boy oh boy can she kiss.  At midnight when we sang Auld Lang Syne she spotted me & what a kisser she is.  Everyone was very pally round there & it was just like a family party.  There was a good looking girl in green who was making eyes at Ern but nothing came of it.  About 11 a chap came with some drums but Bert soon had them.  Mum & Dad left about 1. Bert Ern & I came about 2.15. I had a couple of turns at the piano.  They had 2 whip rounds 2/- & 1/-.  There were easily over a 100 there but they certainly gave good value for money.

Willie came to see us tonight, he’s in the Fleet Air Arm & I think he’s on the same boat as Eric Buttle.

Wednesday 1^st January 1941

Up rather late.  Got to work by bus to Aldgate & train to Charring X. Came home train all the way.

ARW 8.14pm to 9.18pm heard nil.  Another 9.56pm till 1.45am.  Quiet till 12, fairly noisy after.  Got Bert a diary today.

Thursday 2^nd January 1941

ARW 5am to 7.45am guns hears sometimes. 

Got to work by bus to Aldgate, train rest of way & all way home.  Nothing much at work.  Bert came in in the evening.  ARW 6.58 to 11.43pm. noisy now and again. Bed 12.30.

Friday 3^rd January 1941

Got to work same way as yesterday.  At lunch I got “Riding on a Rainbow to Dreamland”.  Bert came in in the evening ARW 9.1 to 10.30pm fairly quiet.  Another raid 11.18 & 12.8.  Guns & planes heard.  I had “Melody Maker” delivered today.  We’re going to have it every week now.

Saturday 4^th January 1941

ARW 12.20am 4.0am. noisy at times.  While I was going to work I got “Blues Small” & “Swiss bell-Ringer” at Ebblewhites.  Home by train.

I suppose Miss Baily will come in Monday after her weeks absence.  On my way home I called at Rymans at the Strand & bought a box of stationary for 3/6d to make index cards for our music.  When I got home I went to Balsam St school & re-enrolled for school & saw Mr Richards.  He said if they can’t get enough pupils for Saturday & Sunday lessons they will be held Sunday mornings only.

Bert & I did some practising Bert came in in the evening & we started on our indexing of the music.  Walter & Doris came.  Bert went to the library for me & got a book on dancing by Victor Sylvester.  Bert got “There’ll Come Another Day”.

Sunday 5^th January 1941

ARW 1.18am to 7.36am noisy at times.  Up late ARW 2.44 to 3.26pm.  Had bath in afternoon.  Bert came in in evening & we did some more indexing.  Leslie came over with the rest & stayed for about an hour.  We lent him the book on dancing.  ARW 7.3 to 11.26pm.  First heard guns at 6.45. Fairly noisy till 10 quiet after.  The daylight raid was the first one for a long while.  Uncle Albert called this morning.

Monday 6^th January 1941

Heavy snowfall during night.  Frozen when I went out.  Just before I caught a bus siren went.  Time 8.55.  AC 9.14am.  guns etc.  Bus Aldgate train to Charing X.  Miss Baily came in today.  ARW 10.7 to 10.52 pm.  Quiet in city.  Bombs dropped on Burgoyne’s chemical place in East Ham.  At 2.30 planes & guns were heard at home & the Hight St balloon was shot down.  ARW 3.21 to 3.50pm.  Bombs dropped in East London Cemetery.  Quiet in city.  Home by train.  Bert came in & we did some more indexing.  Bed 12.30.

Tuesday 7^th January 1941

Up 8am.  Went to work by train as it was so slippery.  Good job I did too for it took an hour to get over the bridge & Bert didn’t get to work till 10.  ARW at 12.55 till 4.20pm – one of our longest daylight raids. The warning bells & whistle went several times at work and then the guns would start.  It was fairly bad at home.  Home 5.40.  Bert came in & we did some more indexing bed 11.30.

Wednesday 8^th January 1941

Up 8.15.  went to work by train.  Had to type out a very juicy bit about 2 people being together etc. – very tasty – very sweet.  Even as I am writing this Joseph & Bratt are arguing about some kid whose lawful & yet a bastard —- a lawyer’s job is very tasty at times. 

As I was going to the station this morning I saw Freddy.  Bert came in in the evening.

Thursday 9^th January 1941

I spoke to Alistair Sim today.  I was just coming in the building & he was just going out & he kept the door open for me & I said “Thanks”.  I had a second look at him & I realized who he was.  The porter said he often come here to see one of his friends on the first floor.

I had to go to a place in the Temple today where I had not been before – paper buildings – there right round the back, and the damage round there is the worst I reckon that nearly a dozen bombs have dropped in the Temple.

Bert came in in the evening.  ARW 7.13 pm 2.10am guns before alarm.  About 10 we heard a plane going to the east very low with only one engine going.  I bet he was winged by our A.A.  After 11 the raid was very noisy.

Friday 10^th January 1941

The “Melody Maker” wasn’t left till 11 so I didn’t see it till I got home from work.  Bert came in during the evening.  I got home from work before it was dark & I was able to play the piano for a while.

Saturday 11^th January 1941

I had to go to Park Crescent today.  I told them at work I was going to school this afternoon & I got off at 12.45pm.  

I saw Bert & he said he would come & do Manual there before we went we jazzed for a while.  When we got there was no teacher there so we just sat & talked.  We met Lennie Donovan up there – he was doing woodwork like Bert.  He said he could play the xylophone so he is going to come & play with us on Sunday afternoon.  Bert & he had a lesson but I only get lessons on Sunday morning from 10 till 12.  While Bert & Len had their lesson I got my haircut.  Bert & I went to the library I got “Mulliner Nights” Wodehouse.  “The Plains of Cement” P. Hamilton^XII & “Bottles in the Smoke” Hankey. 

I told Bert I would be bathing tonight but as it happened there was a raid from 6.20 to 9.50 & didn’t bath till after then.  The raid was fairly noisy at times.  Saw some fires in the city.  We didn’t hear the AC as we were listening to Vic Oliver & Sarah Churchill in Star Time.  Vic played the piano & the Violin – he’s jolly good too.  He & Sarah acted a bit from Idiots Delight.  They were in the play but I saw the film with Clark Gable in it.

Sunday 12^th January 1941

Up 9.15.  there were 8 of us at Book-keeping.  It’s surprising how much I have forgotten.  There is only 1 girl in the class so far but she is older than me.  She’s making eyes at me thought.  Afterwards Bert & I went to see a chap he knows – the one he got the drum off – but he was out. In the afternoon Len came home he brought his xylophone & mandolin. It sounds jolly good with piano drums & xylophone.  I can play his xylophone but I broke one of his sticks.  Still it’s his own fault really.  He always uses the same stick in the same hand & he cut notches in them to distinguish between them & I had the left hand one in my right hand & while running up the keys it broke.

We had an alarm at 6.31 & soon after the boys knocked at the door & told us to get out the pump & sand as they were dropping hundreds of incendiary bombs.  There was already a fire not very far away.  Bert came out later & there was Ern Bert myself Toot Powder Len Moody & a couple of other chaps out there.  We stopped there till about 9.  During that time the fire got bigger & ever so many HE’s were dropped and at times there were so many incendiaries being dropped that as they caught they lit the place almost like day.

When the raid began the clouds were low & that intensified the blaze & made it seem much worse & when bombs were dropped all you heard was a very short whistle after they pierced the clouds & then the explosion.  Later when the clouds had shifted we heard a bomb drop while we were all in the road looking at the fire.  We all dashed to get cover & as it exploded just past the Greengate where the fire was. Lenny Moody called out “Ha! Fooled you that time I didn’t stop there” & it sounded so funny we all burst out laughing.  At times the shrapnel fell like rain all along the road.  About 9.15 it quietened considerably. About 10.15 mum & I went out the front & stood talking to Mr Newman for some time.  We heard a couple of planes.  AC 10.53.

Monday 13^th January 1941

Freddie & Bill called this evening & Bert & I were talking to them for a long while.  They had 4 bombs in their street last night but they were soon extinguished by all the people. 

I spent the rest of the evening making a copy of my own arrangement of “In the Mood” for Gray.  I told him about it today & he asked me if I could make a copy for him.  I also lent him 14 pieces of music.

Tuesday 14^th January 1941

I was able to go all the way to work & home again by bus today although we had to go round Cannon Street because of the damage at the bank.  I reckon there are 2 or 3 hundred people buried there.  They did that Saturday night.  They also finished the Guildhall & bombed Dirty Dicks on Saturday.  I did some Book-keeping in the evening.

Wednesday 15^th January 1941

Mr Spyer rang up today & said he is coming in tomorrow as he is on leave.  Bert came in this evening & I did some Book-keeping.

At 11.30pm the guns fired on a plane & again at 11.45.  At 11.55 the ARW went and another plane came over each time the guns fired I heard what I thought was a ships hooter but it turned out to be a factory warning hooter.  I’m getting on alright with that flageolet.  I got a tutor for it at Ebblewhites on Monday & now I can play a lot of tunes – slowly but I can do it.  I went to bed about 12.30 the raid was noisy a few times AC 2.5am.

Thursday 16^th January 1941

ARW 4.5 am to 5.58am. the raid was very noisy at the beginning but it gradually quietened .  Gray said that his band have got an orchestration of In the Mood & he says the ending is just like the one I gave to him.  ARW 7.43 to 9.21pm

Heard nothing.

Another alarm 10.22 till 1.45am.  fairly noisy at times.

Friday 17^th January 1941

Gray forgot to bring my music – the twerp.  

Bert & I went to see Bennie & we all decided to go to the Carlton tomorrow evening.  We stopped in Lennie’s house for some time.

Saturday 18^th January 1941

Thick carpet of snow everywhere when I got up & it was still falling. There had been an alarm from 1.50 to 3.45am but it was quiet.

I had to go to Park Crescent.

It was still snowing & in the back garden it was about 6 inches deep so I began to clear it away, while I was doing this I heard some bangs but it was not till the ARW went I realised what the bangs were – guns.  Today of all days I did not expect a raid.  I thought it would be much too cold.  The ARW went 3.12pm & lasted till 4.2pm.  After the siren went we heard a few guns but nothing much.  I went to the library & got “Streets of London” Thomas Burke & “Under London” by F.L. Stevens.  About 5 Bert Len & I went to the Carlton we saw –  

“Crime does not pay – Soaking the Old”

“The Passing Parade – The Hidden Master”

“The Inferior Feeling“ & Mickey Rooney & Judy Garland – what a dame in “Strike up the Band” – what a film.  Micky Rooney does some smashing drumming & Judy Garland – Wow!.  I bet Micky & Judy get married sooner or later.

We got home about 9.30 on our way home we met a couple of girls & if Bert had started throwing snowballs at them it might have come to something.

Sunday 19^th January 1941

We had cups of tea at 11 while we were at night-school.  After school we went round to Arthur Thompsons place about his drum but he wasn’t in.  So we knocked next door & asked the woman to tell him we would call back tonight.  In the afternoon Hilda called we got her to play the piano & she said that on Feb 8^th the Wardens are having a dance & she wants us to go there.  

We called round Arthurs again in the evening but still no one in.  As we were going through Grange Rd on our way home the ARW went, we quickened our pace & while we were going through Balaam St 2 planes came over.  As we turned into Tweedmouth Rd an Incendiary was dropped over East Ham – there was a terrific white glare for a fraction of a second & then a red glow & then it died down.  As it died down then Jerry dropped a bomb, we all got close to the wall as we weren’t going to lay down in all the mush & slush of the snow.  The bomb fell over towards the docks & it was a very big one.  The ground shook & trembled under us.  Lennie came down to collect his Xylophone & while he was here I gave him a list of some of our tunes.  

The ARW went at 7.10pm after the alarm there was a little bit of noise & then it would be quiet for a long period & then a little noisy for a very short time.  AC 2.15am.  Dad found out yesterday that if you only earn up to 25/- & are between 16 and 18 you can get ½ rate season tickets so I’m getting one.

Monday 20^th January 1941

There was still plenty of snow about & it even snowed some more.

I went up Plaistow Station in the evening with the competed form.  Miss Joseph had to sign it to certify I was only getting 25/- per week.  It will be 14/3d a month & will save 3/-a week on average.

I did some book-keeping & then Bert Len & I went round to Arthurs again. This time we found him in – but over the road at his father-in-law’s place.  He was all by himself.  After we had been there for some time he took us over the road to his own place to show us the drum.  It’s a beauty 28” x 15” & it’s hardly marked & it’s got a trap door & spurs attached a good case & a large strap Arthur bought later.  He wants £4. 10/- for the lot.  4/- for a 25/- beater & he said his got a small cowbell we can have for a 1/-.  £4.16/- the lot & we mean to raise it before Feb 8^th.

I’m going to ask Dad for a loan. I spoke about the drum & praised it up when we got back & I hope to talk about the loan tomorrow. 

Tuesday 21^st January 1941

It’s nice to go to work by train. The times I go, hardly anyone is travelling & it is much more comfortable as well as much faster than the buses are.  We had an ARW 10.36am & 10.57am all quiet.

Another at 1.17pm – Did hear one at app. 1.10pm in the distance.  There was heavy gunfire at home during this alarm but I didn’t hear anything.  AC 2.5pm the 3^rd alarm of the day was between3.30pm & 4.20pm:  all quiet.

Did some book-keeping during evening.  Bert came in.

Wednesday 22^nd January 1940

I had to go to Euston Rd Town Hall for a Death Certificate today.  Talk about lost in the wilds I got what I wanted eventually however.  

Walter & Doris came in the evening.  It won’t be long now before I’m an uncle.  Then the pop song (with words reversed thus “I’m his uncle, he’s my nephew I’m as proud as proud can be (at least that’s if it’s a boy, I hope it is.) will be very appropriate.  Doris wants a new dress & she wants Miss Parker to make it.  Walter said “tell her to allow for expansion” and then he said “I’ve had to cut a lump from the table so she can sit close to it.”  Bert & I nearly burst trying not to laugh.  Walter would make fun of anything.

When he had an accident on his motor bike about 10 years or so ago.  The first words he said when Dad saw him in hospital were “It was near a cemetery anyway”.

When they left Bert & I sorted our music into 3 groups, Popular, fairly popular & others.  Then we subdivided them into Waltzes Fox trots & quickstep etc.

Mum had been over to Aunt Lily’s & we were talking about the 2 Dorrises & Bert says “Don knows a Doris too” & goes on taking the rise out of me.  But then Mum said “That girl you used to go up to the school with is back home again, I’ve seen her once or twice”.  Boy oh boy I nearly jumped for joy.  I went to bed a bit earlier so as to get up earlier & then I may see her as I go out.

Thursday 23^rd January 1941

Up 8.20.  I went out about 5 to 9 but I didn’t see Doris.

Mum & Dad went to see “Aladdin” at the Coliseum.  I would rather have been with them than at work.  I did nothing but dash from one place to another.   My petty expenses totalled over 14/-.  

We had an alarm in the morning from 10.32am to 10.50am. All quiet. The ARW went as I passed the Lyons tea shop on the corner of Dun Cannon St (Duncannon Street) & Strand & the A.C. went as I passed it on my way back from the Stamping office at Bush House, Coincidence!.

When I got home Dad gave me a letter that had come from Hilda.  2 little children brought it round & they said it had better be opened in case there was an answer. The letter was asking if me Bert & Len could go to a dance at Credon Rd school on Sunday at 2.30.  She wants Ern to go as well. The letter was authentic “Jack Warner” style.

I fixed up the blackout in the front room & Bert Len & I had a jam session.  We’re getting hot now, but I wish I started the piano earlier.  I’m the weak link of the trio.  For over a year before I started to learn I asked Dad to let me start.  If I had begun a year earlier it would have made a world of difference to my playing.  The sooner Miss Elson comes back the better because then I can ask her to improve my left hand technique.  I’ve got a lot of good ideas but I can’t put them into practice or if I do I have to modify them first.

Friday 24^th January 1941

Gray has got another job now. They wanted him to start immediately but he said he couldn’t.  If he leaves tomorrow they’re bound to want someone at Park Crescent & I shall fall in for that, but if I’m to go there I shall want a rise because of the extra fares & I’m not stopping till 7 at night.  I don’t care who old Guedalla is & how terrifying he is I shall tell him so & if I do have to stop late I’m getting another job.^XIII  There’s plenty of young chaps wanted now.  Brackstone is leaving as well & he was going to reorganise the filing system at Park Crescent.  If he leaves the files in a hopeless muddle & I go there what do they expect me to do.  I also have an idea that Miss McClean is leaving.  They will be in a state if all 3 go because the other girls haven’t been there more than a couple of weeks.  Still I’ve got to wait & see what happens.  But I’m not going to be messed about.

Doris called this afternoon for Miss Parker to measure her for her dress & I saw as I came down Tweedmouth Rd & as she was going to get a bus.  I didn’t recognise her & when she said good-night I wondered who it was but I turned round & then recognised her.  I think that when Walter came over Wednesday she had a lot of extra clothes on because when I saw her tonight you could hardly tell she was going to have a baby.

I saw Bert & we found he could get £1.11/- tonight so I asked Dad if he would lend us £3.5/- but he said no.  I don’t really blame him either.  Bert said if he didn’t have the Bass drum it wouldn’t be any good going to the dance Sunday so he & I went to see Hilda & tell her.  We saw her Father-in-law & he said she had gone to bed with a cold.  So we went home.  When we got in we played all our mournful tunes – blues etc because we hadn’t been able to get the drum, still it has only put us back a couple of weeks & that’s not much.

Saturday 25^th January 1941

Terrible morning at work dashing about from one place to another all the time.  I didn’t leave till 1.20.  Miss Ashton, one of the old typists came in – nice dame – she asked after Albert. I’ll have to mention that when I see Aunt Lily so she can tell Albert when she writes to him.  Last Thursday I went to Coates on my way home to get some Port for Dad.  I tried again today but they were shut again.  I’ll have to ring them up on Monday.

When I got home I saw Hilda round the shop she still had a bad cold & she won’t be going Sunday either.  So maybe it’s for the best we didn’t get the drum.

In the afternoon I played the piano & then went up the library.  I got “Heart of a Goof” Wodehouse – I hope he writes a book while in the concentration camp.  I bet he will be the only man to write a book in a padded cell if he does.^XIV

Also got “Music Calling” Cyril Wynn & “Visible & Invisible in Pianoforte Technique” Tobias Matthay.^XV

When I got home from the library & I had a bath.

In the evening we went down Len’s house & stopped till 10 playing.  We jazzed up “Melody D’Amour” & it sounded swell.

Sunday 26^th January 1941

Up 9.15.  went to “Night” school.  Len & Bert came down for a swing session in the afternoon.  We swung some more of our tunes besides Melodie D’Amour.  Joyce & Doris brought the rent over.  Poor old Bert he’s’ right gone on Doris.  She is a smashing Dame thought.  I bet Bert wishes Doris was Leslie’s sister instead of his girl.  I wouldn’t mind her as a cousin though. Maybe she will be my cousin someday – by Marriage, because I think I wouldn’t lose my money if I bet that Les & Doris marry.

Bert & I went for a walk in the evening. Tonight was the 7^th night in succession we didn’t have a raid & if we don’t have a raid before 3 tomorrow afternoon we will have been a 100 hours without a raid.  – From 11am (app) on Thursday morning . Bed early.

Monday 27^th January 1941

Up 8.20. In the train I sat next to White who I used to work with at Evans.  Either he didn’t see me or saw me & didn’t recognise me or saw & recognised me & didn’t want to speak to me I don’t know but he didn’t take any notice & as I wasn’t particularly interested I didn’t take any notice either.  He got out at Blackfriars so maybe he’s on a paper now.

Gray is leaving Wednesday.

Bert came in for a little while in the evening. I did some book-keeping.

At 2.50 today our 100 hour of no raids & today was the 8^th no-blitz night – No-blitz oblige.

Tuesday 28^th January 1940

ARW at 10.58am till 11.24am.  448^th raid.  In the city I heard nothing but at home some guns were heard.

This raid ended our spell of peace after 120 hours 8 mins or 5 days 0 hrs 8 mins.  Raid 449 at 12.32pm till 12.55pm.  quiet in city noisy at home. 4.50 at 1.16till 1.49. few guns at home, nothing in city

451 raid between 2.9pm & 4.2pm.  At home there was fairly heavy gunfire but in the City it was terrific.  There were small guns on the Admiralty Arch – I think they are Bofors^XVI & the big guns in Hyde Park it was terrific for minutes on end.  There were a few pause & then we would get more gunfire.  When I went down for tea the guns were terrific but no one was taking the least notice. 

We went up Len’s house & had a jam session.

Wednesday 29^th January 1941

ARW 9.35am till 9.54am.  I was on the train when the siren went & just got in the office when the AC went.

All quiet home & City.

We had no more day raids but just as I got in the siren went – 5.47.  Bert came in about 6.45 & we sat making a list of the amount we had each spend on music.  Ern was at the pictures the raid was quiet till 8.15 then planes began to come over about 8.25 we heard a thud that we thought was a time-bomb but I think it was a H.E. that fell in Butchers Road.  At 8.30 we heard a sound like a faint hissing & then pop pop -pop – poppoppop.  We knew what it was. – as I came along tonight I saw bags of sand in every gate & mum said there had been lorries round today bringing them.  Well when we heard the sounds Dad & Bert rushed out the back & I went out the front.

As I got to the gate I could see along the road a tremendous white glare with bits of flaming Magnesium flying about I yelled “they’re along the road” Bert dashed out & ran along with me & Dad followed with the stirrup pump. We ran down Southern Rd & there on the field was a line of incendiary bombs making the place like day.  If it had been peace time people would have said “isn’t it pretty” because it really is a sight to remember.  But we couldn’t stand & watch them so Bert & I grabbed a bag of sand & dashed in to the field. We were beaten by a short head to one bomb but the other chap didn’t put it right out so I up-ended our bag over it & that extinguished it.  All the bombs on the field were out in under 2 minutes & when the next jerry came over in about 3 minutes the only light to be seen was a little fire on a house over the other side of the field a small fire in Coats – they must have hit the tyres there because the smell of rubber was indescribable – & there was a bomb on the roof of a house in Perth Rd.  

But I think we would have copped it if the firebombs hadn’t been put out.  As it was I recon Fritz in the 2^nd plane thought Hans in the first plane hadn’t dropped his bombs to light up for him. 

When Bert Dad & I got back we found Mrs McGarry in with Mum.  Mr McGarry had dashed out & she was dead scared so Mum asked her in.  Bert went into see his people & tell them what had happened I thought he was a long time telling them & when he came in again he told us that Mr Clay had put a bucket of water just by the door & the fence & as he stepped through the door he put his foot clean in the bucket of icy water, he was soaked.  He had to change his socks & shoes & when he came in again he was wearing odd socks.  His trouser leg was soaked.  He didn’t half get his leg pulled over it. Ern asked him if he was trying to carry 3 buckets of water at once one in each hand & one on his foot & hop along to the bombs. 

Mrs McGarry stayed till the AC went at 9.45.  there wasn’t much doing after the bombs fell. Fancy Ern missing all the excitement & he is so keen on keeping a watch.

Thursday 30^th January 1941

ARW 9.23am 9.58am City all quiet Home some gunfire.

No 2 11.35am 12noon city quiet Home some gunfire.  Gray finished last night – he took my address & is going to let me know of any dates his band can’t do – so I had to go to Park Crescent as I was going the ARW went for the 3^rd time today 12.24 to 1.18.  Some gunfire at home.  I had to go to Piccadilly by bus because Trafalgar Square Station is shut during Air Raids. As I came out of Regents Park Station the ack ack was busy.  There wasn’t much firing though. 4^th alarm 1.32 to 5.50pm. the raid was noisy at times.

When I got home I had a look on the field but I couldn’t see any of the heaps of sand showing where the bombs fell.  Dad said that 1 bomb fell on the parapet of Woodmansee roof.  Mr Hunt put it out.A boy found 2 bombs that hadn’t ignited, on the field today.

We had band practice.

Book 21

Friday 31^st January 1941

We got the Bass Drum tonight.  Dad lent us 35/- I put 30/- Len 10/- & Bert 22/-

We got a Bass Drum £4.10.0

Cowbell         £0.01.0

Pedal       £0.05.0

Tom-Tom Holder     £0.01.0

Total             £4.17.0

We got it home & spent the rest of the time cleaning it.

Mrs Edmead heard us banging it & thought it was guns & stood in the passage. The x!xxx

There was a photo in the paper today of a black board outside a warden’s post thanking the firewatchers for their work Wednesday.  I bet its near us.  I felt rotten at work all day.

Today’s raids:

1. no 458 9.34am 9.42am all quiet.

2. no 459 11.17am  12.16pm city all quiet, Home guns occasionally

3. no 460 12.31pm 3.45pm noisy at times home & city

Saturday 1^st February 1941

I felt so bad I didn’t go to work. 

I went to Dr Kyndt, he said I had a bad cold too low down for gargling to be any use & he’s given me a tonic.  It’s not bad but it smells like smelling salts. I went round to see Hilda.  She said that they’ve got another band now but they are having a rehearsal tomorrow & she said we might as well go.  The news discouraged us all, after getting the drum specially for the occasion.  Still we’re going.  

I had a bath in the afternoon. In the evening we had a practice indoors.  We’re not bad now either. 

Sunday 2^nd February 1941

I didn’t feel too good when I got up but I went to school.

In the afternoon about 2.30 we all went round to the school.  The Head Warden Syd saw us & we told him who we were.  He hummed & hah-ed because he could see we had been promised the job & he didn’t want to turn either of us down.  In the end he asked Len & I to get our instruments & music but he didn’t want the drums as there was a fellow bringing his round.  As we were going this other chap turned up – Ron Pembry.  He only had 1 case with him & that was tiny compared to our Bass Drum.  When I asked him where his side drum was he said, “in the case”.  His Bass drum has only one side & all his kit was in it as well.  I tried to get Bert to come home with us, if he had, Len & I could have persuaded him to fetch his drums because they are much more suitable for a band than Ron’s are.  Anyway I took his sticks & brushes.

When we got back we found Ron’s drums set up – Bass drum side drum cymbal & top base stick & brushes & the brushes were the worst I’ve ever seen, all bent & twisted.  In the end Bert went home & got his Drums.  I played till Hilda came & then Hilda came & then she took over.  The band was – 2 pianist Hilda & I, 2 drummers Ron & Bert,  Xylophone – Len & piano Accordion – Ted. Ted’s a jolly nice chap & he’s got one of the best PA’s I’ve ever seen – & he can play it too.  There was a good few wardens’ there & we were all asked to go & do a dance, round at the children’s hospital in Balaam St, for the nurses.  One woman warden asked me if we charged much.  I nearly fainted.  When I told her we were just getting in some practice she said ”I see, but we’ll treat you alright”.

We’re having a rehearsal tomorrow night.  Syd wants us to do a dance round Credon Rd on Saturday & then there’s one more dance after that.  He said “of course, you can’t expect payment for the first couple but afterwards you’ll get something.”

When I got home Doris was there.  

We had a practice at Len’s after tea & gave us a couple of old books called “Rhythm”, there jolly good.  They’re incorporated in the MM now.

Dad was on Fire Watching duty from 5 to 7 tonight.  The picture in the papers of a blackboard thanking the people for their work was at Credon Rd Post.

(NB the newspaper cutting from the Daily Express 30.1.41 was folded and a rusty paperclip held it in the diary.  There is a very interesting article and a picture of the blackboard. )  See Below

Monday 3^rd February 1941

We still can’t get a boy for Park Crescent so I had to go up there again, as I was going at 12.15 the AA guns started firing at a lone plane.  But there was no ARW.

We went round to Credon Rd School about 7.  The band tonight was 2 drummers,  2 pianists, Xylophone squeezebox & a Banjo Player & he was hot too.  I wish I had been playing the piano for about another year, I should be just right for a band then.  But Hilda is much too good for a band.  She starts wandering off making up her own bits & throwing everyone else off & she plays tunes miles too fast.  We had to tell her of it several times.  I hope she tones down by Wednesday.  Just as we were packing up one of the wardens came over & said the yellow was up & about 3 minutes after he said the purple was up.^XVII  There was a short ARW about 10 minutes after we got in but we didn’t hear anything it was from 11.8 to 11.21pm.  Bert & I are going again tomorrow night & we are going to sort out a programme for Wednesday with Ted & Syd.

Tuesday 4^th February 1941

Up late.

I had to go twice to Park Crescent today a boy came in the afternoon.  I hope he starts tomorrow.  It will save me dashing about between Park Crescent & the office.

Just after he left Miss Joseph called me in & said that as all the chaps ask for 30/-, she thinks I should have it too & I shall start to as from Friday next drawing my increased salary.

I went to Credon Rd by myself as Bert has a cold & Len was finishing his xylo Stand.

Just as I got there the siren went time 7.1pm.  It was a bit noisy for a while.  Syd & I sorted out the music into five groups 1 Waltzes 2 Foxtrots 3 Slow Foxtrots 4 Quickstep 5 Tango, Rumbas, Polkas, Veleta^XVIII etc.   We’ve got a big, fine programme from Ted’s & my music, but Ted can’t turn up tomorrow as he is on night work & Hilda might not come. 

I went up & saw Len. He thinks he can finish his stand for tomorrow night.  I hope he does.  I saw Bert for a while.  

AC 11.1pm the raid was quiet after 9.30 & there wasn’t much before that really, except at the start.

Bed 12.

She was only a Town Clerks daughter but she wouldn’t let the Borough-Surveyor.

Wednesday 5^th February 1941

That new kid started today.  Name Woodford.  He’s only a very little younger than me but he seems very childish.  Still I hope he gets on alright at P.C.

Home 5.45

Bert Len & I got to the hospital just about 7.  As soon as we began playing they let up the people. They were nearly all girls but some more chaps came along later.  But even so us chaps were outnumbered.  Hilda, Ron, Mr Lamb – the Banjo player -, Syd & a lot of other chaps from Credon Rd.  Hilda played the piano a lot, but I did a good bit of playing.  I learnt the Palais Glide.  We had a jolly good time.  

For our first dance we got plenty to eat & drink, plenty of fun & 10 players^XIX each.  I sold mine to Ern for 6d.  On the other hand I spent 4d on 2 sweepstake tickets – the last 2 – for a cake so actual cash result was 2d.

They asked us if we could do a dance at another hospital but they didn’t know which so they will let Syd know tomorrow morning & he will call & see Len & then before we go tomorrow night we are going to see if Mr Lamb can come.  He lives at 25 Walton Rd.

Someone else suggested we call ourselves the 2J band & do all the ARP dances & advertise ourselves as the ARP Drones.  They’ve already sold all the tickets for next Saturday’s dance – 150 of them.  They won’t let anyone in without a ticket but if Ern or mum or dad want to come I suppose it will be o.k.  It will have to be, anyway.

We packed up about 11.30 & as it was snowing we left all the instruments at the hospital & they will be brought round tomorrow.  There was a raid on while we were there from 7.45pm to 10.28pm. Ern said he heard planes & guns long before the ARW.  After the siren there were guns occasionally.

Bed 12.30 

Thursday 6^th February 1941

Up 8.10.  Dad didn’t feel well so he stayed in bed.

There was about 4 inches of snow when I went out to work.  We were terribly busy in the afternoon & I was dashing about trying to get home early for the dance, & then when I did see Len, he showed me a letter from the Hospital saying that they couldn’t make all the arrangements in time so it would have to be postponed till another night, but they would let us know as soon as possible.

I spent the evening doing Book-keeping.  A form came for Ern to fill up re the Stirrup Pump team & that stirred him into making arrangements with Mr Brett – the then Pump Party Leader for our road – for forming fire watching parties to be on duty every night from 9pm to 5am.

On the wireless they said Fire-Watching Parties would be issued with Helmets.  – Those in vulnerable areas first – so we should soon get ours.

Bed 12.10

Friday 7^th February 1941

Because I was a bit late today the kid got in early & was there when I arrived. Dad went to work today.

Miss Joseph asked me again today whether I was going to join the savings group.  I don’t know whether to or not,  I’ll see what dad says.

I drew my first increased salary today.  

Saw a Balloon that had broken loose & was travelling N.E.  It was going along tail down & nose up in the air.  It was very low & I bet it came down without being shot at.

Bert came in for a while & we sorted out the music for tomorrow.

Miss Bailey asked if she could have a look at my MM.  she said she had seen that Brian Laurence was a father & she wanted to see if it told when he was married as she didn’t think it was 9 months ago.  

Her mind must be worse than the Northern Outfall Sewer.  Positively Filthy as Miss N.B. would say.

Saturday 8^th February 1941

Nice work Wavell.^XX  A couple of days ago in the Daily Express it said if the advance continues at its present rate we would reach Benghazi in 5 or 6 days, & yesterday you capture it.  Wavell, you will go down in History with Clive, Nelson, Wellington, Drake, Wolfe, Kitchens & all the rather great generals but you will be greater than most of them.  I think we can reach the Libya/Tunisian border that old Weggard would join us & break with Vichy,^XXI – & there’s another problem – what is going on behind the scenes at Vichy & Paris.

I dreamt last night that the invasion began but woke up before I had found out who won.

Went up library & got “Century of Humour” Wodehouse

“The Forest Fire” ET Thurston^XXII

“Furthermore” Damon Runyon^XXIII

Went round the Credon Rd school & arranged tonight’s programme.  Home for tea & then back to Credon Rd about 6.15.  Tonight’s Band was Hilda, I, Bert, Ron, Len, Ed, Mr Lamb & Ron’s brother on the guitar.

It wasn’t too bad but it could have been much better. The guitar was all out & actually the band sounded better without it – one of the strings broke so he had to stop playing.  We came away at 1.30 but lots of people still stayed after.  We had a fairly good time but on the whole I was disappointed in it.

Once during the evening Len Bert & I had a go by ourselves, we played Mem’ries live longer than Dreams, we had to play it 3 times & then we played some more waltzes after that & then Whispering & Down & Out Blues & we let them jitterbug with “In The Mood” & did we get clapped.

Bed 2.10am

Sunday 9^th February 1941

Up 9.15.  Went to school.

When I got back from school I saw Ern & Mr Brett going round & getting names for the Street Fire Patrol so I went round with them.  Most people were very enthusiastic – even women volunteered for fire watching & instruction in how to deal with bombs – but some -notably Gardeners – would have nothing to do with it. Ern & Mr Brett finished the job after dinner & they got 41 male fire watchers 7 female fire watchers 22 males for bomb instruction 5 females for bomb instruction.

Although the women can have instruction, Ern & Mr Brett aren’t going to have them as fire-watchers unless it’s absolutely necessary.

ARW 3.30 to 3.44 all quiet.  I bathed after.

After tea Dad went on to the shop for his turn at fire watching & I went round to Credon Rd for a practice.  Bert Len & I felt on form & we did good work. Hilda was there & a chap who played a phone fiddle but we don’t want him – the fiddle goes right through & Syd is not having him in the band.  We packed up at 9.15.  I heard the last 10 mins of Churchill’s speech – very good too.^XXIV

ARW 7.46 to 9.40 few guns at start but quiet after that.

Joe – one of the wardens was telling me that he used to be in a band & he’s got a card & he can go in any music publishers & get whatever music he wants – free professional copies – by showing this card.  He showed me some of the music.  Les got, orchestrated & ordinary.  He said if Mark – the head warden – gave me a note & explained to the music publisher I was doing dances for the ARP I could get free music too. So Syd is bringing a note round to home tomorrow night & on Tuesday I can start going to the various music publishers.

I’m getting 7/6d pocket money now.

Bert has paid Dad a £1 of what he was lent for the drum.

Miss Joseph has been asking me again whether I am going to join the savings group so when I told dad he said I might as well and said also that as they would want my number I had better take my book with me – & he gave me a saving certificate book with 2 certificates in it that he bought for me last July & August.

Bed 12.

Monday 10^th February 1941

Up 8.40

I’ve joined the savings group for 1/- per week & I saw Miss Greenwood about it.  I’m no 39 in the group. I’ve been looking into my financial position it is a follows – 

Savings Bank £7.13.0

Savings certificates £1.10.0

To come from Bert £1.10.0

Total £10.13.0

Plus interest on Saving Bank & Certificates

Syd came round with a letter to the PM music Co.  He said if it works he will get letters for all the others Co’s but if it doesn’t – well – that’s that.

I did some bookkeeping.  ARW 10.11 to 11.2 pm all quiet.

Bed 11.30

Tuesday 11^th February 1941

Up 8.30

Went in Bert’s House in evening, Len was in there.  After a while Len & I went round to the school to see Syd & tell him that I was unlucky when I went to the P.M. music shop today.  The chap said there not doing any free music now but if we join the Piano copy section of the club we can get 30 no’s for 8/- saving over 2/3 of what they would cost if we bought them separately at a shop.  Syd said he would ring up all the shops tomorrow & see what they say.  

Ern is doing fire watching at East Ham tomorrow night.

Bed 11.30

Wednesday 12^th February 1941

Up 8.30

Found a lovely book at work today I brought it home to read. Went in with Bert for a while.

Bed 11.20.  Read that book in bed.  ARW 2am 2.50am all quiet.

ARW 2.32 home 2.36 City AC 2.45pm all quiet.

Thursday 13^th February 1941

Up 8.20. it’s a good job I brought that book home because I had to sort out everything behind where I found it.

Bert bought “Strike up the Band” & “The Badge from your Coat”.

About 7 Bert Len & I went to Balaam St school we arrived before anyone else & had a practice.  Hilda Ted Ron Mr Lamb & Ron’s brother were there Syd was there as well.  There were some Balloon Barrage Boys there & a chap from the Cedars.  Hilda is going round Balmouth next Wednesday & next Saturday we are all going round the Cedars.  

One of the women wardens round there asked us all round her house for a cup of tea.  On Sunday week she wants us all round there when her daughter comes home.  But I think I’ll suggest to the boys that we don’t go because there’s not much room & they don’t want the drums.

Syd bought round a mike belonging to Bert & I brought it home for Ern to look at as it won’t always go.

Bed 11.15

ARW 8.13 8.32 pm bombs before ARW quiet after alarm

Friday 14^th February 1941

Started the savings group today.

Bert came in for a while in the evening and we went in the front room

Bed 11.30

ARW 7.33pm 11pm,  noisy at times.

Saturday 15^th February 1941

My nose bled 7 times today.  I think I’ll see Kyndt about it.  Maybe it will help if I become a blood-donor.

We were going to the Cedars tonight to give a show, but I didn’t go because of my nose. Bert & Len went thought.  I borrowed Bert’s Accordion.

Had hair cut in afternoon. Saw Alf Smith in Barbers.

ARW Home 11.37 am 11.54am

City 11.39am 11.57am all quiet.

ARW 7.55pm 8.59pm very noisy, a good deal of the time.

ARW 10.48 pm 3.45am very noisy at times.

Just before the AC one of our planes flew over very low.

Bed 12.15

Sunday 16^th February 1941

Up 9 went to school.  After school I went to see Freddie.  His Ma said he’d been ill the last 3 weeks & was staying at Grays. But he was coming home tonight.

ARW 12.30pm.  A plane had gone over just before.  AC 12.52pm just before AC a plane flew over. 

Saw Bert.  He said that it wasn’t much last night so I didn’t miss much.

Bert & I went for a walk in the afternoon round to Syd’s house.  I took the mike.  Ern mended it & its fine now.

After tea Auntie Lillie came over.  She stopped till turned 9. Bed 11.30.

Monday 17^th February 1941

Up 8.20

I went to P.C. in the afternoon & started shifting the files.  I saw the old boy while I was there, funny looking old devil.  He’s got dirty pictures all round the house & although when we started on the books, I didn’t see any dirty ones, Gray said that the old boys got lot of them.  Maybe he keeps them where he can often look at them.

I just messed about all the evening.  ARW 2.45pm to 3.11pm all quiet.

ARW 7.24 pm to 11.20pm.  The raid was very noisy at times, several bombs were dropped & a fire was caused at the Docks.  It was extinguished fairly quickly through.  Bed 11.40

Tuesday 18^th February 1941

Up 8.20

Went up P.C. in the afternoon & sorted some more books.

In the evening we went to Balaam St school.  One of the woman warden’s daughters has lent me an accordion.  I hope I get on alright with it.  Joe has promised to lend me a bass note chart & that’s all that’s bothering me – I can play the treble.

Joe is also going to lend me a clarinet.

Mrs Beech – Mrs Patrick Campbells daughter – came to the office today.XXV

Wednesday 19^th February 1941

Went up P.C. again in afternoon.

This morning Mrs Riess came to the office, of all the out & out stinkers she’s the worst. All swank & bounce & an exaggerated accent “Aoh Noaw” kind of thing & you can tell her character as soon as you look at her.  When she got her divorce, she had to apply for the discretion of the court & now herself her ex-husband & present husband are all on such good terms that she wants to alter her will & make both husbands the trustees of her son by her first marriage.  The place wanted fumigating when she left to get rid of the stink of her so-called perfume.

In the evening I practised on the piano & the accordion but then went to see Joe, but he forgot the clarinet, so we ain’t got that.

I was going in Bert’s house with the accordion but just as I was going in the ARW sounded so I didn’t go in.

ARW 8.49pm to 10.46pm noisy at times.

Thursday 20^th February 1941

Mr Bratt & I got a form each from Westminster library & we both joined it. Our tickets will be ready next Saturday.

Went round Credon Rd School in the evening for a practice .  We’ve got a Sax at last.  A soldier from Russel Rd his names Harry.  He’s a jolly good player to.  He comes from Yorkshire.  His coming to Balaam St on Saturday. Bert & I saw him back to Russell Rd School as he didn’t know his way.  We packed up practising when the ARW went at 9.6 to 9.41 & was all quiet.  We had an ARW in the morning 10.53am till 11.40am in the city it was 10.52am 11.38am all quiet.

We left the Bass Drum round Credon Rd.

Friday 21^st February 1941

Len, Bert & I went round to Credon Rd to get the Bass Drum.

Bert gave me 10/-for the drum.  I gave it to Dad.  Dad gave me £3/16/3 for a new season ticket.

ARW 1.22am 3.17am noisy at times

ARW 4.15am 6.13am noisy at start quiet after.

ARW 11.58pm 12.45am gun before ARW few guns just after alarm then quiet.

Saturday 22^nd February 1941

I didn’t go to work but went to Dr Kyndt’s instead to see if he knew of a way to completely stop my nose bleeding.  My nose has bled every day except one for over a week. I rang up the office.

Kyndt said the only way to completely stop it was to have it cauterised & he gave me a letter to take to Queen Marys Hospital.^XXVI

Bert & I went round to the Boleyn I bought some music – I got “Room 504” “& So Do I” “Sierra Sue” “Only for Ever” & “Our Love Affair”.  Then I went round & joined the H.S.A.

Went to library & got “London 8,000,000.” J.A. Jones “The War in Maps” J.F. Horrabin.

Went to Queen Marys Hosp. saw one of the Lady almoners and she told me to be there at 9.30 on Tuesday.^XXVII

Went to Balaam St School.  8 in Band, Hilda piano, me Piano & Piano accordion, Bert Drums, Len Xylophone, Harry Sax, Ted Piano Accordion Bill Lamb Banjo Ron’s brother guitar.

It was the best dance we’ve had, we had a platform & a good mike & we sounded really good & it was the first time we’ve had 8 altogether.  There was plenty to eat & drink too.  Harry had to leave before 11 but we carried on till 12.30.  We left the Bass Drum there.  A jolly fine time was had by all.

Sunday 23^rd February 1941

Went to school. Bathed in afternoon.  In evening Bert Len & I went round to 55 Chesterton Terrace to the party.  I took the P.A.  Ted Vera Syd & Hilda not our Hilda but another.  Mr Lamb brought his wife & his 2 daughters – His eldest daughter is very nice I wouldn’t mind taking her home one night.  Altogether there was nearly 2 dozen.  We broke it up about 11.30pm.  I left the P.A. there.

ARW 8.10 to 10.9.  some guns at first mostly quiet after.  

ARW 11.35 to 10.5.  all quiet.

Monday 24^th February 1941

Went to Westminster library got 2 books for Mr Bratt & got “Lord Halifax’s Ghost Book” for myself.

Bert, Len & I went to Balaam St school to Hilda’s birthday party in the evening.  We had a jolly fine time.   Mr Lambs daughter was there but I didn’t get a chance to speak to her.  There was a soldier from Harold Rd school who played the piano & could he play it. He was perfect for a band.  His name is Harry Whiteleg.

We asked him if he could come round & give me lessons & he jumped at the chance of going out for the night 6 till 10.  We finished about 9.40.  Syd helped us home with the Bass Drum.

ARW 8.23pm 11.26pm all quiet.

Tuesday 25^th February 1941

Up 8.30.  Got to hospital 9.30 saw the Lady Almoner had to pay 1/- for treatment.

It was rotten waiting for the specialist – draughty & the benches were hard & cold.  When I did see him he didn’t do much – just shoved some stuff up my nose on bits of cotton wool.  I think he cauterised it because it tingled a bit.  I’ve got to see him again in a months’ time.  I got some ointment that cost me 6d so altogether I think it was cheap to get the bleeding stopped.  Exceedingly cheap.

I spent the afternoon reading.

I went round for Harry about 7 but he couldn’t come as he was on Fire Duty so I’ve promised to see him on Friday.

As I passed the empty houses in Plaistow Park Rd coming home I heard a soldier & a girl in one of the houses.  From the sounds I heard I recon the soldier felt weak next morning.

When I got back Freddie was talking to Bert.  Freddie wants me to go round to see a friend of his girl who he’s bringing to his house one night.

I spent the evening in Bert’s house helping him make a Boulton Paul^XXVIII his mums bought him for his birthday.

Wednesday 26^th February 1941

Up 9.35

ARW 1.54pm 2.8pm all quiet.

Took my music round to Syd, he’s going to sort it out tomorrow for the concert tomorrow night.  I took it round in an Air Raid coming home the guns were popping away merrily.

ARW 7.25pm.

Syd told me that Hilda can’t come tomorrow & Harry is going to play – Good News!

Several bombs were dropped about 8.50 we all dashed out but the pillars of smoke seemed over the Barking Rd & too far away for us to help.

Mum was over at Aunt Lilies so Dad & I went over there for a while.

AC 10.22pm.

After the bombs had fallen we saw about a dozen flares all around us.  Another ARW 10.38 till 11.8 few guns fired just before & just after ARW all quiet after.

Thursday 27^th February 1941

Dad was on fire watching duty all afternoon round the shop.

ARW 11.14am till 11.27

In city 11.18 till 11.31

All quiet

ARW 11.49 1.19 all quiet.

 In the evening we went round to Russel Rd & had a rehearsal. There was Bert & Ron Drums me P.A. Len Xylophone Harry Sax; Harry, piano, Bill Remfry Guitar: & the Caretaker violin.

The E.O. Lieutenant Craddock seemed quite enthusiastic.  Arranged to meet Harry tomorrow & take him home.

Friday 28^th February 1941

That specialist hasn’t  stopped my nose bleeding after all, I’ve had 3 these last 2 days.

Bratt’s leaving.  I had to make a search today first step in taking over most of his work.  I think I ought to get another rise for it.  

It was very interesting making the search.  I read through all the file while I was there.

Home 6.45.  Fred called round I told him I could call round & see him Monday evening.  His girl & the girl he wants me to see will be there.

Went round for Harry about 7.15. had another disappointment he’s been shoved on fire picket duty again, he’s on next Monday as well so I hope to have him home Tuesday.

He gave me another shock.  Lieut Craddock had come to the conclusion that there would be too many people there if there is an ARW  so he’s cancelled the dance.  We may have it on the afternoon of Sunday  March 9^th but an afternoon dance isn’t as good as an evening one.

Saw Len & Bert.  Len thinks he can get a £26 Xylophone for £12 on the never-never his mum has promised to be security & all he has to do is find if the shop will accept H.P; but after all our disappointment’s we are keeping our fingers crossed.  

ARW 8.22 to 9.19 all quiet.

When Ern came in he said that a flare was dropped over Barking way & it didn’t go out till 9.50.

ARW 10.49 to 11.16.

Few guns just before & just after alarm all quiet otherwise. Bed 12.30

Book 22

Saturday 1^st March 1941

Went up Park Crescent.

Went with Bert in the afternoon to get some music, got the biggest bargain going “Darktown Strutters Ball” & for – 6d.  The woman told us the traveller had 1 copy & she took it in the chance someone would want it.  It was in the front of the display so it’s a wonder someone didn’t grab it before we did.  Got besides that Down Every Street 1/-

If Tears Could Bring You Back 6d

Oh Buddy I’m in Love 6d

 We Three 1/-. 

All in Favour Say Aye! 1/-

Umbrella Man hadn’t come in yet.  

We went round & saw Syd & arranged to go round Credon Rd & have an impromptu dance to make up for Russell being cancelled.  We went round Credon about 7pm.  We played for a while & then we went in the other room & played table tennis for a while.  We packed up at 10.30.  There were about 2 or 3 dozen people there.  ARW 8.18 to 8.50 few guns at first.  ARW 9.40 to 10.41 very quiet.

Sunday 2^nd March 1941

School in morning.

In the afternoon Bert & I went round to Teds to collect the Bass Drum as we left it there last night.  Ted is a model aeroplane enthusiast he’s got some jolly fine models.  We stopped there till 5 talking & playing.  When we got home Doris was there.  We went round Dads shop & played table tennis.  Bert wiped me by 10 games to nil the scores were 

21.12

21.19

21.16

21.13

23.21

21.09

21.09

21.16

21.09

21.09

21.12

212.136 OVER 21.2 TO 13.6

When we got home I helped Bert with his Boulton Paul & then did a bit to my solid Boulton Paul.

Lily & Rose came over. ARW 12.28am to 12.38am.  No enemy activity 1 of our planes flew over very low.  ARW 8.26 to 9.19pm.  A few guns were heard.  Ern was on fire watching tonight.

Monday 3^rd March 1941

Got my 3 months season ticket.  I had to go to the Savoy Hotel today to the Pilgrims at room 751.  The lifts there are very good indeed very fast & you don’t even realise that you are moving when you are in them.  I went there to get Mr Guedalla a ticket for the dinner given for Mr J.G. Winant^XXIX the new American ambassador.  In the afternoon I went up to The Red X with some books.  I had to go to 48 Queens Gardens.  It was lovely walking along by the park.  It was very cool & quiet, you could easily realise Spring was on its way.

It made me think of the days we’ve spent at Richmond by the river for some reason, I could see in my mind the river winding along & the crowded, airy steamers going by – crossing the river on the ferry to get water for the Tea – going rowing. It was quite a shock to find myself in the city again.  Maybe I’ll have more days like those when the war is over.

About 4.30 we heard 2 terrific explosions, nobody had any idea what they were.

I went round to Freddie’s house.  His girl is very nice indeed – he’s sure picked a winner, but the girl that his girl Mary, wanted me to meet was an old boot that lives round in Southern Rd.  I got on alright with Mary, but when the time came to go home I made sure that I didn’t take the girl by myself.  We all went.  I asked Fred & Mary to come to our dance on Saturday.  I said I’d let them know definitely about it.  When I got home I started on my Boulton Paul again.  Len knocked just then & showed me a note he’d got from the hospital saying they hoped we hadn’t forgotten about next Wednesday & asking us to go round tonight.  In the end we decided that I should see the 2 Harry’s & Bert & Len would see Ted tomorrow night & if they would come we would go but otherwise we wouldn’t go.

ARW went then, after we had heard a plane & some guns.  ARW 9.35 till 1.20am.  The raid was noisy at times with quiet intervals.

Tuesday 4^th March 1941

Bert rang up at work to say that he had taken his drum equipment to work to be re-chromed  they could get it done before Friday so that he rang me up to say that we wouldn’t be able to do the job at the hospital tomorrow, definitely.

When I got home Mum said Syd had been round & wanted us to go round Credon tonight – Mum told him I was having Harry & Syd said, “bring him too”.

I saw Bert & we said that we couldn’t go without the drums & it would only be a practice anyway so we wouldn’t bother to go.

I was going to get Harry & then Len & Bert would go to the Hospital & say we couldn’t come.  I went round for Harry & was told he had gone out.  I came to the conclusion that Syd had called on him & got him to go to the school.  I went back to Bert & the 2 of us called for Len.  We were on our way to the Hospital & the siren went.  It soon warmed up & while we were going there & while we were there the guns were popping away busily.

We saw Miss Ray or wherever her name is, in the nurse’s room.  We told her about the drum & of course she started off about it had let her down badly & we had promised etc.etc.  Of course we had to agree.

And then with one thing & another she said she had seen Hilda & Hilda had said she didn’t want to go.  No-one had danced there & anyway the ones they wanted – the 4 youngsters weren’t members of the band & she could do what she liked with them.  As Miss Ray said they didn’t want Hilda, she was the reason no-one dances she’s too eccentric in her timing, when I was playing she said it was a different proposition & they all danced.

After hearing what Hilda had said that was a different proposition & we said that if they would help us to rake up some Drum Kit & some music we would turn up.  So one of the men- the dance M.C. gave us a note to a friend of his who had run dance bands.  We had to go round to his house, 103 Carson Rd – the other side of the Abbey Arms.  That fellow sent us to a chap on the Barking Rd near where Aunt Lily used to live.  

The fellow we wanted was round the Billion Hall & he said we could borrow the stuff so we went back to the house but his old man said he didn’t know where the stuff was kept (I bet he thought we were con men or something like that actually) so we arranged to call for them tomorrow. Then we called at the Hospital to let them know it was alright for tomorrow.  We called indoors & then went round Credon Rd.

Syd was at the gate with another chap so we got Syd in the playground by ourselves, – incidentally we had been lucky enough to meet Ted outside his house & had told him the story & he agreed that he was the only one who could be the fourth person who wasn’t in the band so he came with us – the first thing we asked Syd was “are we members of the band” he said “Why”? well: what: of course you are.” “Well” we said “what the hell is Hilda going about saying were not members of the band, for then” & we told all of the story we thought good for him to know. 

Bill Lamb was round there & he joined us & we had a long talk about one thing & another & I think that maybe this will clear the air.  Syd is going to see Hilda tomorrow & have a talk with her.  As we said we don’t want to break the band up or let Syd down because he’s treated us aright & we get on well with him, but we’re not working under 2 bosses & we prefer Syd as a boss.  Syd is going to leave a note in my door tomorrow saying when we can see Hilda ‘cause we told him that we want to see her ourselves have a talk with her.

We also spoke about letting people play on our instruments & Syd said he’s told Hilda about Ron hanging around, as Bert says the bust up will come when someone refuses to pay for 2 drummers & anyway its Bert’s kit so why shouldn’t he use it. 

The attitude Lamb took in the discussion rather surprised me, he was neutral, & I should have thought he would support Hilda, I suppose he knows he can’t afford to argue with Syd.

I think that this affair will smooth over everything, thought & maybe we will all work better together after this.  

The ARW was from 7.38 to 10.50.  it was very noisy for a while but there was a very long quiet period, then a few guns then the A.C.

Wednesday 5^th March 1941

ARW 12.35pm 12.46pm

City 12.36 12.45

All quiet.

Len Bert & I went to Hospital in evening Bert & Len went & got loan of drum kit I sorted music.  Wardens Joe & Bert were there.  Started dance 5 to 8.  The dance was lousy the only dances they would do were waltzes & Palais glides^XXX & novelty dances i.e. Boomps & doing Lambeth walk we had an interval at 9.30.  It was going to be at 9.15 but the water for the tea didn’t boil & we had to keep going.  The whole thing was badly mismanaged.

We had said we were leaving at 11 but the M.C. asked us to stay a little longer.  A few minutes after he came over to me & said “stop as long as you can, they are talking about paying you & we’re getting a car to take you home”.  So we stopped a while longer.  There was a girl with an accordion there who played with us & then she had a turn on the piano & then I finished up the dance.  It was at quarter to 12.  And we didn’t get paid.

After the M.C. saying there were talking of paying us.  All we got was some cigarettes each. It was a bloody dirty trick to play on us.  But still that’s the last dance we’re doing for them.  She wanted us to promise to come next month but we’re not having any more of funny business with them.

We came home by car & I got in as the clock struck 12.

Thursday 6^th March 1941

2 alarms during daytime. 

11.48 12.2  – All quiet

12.15 12.45 – All quiet

Today Miss Joseph said I could do all the office cash & petty cash books.  First step up to doing all the books.

I’m going to see that Kenneth keeps his book properly, as well, because if he doesn’t it’s going to make my work harder.

Went to Westminster library & got “Journey without End” by F.A. Waterhouse.

Went & saw Syd in the evening.  He hasn’t seen Hilda yet.  Dance at Stock Street starts at 7pm Saturday.

I heard Syd play the piano he’s not much at present but all he wants is practice.  I went round to Teds after & we arranged a programme for the dance.

ARW while I was at Teds.  We had heard a plane come over & dive & circle about but I think it was one of ours.  The siren went while this plane was going around.  We heard another plane after the alarm.  Warning went 7.47pm.  AC 8.6 pm.

When I got home I saw Bert & then did some more of my plane. 

Friday 7^th March 1941

In the morning at work I had to go to 19a Gower Mews to look over the garage there, as we are letting it, & report on its condition & in the afternoon I had to go & see a representation of a builders & take him to see the Garage & give an estimate for the re-plastering of the ceiling where some of it has fallen.  Altogether an interesting day.

In the evening I saw Bert’s drum kit now it’s been re-chromed.  It looks smashing.  It shines just like silver & it shows up the side drum by comparison.

I spent the rest of the evening, indoors.

We had an ARW at 11.20am & it lasted till 11.33am but it was all quiet.

Saturday 8^th March 1941

Went up library in afternoon Got “I Wear the Burnous” AG Storer “The Twister” E Wallace & Modern Short Stories”.

Went round music shop & got “What a surprise for the Duce” & “When the Blackbird says bye bye.” 

Also got a tube of cement to stick my Barton Paul together.

Bert Len & I went round to Stock St School about 6.30.  Syd & Fred were there.  They had been there all afternoon.

The piano was lousy.  The notes were stiff & some of them wouldn’t play & one of them stuck down & it was out of tune.  It was the most terrible piano we’ve had.  I didn’t envy Hilda when she was playing.  The whole thing was lousy the band had to tucked away in a corner & the 2 piano accordions had to lead.  The only decent thing was the interval.  We packed up for nearly an hour while we stuffed ourselves with sandwiches & cakes.  The ARW went at 7.50 & it had been very noisy.  Just as we had finished there were several bombs dropped all round the school.

The hall emptied extremely rapidly when that happened, but for some time after they wouldn’t let anyone out.  When they did let us go we went in parties.  There was a fire over Stratford way when we left & we were told a good deal of incendiaries had dropped that way.  The fire was visible for a very long way & kept flaring up as if there were explosions occurring there.

Syd told me on the quiet that there was a hole in the High St.  that had just been made & we had to go round Clay St to get home.  

Soon after I got in Ern came in & said 3 bombs were dropped. 1 at the back of the Co-op, 1 outside the Black Lion in Richmond St & 1 in the Black Lion Gardens.

The one in Richmond St had set fire to a Gas main & there was a decent blaze. Ern & some others nearly had it out & then Ern said he went round the School to get me but of course I was home.  He dashed out again soon after & then I went out to have a look at the fire.  The bomb fell in this position:  

• 

The bombs fell very close together so the plane must have been low.  They were only 250 lb bombs.

The AC went at 12.7am.  I met Ern round by the bomb hole, while I was watching the firemen playing the hose on the wall of the Black Lion to stop it catching fire.

Ern took me to see the crater behind the co-op.

Bed at 2am.

Sunday 9^th March 1941

ARW 7.10am to 7.20am.  All quiet.

Went to School.  The fire we saw last night was at Mile End.  About 12.30 Bert Ted & I went to Stock St School to collect our stuff.

Bert Len & I went round to Russel School about 2.50.  We started soon after 3.  Ted & Mr Lamb didn’t arrive for about 15 mins after we had started.  The dance was absolutely the best we’ve ever done.  Mum & Dad Mrs Clay Joyce, Ralph & his mother, & Mrs Donovan were all there, but dad had to go firewatching after a couple of hours. 

I don’t think the dance could have been better than it was.  We had 3 breaks – 2 short & 1 long.  What made the dance even better was the fact that I played the piano most of the time except Hilda.  The only thing that marred it was the fact that Hilda started showing off towards the end of the dance.  We agreed to do another dance next week & just before we finished one of the officers made an announcement about the next dance & said there would be a small charge to cover expenses – I hope he means to pay us.  The dance finished about 7.15 & we got home about 7.45.  Our people helped us home with the stuff.

Bert saw the people, who are getting married on Saturday this morning.  We are getting at least 24/- for the job.

Soon after we got in Lillie Rose & Joyce came over with the rent.

We had an ARW at 8.5pm till 11.44pm.  Soon after it started things livened up & several bombs had fallen.  Ern came in soon after & said that up the Greengate several breadbaskets had fallen & he had been putting out the firebombs as they fell.  He said about 50% were exploding ones.  The nearest fell at Huxstables old shop.  Several fell in the bus depot & set fire to the paint shop.  They’ve achieved there object at last, they’ve tried for that Garage often enough but couldn’t get it but at last they have got it.

Dad & I walked up to Perth Rd but we couldn’t see much happening.

The raid was like last September we heard many time bombs fall.

While we were doing the dance there was a fire watchers meeting at Lister Institute & the watching starts next Wednesday.  Bert & I are on the following Wednesday from 2 to 6am – actually Thursday morning.

Monday 10^th March 1941

ARW 12.23am to 1.18am.  Guns were heard about 12.10.  The raid was noisy for a short while & then quietened.  Went to bed about 1.

ARW 2.32am to 3.5. It was not a very bad raid, quiet mostly.

Up 8.20

ARW as I started out to work at 9.30 lasted 9.38.  All quiet but Miss Bayley said that at Lewisham there was fairly heavy gunfire both before & during the raid.

I had a shock as I walked to the station.  2 doors from Harking’s, which was hit by a bomb & next to Wynnes, a bomb hit what used to be an oil shop & has made a crater in the road.  Men were already working on it when I went by,  & when I got home again in the evening the hole stretched right across the road.  4 bombs all on top of one and another in 2 nights, some going.

Len Bert & I went round to see Syd.  We picked up Ted on our way & then after going to the school & Syd’s house, we found he was at Stock St School.

A great deal of time bombs were dropped last night & the people have been evacuated to Stock St school & Syd was making a list of them for some reason, or so we understood.

Hilda’s is the first house not evacuated in Rochester Avenue.  A DA fell between Rochester Avenue & Green St End. The people are evacuated from St Marys Rd and downwards.  Syds house is o.k. thought.  He lives Green Street end.

Ted left us then but as we 3 got home Ted drew up on his bike & we all stood talking for some time.  Just after we dispersed the ARW sounded for 510^th time at 8.23.  It lasted till 8.55 & was all quiet, at 9.23 we heard an AC in the distance.  We had another ARW at 11.15 till 12.14 all quiet. 

Went to Westminster library & got “Indiscrete Travels East”.

Bed 1am.

Tuesday 11^th March 1941

ARW 2.40am AC 3.5am All quiet.  ARW 3.45am AC 4.30am all quiet.  I didn’t hear the ARW’s so the times are only approximate.

From Aldgate to Mansion House, I had to take a bus this morning.  I suppose they’ve found a time bomb (or bombs) on the line and I went over them yesterday.

When I got in I met Gray by the lift.  He just popped in to see us for a few minutes.  He’s not doing too badly.

My suit seems to be falling to pieces lately so when I got in I changed into an old suit & let mum mend my other one.

Bert & I (Len has a cold so he stopped in) went round & saw Ted & then we were going to see Syd. 

But as we left Ted’s house the ARW went so we turned back as we had promised to come home if the siren went.  Time was 8.29pm.  The guns fired as the ARW was going.  

All through the raid we heard guns & occasionally we heard a plane.  The AC went about 2 or 3 minutes after the guns had been firing at 12.23am.  Bert was in with us till 10.30.

Ted wants Bert to get his music stand chromed, at work.

Wednesday 12^th March 1941

Had to go by bus between Aldgate East & Mansion House.  

I stopped in all evening.

Fire watching started in our Road tonight.  The first ones on were Len Sewell & Mr Perkins.  We had an ARW at 7.56pm & although the guns were rather noisy, sometimes we had no real excitement.  It was a lovely moonlight night & you could see from one end of the road to the other very clearly. I spent some time out by the gate.  

Bed 12.30

AC 1.15am

Thursday 13^th March 1941

ARW 2.12am AC 3.0am quiet mostly.  ARW 3.15am 4.10am.

Bombs were dropped at Barking at 3.40am.

I went & saw Syd in the evening he gave me 22/6d for the 3 of us.  7/6 more than I expected to get.  I gave Bert his 7/6d & then we went up Lens & gave him his.

Bert stayed in with us for a while.

ARW  8.59  The raid was quiet mostly but when the guns went they weren’t very bad.  We didn’t hear the AC but so far as we know it went at 3.20am.

Friday 14^th March 1941

I took over the cash box today at work.

While at lunch I bought “Lawrence Wright 6^th album of famous Dances”.^XXXI

Had to go to Park Crescent in afternoon.

Bert didn’t feel very well tonight.

Ted called round & said Syd had wanted us all to go & have a practice tonight but as Bert couldn’t go Len & I wouldn’t so I suppose it was cancelled.

ARW 8.21pm 3.5pm.  The raid was never very bad & the gunfire was never very bad.  1 DA^XXXII dropped.

Reg Powder was on fire duty & I stopped out the front with him till nearly 1am.

Saturday 15^th March 1941

Jam is going to be rationed & when old Bratt came in he had 2 2lb tins of jam & when Jo came in he told her how he had got them at the Civil Service stores & then Jo asked me to go & see what I could get for her & I managed to get 8lb of fig jam in 4 2 lb tins.  Then Miss Bailey went & got 1lb of a whole fig jam – which EVB bought & 2 1 lb tins of Cape gooseberry Jam.  No-one took any today – we are leaving it till Monday.  When I told mum about it she told me to get what I could.

Went round music shop & got “Beat me Daddy 8 to a Bar”  “Where do we go from here”  “That’s for Me” & “Weep No More”.  

Had haircut.

Saw Syd in the evening he wants us to be at Russell about 3 tomorrow.

Bert was in bed when Len & I saw him.  I hope he is alright for tomorrow.  Went up Lens for a while in the evening.

ARW 1.45pm 1.57pm all quiet.

While I was at Lens the ARW went time 8.38.  The raid got fairly bad so I came home about 9.15.  Several bombs had dropped & the guns were terrific at times & the planes were following one another.  AC went at 12.10am.

Went to library & got “Sid Puddiefoot” by P MacGill  “Whispering Death” Roy Vickers & “How Dare You  Sir” Noel Godber.

Sunday 16^th March 1941

Up 9.  Had bath. Went to school.

Len Bert & I went round Russel about 3pm.  Our mothers came later.  The dance went off very well.  I played the piano part of the time.  We got home at 8 pm.  Leslie came over just after.

ARW 9 to 10.15pm, all quiet.  

I stayed up till 12.45 to finish reading “Sid Puddiefoot” which is an excellent novel.

Monday 17^th March 1941

Miss Joseph had 2 tins fig jam & 1 tin Cape Gooseberry.  Miss Baily had 1 tin fig & I had 1 fig & 1 gooseberry.

The do we were going to have at Credon Rd tonight was cancelled because of ARP lectures.

So I read about book-keeping & then listened to the radio Rhythm Club sextet, they played In the Mood just as we do with the Bass in the background doing the boogie woogie.

Tuesday 18^th March 1941

Went in with Bert during the evening for a while.

ARW 1.25pm to 2.16 pm, all quiet

ARW 10.36 pm to 5.30am

Guns heard 20 minutes before ARW.

After ARW the raid was quiet.

I went to bed about 11.15.  After about 12 the guns opened up & were terrific all through the night.  Several bombs dropped but none near us.

Wednesday 19^th March 1941

Felt lousy at work.  When I got home I didn’t want anything to eat, but I did have something.

Bert came in to see what we were going to do about the fire watching, we decided he would come in with me.

ARW went at 8.13pm.  it soon got noisy & as Mrs Clay, Ivy & Joyce were alone – Stan being a watcher round Morses – Bert decided to go in.

Ern was having a wash but he hurried & when he finished Dad he & I went out to the front.  We had only been out there a couple of minutes when down came the firebombs, I dashed over the road to outside No 34 where there was one & put some sand on it.  Ern dashed off to Milledge’s Yard where one had fallen.  Jerry was still up & the guns were popping merrily.  Ern came back after a while & said after going in Milledge’s he had to go & cross the alleys & climb a wall to get another out.

After that I can’t remember distinctly what happened exactly I know that Mrs McGarry came in as Mr McGarry had dashed out to help with the bombs.

• 

Brehms was hit & caught fire & lit the place up & after that it was hell.  We had 2 more lots of incendiaries.  Of one lot one fell directly in front of us & nearly blinded us with the glare someone smothered that & the next thing I knew we were all dashing over to No 20 where a bomb had gone in the upstairs back room.  Bert & I worked the pump & Reg & someone else worked the nozzle several people brought water & incidentally someone tipped half a bucket over me.  Mr Jasper had been in the bedroom when the bomb fell & he jumped out of the window.  The bomb exploded after a while & bits fell everywhere the bomb was out in about 5 minutes thought.  Ern & another crowd had gone to No 19 – Crispin’s – where a bomb had gone through the little room roof & landed in the passage at the foot of the stairs, they soon dealt with that.

About 10 minutes after it flared up again & they had to chop up the floorboards & Ern broke the axe & a spade – both of which were ours.

We had gone over to Aunt Lilies place a couple of times to see if they wanted to come over with us, but Leslie was at the club & they said they would stop & wait for him.

But we went over later & the 3 of them did come over.  It was a horrible experience, there were fires all round us & flares were being dropped but the shooting was very good & they were all shot down very rapidly.  One after another high explosives were dropping & there were terrific explosions & every now and again there would be an explosion without any sound of falling & we were all caught by the blast.  Once we nearly got hit by slates & cut by glass.  The glass was falling from every house & we had lost one window.  I could never describe the whole of the raid – in fact it was almost impossible to remember most of what happened, as one thing occurred after another with such rapidity.  About 10.40 or 10.45 several bombs were dropped & when the last one fell I thought our house was collapsing there was such a noise of falling debris.  When I got out there was a crater outside Eve’s house, (Where the black spot is on the diagram)

Ern had the luckiest escape of his life.  He was over in Gardner’s gate & just before they fell he started to come over to us but someone said something to him & he stopped to answer him, if he had walked on he would have been hit by the bomb, thank God that person spoke to him.  A gas main was broken & although we let the ARW & gas people know within 5 minutes of its falling the gas men never turned up, although the gas was turned off at a main somewhere the gas was everywhere & we tried to stop it by putting sand on the leak, luckily no more fire bombs fell after the bomb.  There would have been a nice explosion if there had.  Part of Mrs Eves upstairs was blown in.  We saw Les before he went in his place & he came over with us.  He didn’t say much to his people but to Ern Bert & I he said he had had a terrible job helping to put out a bomb in Fairbairn Hall & he said he had never seen such a sight as he saw from the roof of Fairbairn Hall.  After about 1am the raid quietened & 8 minutes after Bert & I went on duty, at  2am the A.C. went – after the worst raid we have ever experienced.  Fires were still all about us.  The church in the High St was burnt out, they had no water to deal with it.  All the survivors of the night were lucky to come through.

Book 23

Thursday 20^th March 1941

Up 8am after about 3 hours sleep.

Our damage is 2 windows broken, 1 cracked & the upstairs front bedroom wall forced in more & several slates off.  I had to go to work in my best suit as my other one was damp.  I got in at 11.15.  when I got to Plaistow Stn I found a queue stretching right down the hill & round the first road.  All down the queue damage could be seen & piles of sand covering bombs.  Several mines were dropped down Plaistow Rd. & the wreckage of a trolley bus could be seen.  Many roofs were off & outside almost every house were piles of plaster from ceilings.

It was as if we had been struck by an earthquake & a tornado rolled in one.

Buses took us to Aldgate East.  We passed the Leathercloth factory, they seemed to have dropped a mine in there & we could see where one had dropped just outside.

It was the same all the way up to Stepney.  After there, there was nothing.  But this side of it you could see all places smouldering, & firemen still working.  All the others at the office had a quiet night.  At lunchtime I bought “London I Cannot Leave You” “Nobody” & “Johnny Pedlar”.

When I got home I saw Ern talking to Vic – he had come home on leave & so had Len. Funny they should come home at a time like this.  Vic took us in his garden & showed us some bits of kerbstones that had been blown over the roofs.  On the wall of Mrs Burrows house was a deep mark where a huge piece had struck & then fell on to Powders shelter.  The street had been cleaned up a bit, & Dad had covered up our windows.

Powders are going to move to Chadwell Heath.

ARW 2.57 to 3.53pm all quiet. 

ARW 8.34pm

I don’t think any of us felt too good when we heard the siren & Ern who was on duty round the shop, said later that he had decided to come home if we had another blitz.

We had not had any more sand brought round to us & we would have been in a state if any firebombs had fallen but the AC went at 10.4 & we had not heard anything.  At 9.56 we had heard an AC go in the distance.

Friday 21^st March 1941

Spring commences.

Miss Bayley said they had a load of incendiaries in her road.

I felt rather bad at work & had an aspirin & that made me feel a bit better.

Coming home tonight I came all the way by train.

At Whitechapel they did some damage.  1 platform is ruined & as soon as a train passes the men get to work on the track again.  Bert came in last night & told me that Syd & Hilda were bombed out on Wednesday by a land mine which landed between their houses.

I felt bad at home so I decided not to go in tomorrow so I went to bed early & had a drink of hot rum to try and sweat out my cold.

Saturday 22^nd March 1941

Up 10.30.  I got dressed after dinner & sat in the armchair.

Bert came in & I asked him if he would go up the music shop & try & get “Umbrella Man” & “You’d be far better off in a Home”.

Mum went out then.  When she came back, Lieut Craddock was with her, he’d seen Syd & got my address.

They found me asleep on the floor on some cushions & I don’t remember getting down there.  

I felt worse than when I got up.  Lieut Craddock said that as they were going on Monday he didn’t want to cancel the dance so I said that thought I didn’t expect I could go, Len & Bert would & they would have the 2 Harrys & maybe Ted would come.  While the Lieut was here Bert & Len came back from the music shop.  They didn’t get what I wanted but they got “Thanks Mr Roosevelt” & “When that man is dead and gone”

Mum put the gas fire in Ern’s room & I went to bed about 5.

Sunday 23^rd March 1941

I’m not sleeping with Ern any more, he kicks & moves about too much, I got hardly any sleep with it.

Up 11.

Missed night school for the first time, this morning.

I felt better after dinner & went round to Russell.

The last dance wasn’t too bad there was Harry, Harry, Len, Bert, I & that fellow with the squeaky violin thing & another bloke who asked if he could bring his accordion so we said he could.

The swank of that fellow was astounding.  We were damn glad when he went home.

We wished the 2 Harrys all the best at their new place, & so we lost two damn fine members of the band.

As soon as I got in my nose started bleeding it bled for over an hour.

Les & Doris came over & brought us some Port to drink their health – they got engaged today.

They went about 11. 

Saw Syd at the dance.  He looks very bad and walks funnily, he’s going to hospital tomorrow & then he’s calling on us.

Hilda was there for a while.  Her ankles hurt a bit but she’s ok otherwise.

Monday 24^th March 1941

Up 9.15.

My nose bled again for some time.  In afternoon went up library & got “Exploits of Fidelity Dove” R Vickers “Return of Mr Budd” G Verner & “Spies Ltd” G.H. Teed.

Syd didn’t come & I spent the evening reading.

Tuesday 25^th March 1941

Up 9.15

Bert came to the hospital with me as he is still at home.

We had to wait at the hospital a very long while.  When I saw the Dr & told him of my nose bleedings he cauterized the other side, and did he put some stuff up there.  My nose felt as it was burning off & some of it must have got in my mouth because it felt very funny & seemed to go stiff.  We got home about 12.45pm.

After diner Bert & I went to the Granada we saw Arthur Askey, Richard Murdock, Moore Marriott & Graham Moffatt in “Charley’s Big Hearted Aunt” & Boris Karloff in “The Ape”. We also saw what happened in the Lofoten island raid in a film called “Lofoten” it showed actual pictures taken at Lofoten during the raids & it was the finest bit of propaganda I’ve ever seen.^XXXIII  There was an organist as well.

On our way to the Granada we walked to the music shop & I bought “Waltzing in the Clouds” & a piano accordion tutor.

Home 5.30 

In the evening Len & Bert came in

Wednesday 26^th March 1941

Went to work – & then I wished I hadn’t.  

We were terrifically busy & I’ve still got a lot of work up there.  Bratt is leaving on 7^th April.  Thank goodness we won’t have to put up with him much longer.  

Bert & Len came in for a while in the evening.

Thursday 27^th March 1941

In the evening Bert Len & I went round to see the chap that Len hopes to get a Sax from.  He was not in thought.

Then we went in Lens house. All the time we were out & when we left Len’s house to come home, there were an enormous number of searchlights out, maybe they were looking for troop-carrying Zeps.  

Ern was firewatching from 2 to 6 so he didn’t go to bed.

Friday 28^th March 1941

Up 8.40.

ARW went 8.38 AC 8.50am all quiet.

Ern made out the new rota during the night.  Bert & I are on duty Thursday 3^rd April besides taking our turn on the present rota next Sunday.  There’s only 5 days between.  Still maybe we will have a longer rest when the next rota is made out.  Went to Westminster library & got “Money for Nothing” P.G. Wodehouse.

Len & Bert came down in the evening & suggested that we go & see Max Miller in “Apple Sauce”^XXXIV tomorrow.  So were going.

Len saw the Sax chap he says it will be about £4.  What a bargain!

Bed 12.30

Saturday 29^th March 1941

Went to library after work & got “The Jovial Ghosts” Thorne Smith.

Then I went to the Palladium.  The only tickets left were for standing room so as I couldn’t get home in time to meet the boys I got 3 tickets.  I met the boys at 5 to 3.  We had tea in Lyons & then we went back to The Palladium.  “Apple Sauce” is quite a good show but I’ve seen better.  Old Maxie was good & Vera Lynn was all right but somehow the show just didn’t seem to go – or so it seemed to me.

We got home at 8.

ARW 9.6 to 9.22pm.  all quiet.

Had a bath before going to bed.

Sunday 30^th March 1941

Up 9am.

Went to school.  After Easter school will be held 6.30 to 8.30 in the evening so I’ll have to get time off from work twice a week.

After dinner Bert & I went down to Lens for a session.  We hadn’t started long before the woman who has moved next to them, & one of her daughters knocked & came in.  This mucked us up a bit cause the dame kept wanting to be shown our instruments, I went down to Lens again after tea & stayed till 9.30.

As I was firewatching with Bert from 2-6 I didn’t go to bed, I stayed awake all night & at 3.40 I was just thinking that I would soon be calling Bert & having a sleep – for we had arranged that we should have 2 hours sleep each – when the siren blew.  Time was 3.42am.  I had partly undressed & had to dash about pulling my things on & call Bert, I was ready in about 3 minutes & a few minutes after Bert came in.  The AC went at 3.56 after 14 mins of quiet.  We stayed talking till almost 5 & then I went to sleep.

Monday 31^st March 1941

Went to Westminster library & got “Uncle Fred In the Springtime” P.G. Wodehouse.  Went up Lens in the evening.

Tuesday 1^st April 1941

Went out in lunch hour & bought “Salome” it’s a bit blue but it’s a good tune.

Went up Lens in the evening.

Ern borrowed “Salome” to take to work tomorrow as they wanted the words of it, at the shop.  Miss B. learnt the words as well this afternoon.

I ordered a copy of “The Battle of Britain” to be sent home from the Stationery office.

Wednesday 2^nd April 1941

Bratt’s leaving on Saturday & today I had to go down to the courts with him because I shall have to do most of his work.  I can see myself making an awful bloomer over Grand Bldgs V Charing X.  Old Bratt said it is one of the most difficult cases he has come across & I have to see to the taxing of it.

Went to Westminster library & got “Murder in Man”  F. Duncan.^XXXV

In the evening Len, Bert & I went round to Arthur’s house & we are probably going to a dance he will be at on Saturday.

Miss Greenwood told me that she drew me a certificate last week.

Thursday 3^rd April 1941

My “B of B” came this morning.  It’s a natty little book.^XXXVI

Dad had the day off but it was marred by the fact that it is his turn for firewatching this afternoon.

ARW 12.23 to 12.33.  all quiet.

Bert & I went & saw Ted in the evening.  Went to see Len after.

ARW 10.30pm approx. AC 11.9pm, all quiet.

Friday 4^th April 1941

Spent most of the day dashing about with Bratt.

Stopped in in evening.

ARW 12.20am 1.5am heard plane before ARW & heard the guns in the distance once or twice.

ARW 10.1pm 10.57pm, all quiet.

Saturday 5^th April 1941

Bratt left today.  Went to Westminster library & got “Big Money” PG Wodehouse.

Bert & I went to the music shop I bought “Give me Something to Remember You By” & “Every Time I look at You.”

We met Len as we left the shop.  I went over to Woodmansee & bought a new hat.

In the evening me Bert & Len went to a dance at Faircross School Barking to see Arthur in action.  He had with him the Cymbal Arm he promised Bert, the band consisted of Drums, String, Bass & 2 accordions doubling piano & were they hot.  They had a perfect sense of timing, together & whether they were playing together or having their breaks they were damn good.

We came part of the way home with Arthur & one of the accordionists, the younger one, he was very interesting to talk to & he informed me that the easiest part of a P.A. to learn is the Bass side – I hope he’s right.

Sunday 6^th April 1941

Up 9.30 school at 10.15.

Last school till 6.30pm 28^th April

Just messed about all day.  In the evening Aunt Lillie & Joyce came over.

I had the gramophone going for a while.  They stayed very late.

Monday 7^th April 1941

Fairly busy at work.  It’s very peaceful without Bratt.  In the evening Freddie called, his girls thrown him over.  We went for a walk.  I think we’ll go out by ourselves Easter.

Bert has been very funny to me lately.  He’s been getting more & more attached to Len, & after the way I’ve helped him during the Blitz – having him in at night & stuffing him – and if it hadn’t been for me he wouldn’t have had his drum by now, & now he is sloping off with Len.  He doesn’t seem too eager to pay me back my £ either – but I’ll have it off him yet.

In a way I don’t really care if the band falls through because although I may not be able to join a band now or even form another there will be plenty of jobs after the war. 

Lens been getting a bit too insufferable lately – the Irish swine – maybe I’ll be better off if I go out with Freddie & we have good times like we used to.  Maybe if the others see that I don’t care what they do, they’ll alter their ways a bit as well.  Anyway Len can’t learn to play a Sax in a couple of weeks, & I don’t think we’ll ever be much good together.  Bert’s too mad on going barmy & making an unholy din & going to town & ragging & he doesn’t like any of the slower pieces & Len seems to be getting the same.  It’s all very well to be “hot” & rhythmic but you mustn’t forget that people want to dance – not spend all their time jitterbugging. Still as I’ve improved tremendously these last few months – and even in the last few weeks, there’s no reason why I shouldn’t get into a decent band or form my own band after the war.  After the way Bert & Len have been acting these last couple of weeks I shall have no compunction in deserting them; Freddie is a chap that you can be sure of though & if we do more after the war – as mum & dad want to it will hurt me more to part from Fred than it will the other two.

Fred & I went for a walk round & when we got back Aunt Lillie came over.  Freddie stopped till about 11.  He’s coming round Friday to help me clean up my bike & then we are going out over Easter.  ARW 10.30pm to 11.23pm all quiet.

After the AC I heard a couple of planes & some popping sounds in the distance.

ARW 11.57pm AC 5.2am

The raid was quiet mostly but the guns were fairly heavy once or twice.

Tuesday 8^th April 1941

ARW 10.1 to 12.13 all quiet.

City alarm was 11.59 to 12.12

Len & Bert came down & we had a practice.

ARW 10.2 to 4am.

Guns were rather heavy at times.

Wednesday 9^th April 1941

Went with Miss Ashton to Bush House to make a search.  I think we made a very good one.

Went to Peter Morris in lunch time & bought “20 Swing Hits”.

Went to Westminster Library & got “I don’t like Cats” L. Anson.

Freddie & I went to his girl’s house – or at least who used to be his girl – he went to see her Pop.  Mr Petty is very interesting to talk to & he’s a jolly decent fellow.  He used to be a drummer in a band and knows Arthur Thompson & all the band boys.  His band was one of the very earliest & he was interested in drumming & was a follower of dance music in the days when music as we know it was born.  He also used to go to the dances Walter’s band held & says he remembers them well & when I asked him what they were like he said they must have been good because many a band tried for their job & none took it from them.

I was supposed to be firewatching at 10 but it was turned ten before I left their place with Freddie.

Home 10.20pm

ARW 11.57pm – every time I’m on duty we have a raid.

Bert & I wrapped ourselves up & went out into the cold – it was damned cold too.

We were out all the time except for a couple of short intervals.  We stood talking to a copper for some time.

As soon as we came off duty the AC went, – it sounded at 2.10 just as I was getting into bed.

Thursday 10^th April 1941

Miss Joseph spent the afternoon at Park Crescent.  I’ve to go in on Saturday.

Friday 11^th April 1941

Up 1pm.  Freddie came & we mended my bike. When we had finished it looked smashing & goes better than ever before.  Then we went to Freddie’s Aunt at Barking.  Coming home Freddie got a puncture & he came home with me to mend it.

I had to buy a new tyre & a battery cost me 5/6d.

Saturday 12^th April 1941

Went to Park Crescent opened the letters & phoned Miss Joseph.  She said I had better go to Grand Bldgs.  Went there & phoned her again.  Home 11.15.

Bert & I went to music shop & I bought “Tumbling Tumbleweeds” “if you hadn’t Asked me to Dance” “The first Lullaby” “Charlie Kunz Waltz Medley” “50 Years of Song”.

After lunch I went to Freddie’s & I helped him to take his shed & his chemistry to his aunts at Barking where he’s going to live.  Home 10.30.

Walter called & asked me to help him with his car tomorrow.

Sunday 13^th April 1941

Up 9. Went to the garage.  Helped Walter till 1.30 then went home to dinner. Back to garage,  finished about 4.30.  Went to Walters house & had a bath & then stayed to tea.  Home 8.30

Walter was talking to a fellow at the garage & he said that Doris would have her baby next month.  This other fellow’s is in August. I haven’t got much longer to wait now before I’m an uncle.

Went down to Lens when I got home & stayed till 10.45.

I’m helping Walter again tomorrow.

Monday 14^th April 1941

Up 9.  Over Walters house at 9.45.  Walter & Doris were having breakfast.  Went to Garage.  Walter asked me to go to another garage & see if a fellow would do a job for him, he said he would, so when I got back Walter went over there & at the present moment I’m sitting in a car in the garage hoping Walter will be back soon cause I can’t stop hear all day.

Eventually left at 5 past 1.

I spent the afternoon reading.

Aunt Lily & Joyce came over after tea then Fred called & then Bert came along.  Aunt Lily & Joyce went about 11 & Fred & Bert went soon after. 

Bed 12.30

Ern was firewatching at the shop.

Tuesday 15^th April 1941

Got “Island of Terror” by Sapper from Westminster library.

Went to library when I got home Got “White Rider” L Charteris “Lost on Venus” ER Burroughs & I got a book about toolmaking for Ern.

We had a practice later on and Bert broke a part of the snares of his drum but I think he’ll be able to have it mended.

ARW 10.50 to 4.10am.  The raid soon became noisy & as the persons supposed to be firewatching didn’t turn out Ern & I went out for a while.

One of the firewatchers turned up about 11.30.

After a while we began to get long quiet intervals & I went to bed about 1.40.  At 2am I was brought downstairs by a thunderous knock on the door and went down & found this firewatcher there.  He said he couldn’t get any reply from the house he had to knock at.  Ern eventually stopped up all night.

Wednesday 16^th April 1941

ARW 9.5pm to 4.57am.  The raid began to get noisy about 9.30 & from then till about 4.30 you heard nothing but planes planes planes & guns guns guns.

The firewatcher didn’t turn up again, & the actual persons on duty were Ern me Bert Mr McGarry & Mr Case.  Mrs McGarry was in with us.  We had some of the heaviest gunfire ever & several flares & “Chandeliers” were dropped.  But after a while when it became apparent that he was heading for the City I came in & only went out for two short periods after that thought I was all ready for any emergencies.

We heard bombs dropping in the distance several times & the glow of distant fires.

Towards the end of the raid I was so tired – I had little sleep last night – that I went to sleep on the floor.  I went to bed after the AC but I have only a faint recollection of undressing – I must have been asleep on my feet.

Thursday 17^th April 1941

Up 9.10 left for work at 9.50.  I went by train to Cannon St & there I met Miss Bailey.  While waiting for a bus to get to work – the railway was closed to St James Park – later it was closed to South Kensington – she had had a few mines dropped near her house but that was all. 

There was plenty of glass strewn everywhere & when we did eventually catch a bus it hardly moved at all, the traffic was so dislocated, so we got out again & walked.  

Cannon St fire station had a very near miss – several people were killed in the station – & all round you could see bomb debris & firemen playing their hoses on burning buildings.

We had to walk over Southwark Bridge & back again over Blackfriars bridge.

The strand had it rather badly.  Opposite Aldwych a bomb was dropped & knocked a corner off a building & the same thing had happened to the first building in Aldwych.

A part of the Strand was roped off & from Duncannon St to the Civil Service Stores.  Part of Charring X hotel was alight & several other buildings were burning &/or had their fronts blown out by bombs.

When we eventually got to Grand Buildings Alf told us that Miss Joseph had been – it was almost 11.30 then – & as there was a time bomb outside the building & no-one was allowed in we had to go to Park Crescent.

We had to walk to Piccadilly to catch a train & then as we came out of Regents Park Station we saw overhead the trails of several planes – probably a reconnaissance – it was about 12.15 when we got to the house.

Miss Joseph had been in our office & brought away the post & some other things but she wanted me to go back to go to the bank & try to get in the office for some papers.  

I felt fit to drop then – how Ern went out to work looking as he always does beats me.  He must have a cast iron constitution.  I finally managed to get back to Grand Buildings. Alf said I could go in at my own risk & so I went in & got what was wanted & then rang dad.

He had just gone home though & I spoke to Mr Brown who was firewatching & told him what had happened & said he would let dad know I would probably be home late.

I managed to get to PC at about 2.15.  After lunch I had nothing to do, there was no reason really for me to stay & we all finally left at 5.40.

I managed to go by train from Regents Park to Charing X.  & as I came up the escalator water was dripping everywhere from the station above & I caught a bus outside. The bus took us over Westminster bridge & over Southwark bridge to Cannon St.  Mansion House was closed – We went by train to Whitechapel & had to change back to a bus – they had found some damage or some bombs during the day I suppose – & we caught a train from Bow Rd home.

Got home about 7.30.  Stopped in all night bed 11.15pm.

Friday 18^th April 1941

ARW 1.5am AC 2.15am All quiet

ARW 3.28am AC 4.50am all quiet.

Up 8.15.

Train Plaistow to Bow Rd Bus to Whitechapel Train to Cannon St Bus to Charring X.

Halifax House was burnt out & a bomb dropped just behind it.

The West End got what the City got last December – But the raid altogether was much worse.  A corner has been knocked off Admiralty Arch.

The office was open at 3pm yesterday. The bomb was on No 1 platform of Charing X station.

The hostel where the troops were was the Royal Empire Society in Northumberland Avenue.  I thought that was the place that was bombed & was right.  Everywhere you see marks where incendiary s dropped & there are hardly any sandbags left.  I left at 6.15 & was home about 7.35 travelling the same way as this morning.

Bert & I went down Lens for a while.

Saturday 19^th April 1941

Got to work same way as yesterday.  Home by Southern electric Charing X to Cannon St underground to Whitechapel.  Bus to Bow Rd train to Plaistow.  Len & I went to music shop I got “5 O’clock whistle” & “You’ll be far Better Off in a Home”.

Went to library to get “Thank you Jeeves” Wodehouse.

Had haircut.

ARW 9.22 soon got bad.  Fires were started towards Barking & some bombs were dropped near us.  Then 2 more.  Mrs Clay, Ivy, Joyce & Bert came in.  So did Mrs McGarry.  Ern came along with Terry.  The bombs dropped near Greengate St they said.  Ern Bert Mr McGarry Bob & I stopped out the front.  Dad stood at the back door.  Mrs Clay Ivy & Joyce went to Parkers Shelter.  The raid soon became very bad.  Mines were going off every few minutes & many bombs & D.As were dropping. Load after load of incendiaries were falling.  I think we saw a plane blow up in the air – it was either that or a crash & bits were seen floating through the air.  Most probably it was a plane.

 I spent my time going in and out.  Dad stopped out the back door & Ern Mr McGarry & Bob stayed in our porch & Reddin’s – their door had been blow open early on.  But was out most of the time.  We had switched off the light when it began to get bad.  About 12 there was a lull of a few minutes.  About 1 I laid down to get a bit of rest before I went on duty.  At 2 Bert & I commenced our firewatching.  Mines were still going off every few minutes once we saw what must have been the biggest of them all.  The glow lasted so long that we heard the explosion begin before it died away.

 Bob went over home later on & about 3 Mr McGarry went to bed.  He came out again shortly after but soon went back.  Bert had a stool in the passage & Ern & I sat on the stairs.  Ern went to sleep on me for a while.  It must have been his first doze for a couple of nights nearly.  I reckon he deserves a medal the way he goes on night after night.  I hope we don’t get many more raid like these or most people will be clearing off or doing something they can’t stand it for ever.  About 4 it began to get a bit light – actually it had been light all night from the fires but they were getting most of them under control in fact several were out at 4.  At 4.15 we had the last raider & at 4.48 am the A.C. went you saw plenty of people out then but during the raid only a few came out.  Dad Ern & I went for a walk round after the A.C. all the damage we saw thought were a few windows out – one of my bedroom windows had cracked much more than it was previously – and a few heaps of sand, the nearest being the school & the Broadway.  Samson St hospital & Southern Rd & the Post office by Samson St were hit by bombs though & a mine landed near there we think.  From 6 to 9 I dozed in a chair then Ern & I went to bed.  We heard a plane shortly after the A.C.

Sunday 20^th April 1941

Up 12.  In the afternoon Bert Len & I went to Manor Park to see Bert’s Aunt.  It rained when we were on our way home.  Good job we had our capes or we would have got soaked.

Dad was firewatching 5 to 7.30.  Mr Brett came down for the Firewatch Book.  Ern has got so fed up with the way the people of the road are carrying on the firewatching he has got some forms from the A.F.S. for them to sign if they sign they will have to do their duty or be reported to the A.F.S. who will take them up over it.  If they don’t sign we won’t have them as firewatchers & they may be conscripted.

Firefighting teams who sign will be issued with equipment fire watchers will be issued with some equipment.

Ern & I have signed our forms & Mr Brewtt has taken those of his party for them to sign.

Lile Joyce Harold & Edie came over.  Last night they were at Romford for Harold’s engagement to Edie.  Apparently they didn’t have much of a time because they had a bad raid there too last night.  About 10 we heard a plane & gunfire & Lily and the rest went home at 10.3 there was an alert till 10.14 which was all quiet.

Bert came in for a while Bed 11.30.

Monday 21^st April 1941

Got to work by train to Mansion Hse.  Bus to Charing X.  

ARW 9.57 am 

AC 10.5am

All quiet.

Miss Baily didn’t get in till 12.  A bomb landed on the opposite side of her road to her house & the house was very badly damaged & they have had to get out as it will be condemned – there are cracks on all the walls, no roof etc – she asked for the day off & of course Miss Joseph let her have it.  She was going on to her father’s office & then she was going home again.  They took best part of the furniture downstairs she said but when it rained yesterday it went right through to the downstairs.  So they covered it as best they could with lino.  Most of her clothes have been cut by glass & she said a door hit her as she was crouching & hurt her legs a bit.  Miss Joseph had to go out in the afternoon & I was by myself in the office.  Some of Doug Fairbanks Jnrs stuff had been brought here this morning & I looked through some of the books etc.  Miss Joseph didn’t get back to the office till 6.30.

I’m not going to the hospital tomorrow but Miss Joseph said that I could go next week.

Home 7.20

Stopped in reading.

ARW 9.55 AC 10.30 all quiet

Bed 11.30

Tuesday 22^nd April 1941

Work same way as yesterday.  Went to library & got “Sherlock Holmes Short Stories” A Conon Doyle.

ARW 12.18pm AC 12.36pm.  All quiet

Went up Lens in evening.

ARW 10.17 AC 11.53.

Guns at 10.15

Fairly quiet after.

---

I: Wikipedia
Pearson’s Magazine was a monthly periodical which first appeared in Britain in 1896. It specialised in speculative literature, political discussion, often of a socialist bent, and the arts. Its contributors included Upton Sinclair, George Bernard Shaw, Maxim Gorky, George Griffith, H. G. Wells, Dornford Yates and E. Phillips Oppenheim, many of whose short stories and novelettes first saw publication in Pearson’s. It was the first British periodical to publish a crossword puzzle, in February 1922. The magazine ceased publication in November 1939 after 527 issues.

II:  High Explosive

III: Still available on Amazon.  This is a book on basic chess strategy written by Dr. Max Euwe while he was World Chess Champion. Unlike so many subsequent books by Euwe, there is no co-author to this book. Euwe himself wrote this one.

IV:  Note from back of Diary F.M. Guedalla & Co., 201 Grand Buildings, Trafalgar SQ. W.C.2.

V: Wikipedia
Crown and Anchor is a simple dice game, traditionally played for gambling purposes by sailors in the Royal Navy, and also in the British merchant and fishing fleets.

VI: Wikipedia
Basin Street Blues is a song often performed by Dixieland jazz bands, written by Spencer Williams in 1928 and recorded that year by Louis Armstrong.  The verse with the lyric “Won’t you come along with me/To the Mississippi…” was later added by Glenn Miller and Jack Teagarden. The Basin Street of the title refers to the main street of Storyville, the red-light district of early 20th-century New Orleans, north of the French Quarter. It became a red light district in 1897.

VII: Wikipedia 
Tiger Rag” is a jazz standard, originally recorded and copyrighted by the Original Dixieland Jazz Band in 1917. It is one of the most recorded jazz compositions of all time

VIII:  Wikipedia
Darktown Strutters’ Ball is a popular song by Shelton Brooks, published in 1917. The song has been recorded many times and is considered a popular and jazz standard. There are many variations of the title, including “At the Darktown Strutters’ Ball”, “The Darktown Strutters’ Ball”, and just “Strutters’ Ball”.

IX:  Wikipedia
“Song of India” is a popular song adapted from the aria “Pesni︠a︡ indiĭskogo gosti︠a︡” from Rimsky-Korsakov‘s 1896 opera Sadko. In January 1937, Tommy Dorsey recorded an instrumental jazz arrangement featuring Bunny Berigan on trumpet, which became a jazz standard. Coupled with “Marie“, the 78 rpm disc was a major hit for Dorsey, containing two of his most enduring recordings on one record, and which helped make him and his band into a household name as a popular music artist in the United States

X: Wikipedia 
I Can’t Give You Anything but Love, Baby” is an American popular song and jazz standard by Jimmy McHugh (music) and Dorothy Fields (lyrics). The song was introduced by Adelaide Hall at Les Ambassadeurs Club in New York in January 1928 in Lew Leslie‘s Blackbird Revue, which opened on Broadway later that year as the highly successful Blackbirds of 1928 (518 performances), wherein it was performed by Adelaide Hall, Aida Ward, and Willard McLean.In the 100-most recorded songs from 1890 -1954, I Can’t Give You Anything But Love, Baby (1928) is No. 24. The song continues to appeal, including new cover versions in 2014 and 2016, and several uses in popular movies and plays since 2000

XI: Wikipedia
I’m Getting Sentimental Over You” is a song recorded by Tommy Dorsey and His Orchestra. The words were written by Ned Washington and the music was written by George Bassman. It was first performed in 1932. The original copyright is dated 1933 and issued to Lawrence Music Publishers, Inc. The copyright was assigned to Mills Music, Inc. in 1934. Noni Bernardi, a saxophonist with the Dorsey orchestra arranged this song. Dorsey was the featured trombone soloist when his orchestra played it. It was first recorded in September 1935. A second recording on October 18, 1935 is the exact arrangement that Tommy would henceforth feature. Frank Sinatra sang this song in the Dorsey Orchestra and also featured it in an album, I Remember Tommy, after Tommy Dorsey’s death in 1956.
This song was featured in an episode of The Twilight Zone called “Static“, and in the movie Bart Got a Room.The tempo is considered a fox trot or swing.

XII: Wikipedia
Twenty Thousand Streets Under the Sky is a trilogy of semi-autobiographical novels by Patrick Hamilton. 
The three books are The Midnight Bell (1929), The Siege of Pleasure (1932) and The Plains of Cement (1934). They focus on three of the people who populate The Midnight Bell pub in London; the stories interconnect.
The first book in particular contains autobiographical elements—Hamilton worked in London pubs before becoming a successful writer, was infatuated with a prostitute at that time, and eventually died of liver failure caused by alcoholism. The books are also notable for their portrayal of working class London in the inter-war period.

XIII: Thanks to Susan Hearne for ancestry research.  Florance Montefiore (AKA Judah) Guedalla July 1873 to 9^th September 1941.  Married May Flora 1^st June 1902.  The Guedalla family have Spanish Jewish origins with contacts in the West Indies and Southern States of America.  His cousin Philip was a famous barrister and writer, and his father Joseph was also a solicitor.

XIV: The Guardian   Richard Norton-Taylor Friday 26 August 2011 
I was not a Nazi collaborator, PG Wodehouse told MI5 
Creator of Jeeves was upset at British criticism of his wartime broadcasts from Berlin 
PG Wodehouse was questioned by MI5 as a suspected collaborator for broadcasting from Berlin during the second world war. The creator of Jeeves protested that he was shocked and dismayed at the criticism his broadcasts had provoked in Britain.
How the cosy world of Bertie Wooster collided with harsh reality is revealed in MI5 files released today at the National Archives. “I thought that people, hearing the talks, would admire me for having kept cheerful under difficult conditions,” he said in a statement for MI5 in 1944.
Wodehouse was living in France when war broke out. He was taken prisoner when Germany invaded and sent to an internment camp in the German town of Tost, Upper Silesia. He described how, “as he was playing in a cricket match” on 21 June 1941, he was told to pack his bags and was put on a train to Berlin.
He was put up at the city’s Adlon hotel, and was paid to make a series of broadcasts, mainly for American listeners, describing his life as an internee. He claimed he was motivated by gratitude over letters sent by fans from the US.
The Wodehouse files are among a number released at the National Archives on people regarded by MI5 as potential “British renegades”, including collaborators, stool pigeons and possible subversives.
After the Berlin broadcasts Wodehouse and his wife, Ethel, moved to Paris, where they stayed at German expense at the Bristol hotel. It was there that he was interrogated after the liberation of Paris.
He referred in his statement for MI5 to Wesley Stout, editor of the Saturday Evening Post, who had expressed concern about the impact of Wodehouse’s Berlin broadcasts on serialisations that the paper intended to publish. Stout had said Britons resented what they regarded as Wodehouse’s “callous attitude” towards England. “I cannot understand what you mean about callousness,” replied Wodehouse, according the statement he gave to MI5.
He said he was simply reflecting the “flippant, cheerful attitude of all British prisoners. It was a point of honour with us not to whine.”
Wodehouse had previously written: “If this is Upper Silesia, what on earth must Lower Silesia be like?”
The idea for the broadcasts came from Werner Plack, former member of staff at the German consulate in Los Angeles, who in 1940 returned to the German foreign office in Berlin. Wodehouse referred to Plack as “my Hollywood friend”. Wodehouse said in his MI5 statement that he was “greatly shocked” to be told that John Amery, brother of the Tory MP Julian Amery and later executed for treason, had recommended him to the German secret services “as a person who might be useful as a propagandist”.
Wodehouse said that, while interned at Tost, he completed his novel Joy in the Morning, and wrote Full Moon, Spring Fever, and Uncle Dynamite.
The writer told MI5: “I would like to conclude by saying that I never had any intention of assisting the enemy and that I have suffered a great deal of mental pain as the result of my action.”
MI5 decided that the broadcasts were not pro-German and had been unlikely to assist the enemy, and decided against prosecution.
However, a memo of a 1946 meeting between an M15 officer and the then director of public prosecutions, Sir Theobald Mathew, reveals that his case was re-evaluated after the war. “The director said that he now takes the view that, if Wodehouse ever comes to this country, he should be prosecuted,” the officer recorded.
Wodehouse moved to the US in 1945 and lived there until his death in 1975, aged 93.

XV: First published prior to 1922.  It was republished in 1982 and is available on Amazon. 
The Visible and Invisible in Pianoforte Technique: Being a Digest of the Author’s Technical Teachings Up to Date 1982 paperback reprint edition by Tobias Matthay (Author) 
Part of Blog by Neil Stannard:
Thursday, May 14, 2015
Considering the Visible and Invisible in Piano Technique, With Thanks to Tobias Matthay
Even without reading Matthay’s book, The Visible and Invisible in Piano Technique, much can be gleaned just from the title. It’s my favourite title, I think, in the library of rhetoric on piano technique. I say this because much of what comes down to us from those proverbial old wives has to do with what can be observed in the playing of others. 
Tobias Matthay, England’s Piano Sage

XVI: Wikipedia
Bofors 40 mm gun
The Bofors 40mm gun, often referred to simply as the Bofors gun, is an anti-aircraft/multi-purpose autocannon designed in the 1930s by the Swedish arms manufacturer AB Bofors. It was one of the most popular medium-weight anti-aircraft systems during World War II, used by most of the western Allies as well as by the Axis powers. A small number of these weapons remain in service to this day, and saw action as late as the Gulf War.
Bofors 40 mm/L60. This example includes the British-designed Stiffkey Sight, being operated by the gun layer standing on the right. The layer operates the trapeze seen above the sights, moving them to adjust for lead. The loader stands to the layer’s left, and the two trainer/aimers are sitting on either side of the gun.

XVII: RAF Commands forum
The meanings of Air Raid Warnings were as follows:
Yellow: Confidential preliminary warning.
Purple: Warning to extinguish all lighting.
Red: “Action Warning” on which sirens are sounded.
White: Cancels all previous warnings received.

XVIII: Wikipedia
A dance to waltz music in triple time.

XIX: Players cigarettes.

XX: Wikipedia
Field Marshal Archibald Percival Wavell, 1st Earl Wavell, GCB, GCSI, GCIE, CMG, MC, KStJ, PC (5 May 1883 – 24 May 1950) was a senior officer of the British Army. He served in the Second Boer War, the Bazar Valley Campaign and the Great War, during which he was wounded in the Second Battle of Ypres. He served in the Second World War, initially as Commander-in-Chief Middle East, in which role he led British forces to victory over the Italians in western Egypt and eastern Libya during Operation Compass in December 1940, only to be defeated by the German Army in the Western Desert in April 1941. He served as Commander-in-Chief, India, from July 1941 until June 1943 (apart from a brief tour as Commander of ABDACOM) and then served as Viceroy of India until his retirement in February 1947. 
Middle East Command
The Middle Eastern theatre was quiet for the first few months of the war until Italy’s declaration of war in June 1940. The Italian forces in North and East Africa greatly outnumbered the British and Wavell’s policy was therefore one of “flexible containment” to buy time to build up adequate forces to take the offensive. Having fallen back in front of Italian advances from Libya, Eritrea and Ethiopia, Wavell mounted successful offensives into Libya (Operation Compass) in December 1940 and Eritrea and Ethiopia in January 1941. By February 1941, his Western Desert Force under Lieutenant General Richard O’Connor had defeated the Italian Tenth Army at Beda Fomm taking 130,000 prisoners and appeared to be on the verge of overrunning the last Italian forces in Libya, which would have ended all direct Axis control in North Africa. His troops in East Africa also had the Italians under pressure and at the end of March his forces in Eritrea under William Platt won the decisive battle of the campaign at Keren which led to the occupation of the Italian colonies in Ethiopia and Somaliland.
Wavell (right) meets Lt. General Quinan, commander of British and Indian Army forces in Iraq in April 1941.However, in February Wavell had been ordered to halt his advance into Libya and send troops to Greece where the Germans and Italians were attacking. He disagreed with this decision but followed his orders. The result was a disaster. The Germans were given the opportunity to reinforce the Italians in North Africa with the Afrika Korps and by the end of April the weakened Western Desert Force had been pushed all the way back to the Egyptian border, leaving Tobruk under siege

XXI: Wikipedia
Vichy France is the common name of the French State headed by Marshal Philippe Pétain during World War II. It represents the unoccupied “Free Zone” in the southern part of metropolitan France and French North Africa.

XXII:  E. Temple Thurston (born Ernest Charles Temple Thurston, September 23, 1879 – March 19, 1933) was a British poet, playwright and author.

XXIII: Alfred Damon Runyon (October 4, 1880 – December 10, 1946 was an American newspaperman and short story writer.

XXIV: “Give Us the Tools to Finish the Job”  Winston Churchill’s radio broadcast of the 9th February 1941 was a particularly rousing affair. It was partly designed for his domestic audience, including British forces stationed around the world. Privately he considered the threat of invasion to Britain to be much diminished but he could not allow this perspective any publicity.
The speech was also an international appeal. He made clear the Nazi threat to the Balkans and to Russia itself, even while plans for these actual operations were closely guarded German secrets. By June Churchill would be passing definite intelligence on the German intention to invade Russia to Stalin.

XXV: Mrs Patrick Campbell (9 February 1865 – 9 April 1940), born Beatrice Stella Tanner and known informally as “Mrs Pat”, was an English stage actress.
During her first marriage, from which she took the name by which she is generally known, she gave birth to two children, Alan “Beo” Urquhart and Stella. Her first husband died in the Boer War in 1900.
Fourteen years later, Campbell became the second wife of George Cornwallis-West, a writer and soldier previously married to Jennie Jerome, the mother of Sir Winston Churchill. Notwithstanding her second marriage she continued to use the stage name “Mrs Patrick Campbell”.

XXVI: Dad continued to suffer with nose bleeds all his life and had his nose cauterised on more than one occasion.

XXVII: (HHARP)Historic Hospital Admissions Records Project
The Hospital Almoner
The Almoners’ Department was a pre-NHS forerunner of the Social Work Departments found in modern hospitals today. Such a department was first opened at Great Ormond Street in 1909.

XXVIII: Wikipedia
Boulton Paul Aircraft Ltd was a British aircraft manufacturer that was incorporated in 1934, although its origins in aircraft manufacturing began earlier in 1914 and lasted until 1961. The company mainly built and modified aircraft under contract to other manufacturers, but had a few notable designs of its own, such as the Defiant fighter and the Balliol trainer.

NB: Daily Express 30/1/41

FIRE BLITZ BACK: OUT !
Whistles call guards into action
Daily Express Staff Reporter

Wardens blew their whistles as fire-bomb warnings for the first time in London last night. In an instant men and women swarmed from their houses with sand and water.
They did brilliant work. Hundreds on hundreds of incendiaries showered down, but only two fires – both small- had to be dealt with by the A.F.A. The all clear sounded before midnight.
The raiders-after nine nights of lullabitz – were signalled before dusk, but none reached the London area for a long time.  
At last one Nazi got through to a London suburb, dropped flares and showers of fire-bombs on houses.
Wardens blew their whistles, and out came the householders, some with sand, some with water others with nothing but sticks.
They climbed on roof and through windows, over garden fences and up stairways.
Boys joined in, so did girls. One boy, too eager was injured and had to be taken to hospital.
“There were about six people to every bomb” said a warden.  “they were like wolves leaping on their prey.”
One of the two fires which had to be dealt with by the A.F.S. was in the roof of a church. Nobody else could reach it.
Other raiders were turned back on the outskirts by our night defences. They dropped their loads of fire-bombs among houses, but once again the new Fire Guards pounced on them.
Women carried baths of water to help the stirrup pumps, although the Germans were still overhead and dropping High Explosives.
In two districts on the outskirts of London high-explosive bombs wrecked shops and many houses. People were buried under their homes.
Rescue parties got everybody out, but several are severely injured.
The house of a medical officer in the grounds of a hospital was hit by a heavy calibre bomb, and three people are believed buried.
In a Thames Estuary town many people — including children – were trapped under the wreckage of their homes.  Three are known to be dead.
Other raiders were reported over a north-east  coast town. East Anglia and A west Country town. In East Anglia a railway fireman was wounded in the ribs by a machine-gun bullet from a raider.

XXIX: Wikipedia
John Gilbert Winant OM (February 23, 1889 – November 3, 1947) was an American politician with the Republican party after a brief career as a teacher.
In 1941, Roosevelt appointed Winant ambassador to Britain, and Winant remained in that post until he resigned in March 1946. In a 2010 book, Citizens of London: The Americans Who Stood with Britain in Its Darkest, Finest Hour, author Lynne Olson described Winant as dramatically changing the U.S. stance as ambassador when succeeding pro-appeasement ambassador Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr., Winant announced upon landing at Bristol, England, airport in March 1941, “I’m very glad to be here. There is no place I’d rather be at this time than in England.” The remark, for a country that had come through the Battle of Britain and was in the midst of The Blitz, was dramatically on the front page of most British newspapers the next day. The new ambassador quickly developed close contacts with King George VI and Prime Minister Winston Churchill, even though the U.S. was only providing military aid and had not yet declared war on the Axis. Winant, according to the book, had an affair with Churchill’s second daughter Sarah Churchill during this time.
Winant was with Winston Churchill when he learned that Pearl Harbour had been attacked.
“Boomps A Daisy” dance craze, 1939  (Pinterest)

XXX:  www.libraryofdance.org/dances/palais-glide/Dating back to the mid-1930s, the Palais Glide is an English sequence dance performed in lines of couples — an early, swing-era “line dance” of sorts.

XXXI: Wikipedia
Lawrence Wright (15 February 1888 – 19 May 1964) was a British popular music composer and publisher. He was born in Leicester and opened a music shop in the city in 1906. A short time later his first song, “Down By the Stream”, was published, and by 1912 he had established the Lawrence Wright Music Co in Denmark Street, London. Wright went on to write (or co-write) over 600 songs under his own name and as Horatio Nicholls, including the World War I propaganda song “Are We Downhearted? No!” and would receive an Ivor Novello Award in 1962 for Outstanding Contribution to British Popular Music. He was one of the very rare composers of popular music in this period to make a substantial amount of money – it had not been unusual to see composers who had written dozens of hits die in poverty.
His 1927 collaboration with Edgar Leslie, “Among My Souvenirs”, has been covered by artists including Frank Sinatra, Louis Armstrong, Judy Garland, and Connie Francis. Wright founded Melody Maker magazine in 1926. He moved to Blackpool in the early 1920s and became a show promoter. Running “On With the Show” on the North Pier for a record-breaking 32 years (1924 – 1956). He lived in a mock castle house, later called the Castle Casino, on Blackpool’s North Promenade. After he began using a wheelchair, he moved to a bungalow in Carlin Gate. Upon being recently sold, much memorabilia was discovered at the address including posters, bills, letters, sheet music and musical scores.

XXXII: Delayed Action bomb

XXXIII: Available on YouTube     –  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q60pIny5WSo
https://www.combinedops.com/Lofoten_Islands_Raid.htm
~ LOFOTEN ISLANDS RAID ~
OPERATION CLAYMORE – 3/4 MAR 1941
Operation Claymore was the 1st Commando raid on the Lofoten Islands off the Norwegian coast, just north of the Arctic Circle. The Commandos destroyed German ships and factories producing fish oil and they gave free passage to the UK to over 300 Norwegian volunteers, a few Germans and quislings. It was, however, most notable for boosting flagging morale within the ranks of the Commandos and the country, as news of its success was made public.

XXXIV: maxmiller.org (The Max Miller Appreciation Society)
1940 (Aug to Nov) Holborn Empire & 1941 (Mar to Dec) London Palladium
Starred in Apple Sauce, a review that opened at the Holborn Empire and ran there until the theatre was bombed. It returned to continue its run at the London Palladium. Also appearing were Florence Desmond, Jack Stanford and Vera Lynn.

XXXV: Francis Duncan

XXXVI: The Official Air Ministry Account of The Battle of Britain from August-October 1940 published in March 1941. The copy is still among his war memorabilia