Author Archives: Jill Cowley

Joan Kelsey: WWII Land Army 1940s

Joan was down here on the Island because of the Land Army.   I met Joan through her coming into the shop, that was the only way. We used to get talking.Phil Kelsey

I was working out at Wellow on the Chessell estate for Sir Hampton Rowbottom  up in the dairy.  A typical day would be going up Cowleaze to fetch the cows when the mail train came through to Yarmouth. We milked 120, then we went home for breakfast. Afterwards we came back and washed up all the milking things, and they were all sterilised. We had to scrub the milking parlour down ,and then out on the yard where they came in.  The cows were turned out back again till teatime, then we started again, twice a day.  We met and got married in 1950. Joan Kelsey

Joan Kelsey, Land Army 1940s

Joan Kelsey, Land Army 1940s

Phil Kelsey: WWII demob 1940s

I never come out until 1946.  Funny thing always was, I was called up before a lot of them and demobbed after them all.
I missed any celebrations they had.  They had it before I come home.  The council had a celebratory dinner and I was still away.
Quite frankly I didn’t know what to do.  I messed about for a long time.  I took the full length of the leave we were allowed.  I didn’t know what to do.  I did try to get in the Prison Service.  I can remember going in there and interviewed by a bloke and we were talking for some time. Something happened and he had to go off, and I was sat there waiting and waiting and I got fed up and I walked out.  Phil Kelsey b 1920

Phil Kelsey c 1990

Phil Kelsey c 1990

Rodney Corbett: post WWII 1940s

Paddy Corbett WWII in Burma

Alec ‘Paddy’ Corbett WWII in Burma, photo Rod Corbett

My mother met my father in the second war, when he was in Royal Corps of Signal stationed at Golden Hill and she and my father were married in 1942.

When my father came back, I had to get to know him, after 3 years away. His Irish accent was so broad, I had to act as interpreter to people in Yarmouth. Rod Corbett b 1943

 

Pat Burt: WWII, VE Day

I went down to Bouldnor 1ST Park on V.E. day, May 8th 1945. We all had a day off school, and I was studying for my exams, and I went down there with all my homework on the beach. You used to be able to walk through the copse to the beach. It wasn’t a very nice beach but you could sit on the bank there.  We used to go down and have picnics.  We used to walk there quite often. Pat Burt

School log: VE Day

Yarmouth School log: VE Day

Rod Corbett: WWII PoWs 1940s

Audrey King 1940s

Audrey King, Rod Corbett’s mother 1940s


One of my earliest memories of Yarmouth was going with my mother down the High Street, and seeing the German P.O.Ws walking down the High Street.  I guess it must have been at the end of the war or just after, but they had the diamonds on their clothes and typical German field caps.

Another memory that really sticks with me; we had been given a lift, my mother was taking me to Newport. Transport was very meagre in those days, and we’d got a lift with a friend of the family in a coal truck, in the front.  And this coal truck used to deliver – I guess they picked the coal up from Yarmouth from the quay – delivering to the Hamstead POW camp – this sticks in my mind.  We drove into the camp through the gates, and at that point, when the lorry got in the camp it broke down.

I remember the lid of a vehicle up, and a huge host of German soldiers gathering around. One young soldier,-  even to me as a small child, he seemed young,-  held a kitten up at the window of this truck, showing me this kitten.  Now as I’ve got older I realise the vehicle wasn’t so interesting, but my mother was. She was quite a looker with red hair, and I think it was the excuse to see a lady.  I have no idea how we got out of that situation, but that incident just sticks with me. Rod Corbett

Ralph Smith: WWII Italy 1940s

Ralph’s experience working as a pork butcher in Mills before joining up, came in handy.
The last Christmas Ralph’s lot were fighting in Italy, they were near a farm. Apparently the farmer, who kept pigs said he hated the British.
279’s Commanding Officer said, ‘Right, we’ll have one of those b….s for Christmas dinner.’
He asked if anyone knew anything about killing and preparing pork, so Ralph said he was a pork butcher. The officer shot the pig, Ralph prepared it and a lovely meal was had by all! Eileen Smith nee Lansdowne b 1921

Joy Lawry: WWII Lifeboat 1940s

The firing of the lifeboat maroons was stopped during the war. At night, when Dad  ( Walter Cotton, the Coxswain)’s phone  rang, he would answer it and while he was putting his clothes on, he would shout to me to get the men for the boat. So I would get up, put my shoes on, my coat over my nightie, and as I went out the door I’d grab my stick.   I would then run round the men’s houses in the pitch dark and tap on their bedroom windows with my stick and shout “Dad wants you on the boat!” and then go back to bed.  I might occasionally see an ARP man but usually nobody.

The Yarmouth Lifeboat had to take a policeman (a special usually) with them on a call and enquire the nationality of the men needing rescuing. Whether the enquiry was made before or after rescue, I don’t know!  After a while, the R.A.F. Air Sea Rescue boats were used, as most of the calls were for planes ditching and the A.S.R. boat was faster. Joy Lawry nee Cotton b 1922