Tag Archives: Eileen Lansdowne

Eileen Smith: Swimming at Love Shore 1920s, 1930s

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The lane leading to Loveshore

The lane leading to Loveshore

All of us children learnt to swim at Love Shore or Pier Shore, down the lane opposite Basketts Lane. The boys swam off Love Shore; the girls swam nearer the pier.

We went swimming twice a week in the summer, from the end of May, supervised by Mrs Stanway and Miss White (who was later Mrs. H Hayles). According to tides, we went swimming at 11.30 in the morning or 3.30 in the afternoon. We used to nip back home to change and run down to Love Shore with a towel round us. No one taught us proper strokes, we just learnt to swim. In September we swam for our certificates – 20 yards, 40 yards, and 100 yards. In 1931 some of us swam a mile from Eastmore to the pier for which we received a medal – I’ve still got mine.

Eileen Smith's medal for swimming one mile in 1931 whilst at yarmouth School

Eileen Smith’s medal for swimming one mile in 1931 whilst at Yarmouth School

Reverse inscribed ‘Eileen Lansdowne   1931’

Eileen Smith's medal for swimming one mile in 1931. (She was then Eileen Lansdowne)

Eileen Smith’s medal for swimming one mile in 1931. (She was then Eileen Lansdowne)

I only swam once in the competition against other schools. I hated it. The private schools had all been taught proper strokes – crawl – and we’d just learnt to swim along.
Eileen Smith nee Lansdowne b 1921

Eileen Smith: WWII in ATS 1940s

August  29th 1941 I enlisted in the A.T.S.at Portsmouth.  I didn’t want to wait to be called up, I wanted to have some say in what I did. No, I didn’t ask my parents’ permission! They wouldn’t have stopped me.
I was away for 4 years, as Predictor on Ack Ack Anti Aircraft guns, and ended my Army Service on September 17th 1945.

Eileen Smith in ATS uniform

Eileen Smith in ATS uniform

I really enjoyed my time in the ATS, made some good friends, saw good times and bad – but not so many bad times as Ralph.  I hope none of the children has to go to war.
Eileen Smith

Eileen’s service took her to Chester, London’s Dockland, Hyde Park, Hastings and coastal defences against ‘Doodlebugs’, Belgium with British Liberation Army, dealing with V2 rockets and eventually to Taunton to be demobbed.

Eileen Smith: WWII 1939, 1940 ARP

I was in the A.R.P. and so if I was on duty in the evenings, I went to the Town Hall, which was sandbagged all round, and passed on phone messages to Newport Headquarters.
I remember coming down the High Street in the dark one evening with my dad. The police came out of the Police Station with guns drawn and shouted, ‘Halt! Who goes there!’
My dad shouted back, ‘Dont be such a silly b … Percy! You know who we are!’

ARP log,Yarmouth Police flag

ARP log,Yarmouth Police flag

One day when I was working in s, a Bren Gun carrier was being driven round from Bridge Road to go up the High Street. They misjudged the angle and took the window opposite in Hardwoods clean out!

When I was out driving Mills delivery van along Thorley Road one day, there was a row of incendiary bombs that had been dropped to try to set fire to the harvest.
I had to drive up Hamstead Road with deliveries in the dark, with just a slit of headlight, trying to miss all the ruts. Because it was wartime, we were supposed to remove the rotor arm each time we stopped, so no enemy agents or paratroopers could steal the van. I think I did it once….
There was an ammunition dump between Pigeon Coo and Hamstead that I had to drive past when I was delivering. They always made me stop and show my identity papers although they knew who I was. I think they were bored because they didn’t see many people.

Ralph Smith: WWII

When war broke out I was working in Mills Grocers shop and driving their delivery van.  Ralph Smith, who worked there too, was a pork butcher. He and I were near enough courting (and married 1945).  He joined the Isle of Wight Territorials, ( Princess Beatrice’s Own) at Freshwater on March 4th, 1939 and was mobilised at the end of July and stationed  first of all at the Needles Battery, on Coastal Guns.

Ralph manned a Lewis gun during the Battle of Britain, served  in Algeria, Medjes el Bab, Tunisia with the Ist Army, in Italy, Monte Casino, Tel Aviv, Palestine, Greece, back to Italy before VE Day. After VE Day, he was sent to Klagenfurt, Austria, Germany and Belgium. He was demobbed on March 1st 1946.

Ralph Smith on leave in Egypt

Ralph Smith on rest camp near Cairo after 6 months at the line in Tunisia: Photo Eileen Smith

Eileen Smith: Thorley, St Swithin’s churchyard 1960s

St Swithin’s Church, Thorley

Thorley churchyard spring

Thorley churchyard spring

When Bert Welstead got too old to be able to look after the churchyard, Ralph took over from him and carried on the good job of looking after the wildflowers that make Thorley special. He was asked by visitors on one occasion why he didn’t keep the grass mown shorter;  it looked untidy. He didn’t think much of them; they wanted St Swithin’s churchyard to look like a garden lawn. Eileen Smith nee Lansdowne b 1921 ( Thorley’s churchyard is recognised for its wealth of wildflowers, and the care that has been taken to conserve these through the years.)

Eileen Smith: Shops, Mills 1930s

Mills' staff c 1936

Mills’ staff c 1936

I started work in Mills two weeks after I left school. Mr. Mills himself taught me how to weigh out tea, sugar, raisins and currants, into paper bags, and then turn the top down. The weighing had to be done really accurately, with balance scales and weights, because you never knew when the Weights and Measures man would call in to check. Brown sugar was difficult because it used to dry out and the weight would change.

New Zealand butter came in large tins and had to be weighed out into blocks of 4oz. You had to be quick otherwise it went squidgy, ugh! We had marble counters to keep it cool.

Some customers would call in at quarter to eight, just before we shut, and want all their groceries delivered before we closed, even if they lived just opposite. Some of them had lists, others used to lean over the counter and whisper ‘2 oz of tea’ so no one knew they weren’t ordering much.

I learnt to drive the delivery van in 1940 – had to drive all round Cranmore Avenue and Hamstead. The first day I went out on my own, I had a puncture after I’d delivered up the lane at Lee Farm. By the time I’d changed the wheel, my hands were filthy and black, so I knocked on the door and asked Mrs. Stallard if I could wash my hands.
‘No you cant!’ she said, so I had to drive all the way back to Yarmouth to wash my hands.
 Eileen Smith nee Lansdowne b 1921

Eileen Lansdowne, Pauline Hatch: Shops 1930s

Square with coaches and Town hall

Square with coaches and Town hall

In the Square, next to the Town Hall and a bit behind it, where Annette’s the hairdresser is now, there was a cobbler’s, Mr. Donovan. He had a wooden leg.
On the other side of the Town Hall, on the side towards the sea, was Kelsey’s, with  Jimmy Gobini’s gents hairdressers in one side, and a tobacconist and confectioners on the other. Then there was a ‘bits and pieces’ shop. It was amazing what us children could buy for 2d. Mills Tea Rooms was on the corner. Eileen Smith nee Lansdowne b1921

I can remember Mr Donovan with a wooden leg, the shoemender. He used to swear like a trooper and I think he used to drink a bit.  We used to have to take our shoes down there and he used to put great big thick rubber bits on to make them last.  He had a very nice wife and a son called John who became a policeman.  He was a fierce old man and it was a grotty old place tacked on to the Town Hall. Pauline Harwood nee Hatch b 1930

Eileen Smith: Yarmouth Carnival 1930s – 70s

The Yarmouth Carnivals were a highlight of the year, always held on a Thursday, early closing day. There were maybe 4 bands, proper bands.  They were wonderful .

Jazz band 1930s

Jazz band 1930s with Curly Jupe on accordion and Megan Cook vocals

 The fishing competition on the Pier used to draw over a hundred rods. My Grandfather, Robert May, supplied the Rod for first prize.My aunt was asked if she’d like to keep up the tradition after he died, but she said no, it was the end of an era, and Harwood’s took over giving the prize.

Robert May awards Carnival Fishing prize of rod

Robert May awards prize rod for Carnival Fishing competition off Pier

Robert May awards the prize rod for the fishing competition on the pier

During Carnival Week there were harbour sports, greasy pole and swimming races off the Common. All the families joined in and won prizes too. Yarmouth was a town of families, now it’s a town of holiday homes. Eileen Smith nee Lansdowne b 1921

Eileen Smith: Free Time 1930s

Horse racing
Before the war, there used to be West Wight Point-to-Point races

Race card for Point to Point 1939 at Tapnell Farm, near Yarmouth

Race card for Point to Point 1939 at Tapnell Farm, near Yarmouth

on the fields up Broad Lane. On the days it was on, Ralph and the chaps who worked at Mills used to cycle up in the lunch hour to watch, and hope they got back in time for the afternoon!
Eileen Smith nee Lansdowne b 1921

1933 Douglas Biles at Tapnell

1933 Douglas Biles competing at Tapnell