Tag Archives: WWII

Free Time : Brownies and Guides, and a special occasion

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Guides and Brownies

The thing I loved most of all when I was young was Guides and Brownies. When I first joined the Brownies, a remarkable lady called Mrs Hans Hamilton was in charge of all Brownie and Guide things. She was Brown Owl and the Guides always called her Madam, as I believe she was also District Commissioner.

Now in those days, each meeting that we had was stopped for a minute or two as she inspected us to see that our uniforms were as near perfect as possible. First you wore a hat. If you had long hair it had to be plaited or tied back off your collar. Ties at that time were made out of a shiny shaped material folded and tied at the back of your neck with a reef knot. The idea of this shaped tie was if someone hurt their arm the tie could be unfolded and used as a sling. Then there was the Brownie or Guide badge made of brass, and they had to be polished until they shone. Belts and shoes had to be polished as well and the shoes had to be black or brown with white socks or brown stockings. May be that seems a lot of fuss now, but we were proud of our uniforms and to make them look smart was a challenge. The Guide and Brownie activities were so numerous it would take for ever to relate them all, but the story I’m now going to tell, I’m doing so in the hope that someone may be able to remember what this occasion was.

There was some sort of parade that took part on Yarmouth Quay. Mary Lord (nee Hayles) and I were told as senior Sixers in the Brownies that we were to be very smart and represent the Brownie pack. I know we lined up with a few Guides and Scouts, Red Cross and all sorts of other people in uniforms. A gent, who I understand was an Admiral, and two other gents walked along the line looking at us. This went on for a long time and when it was at last over, we were taken out to a large Naval boat off the Common. We all stood along the side of the ship when someone blew a whistle. I later found out it was called a Bosun’s whistle. Then a loud voice yelled ‘Muster on the upper deck!’ and everyone moved. Several sailors showed us the way.
Now I thought they said ‘Mustard’, like you eat. I could not make out why they would have this on the deck. I looked around and of course could not see any. So I said to Mary, ‘I can’t see any mustard, can you? Why would they put it on the deck?’
Mary was the daughter of Harold Hayles the boat builder and what Mr Hayles didn’t know about any boat was not worth knowing. Mary said, ‘Don’t be so daft’ and then explained to me what it meant. I did feel daft! Then a lot of talking went on and prayers were said and hymns sung. I can’t remember what happened after this. I think we went home. If anyone has any ideas what this was all about it would be nice to know. My husband Norman thinks it must have been the end of war celebrations, as in the war we would not have been taken out to the ship. If anyone knows about this it would be lovely to hear.
Delia Whitehead nee Hunt b 1934

WWII Brownies War Effort: Delia Whitehead

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During the war, I was in the Brownies and we joined in with the War Effort. Our Brown Owl had a car with an old wooden trailer at the back. We had to go to each house in turn in Yarmouth to collect waste paper. Sometimes there were a few comics that we used to “borrow” when Brown Owl wasn’t looking, and bring them back at the next collection. They were tucked up our Brownie dresses and the belts tied tightly. One day, somebody’s fell out and Brown Owl was not pleased! We never borrowed any comics again.

Brownies 1940s

Brownies outside the White House, Yarmouth Common 1940s Pat Burt nee Adams extreme left
Photo: Pat Burt


Delia Whitehead nee Hunt b 1934

WWII: Thorley Marsh mystery

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War Time – Strange Goings-on over the Marsh

When I was about nine I used to visit my Mum and Dad in Yarmouth. I lived at the Toll Gate just outside Yarmouth with my Great Uncle, Gran, and Aunt Alice, and if it was dark I used to get a bus in Yarmouth Square and get off the bus right outside my Uncle George’s bungalow. I can’t quite remember why, I think I might have missed the bus, but one evening in the winter I had to walk back home. I did not mind the dark.
Because of the black-out in the war it was always dark with no lights on except for some natural light from the sky and sea. I walked past the Mount, a big house on the Common (not there any more), past a few yards with trees called the shrubbery. Then you came to a low hedge and you could see over the marsh. It was a fine night and you could see a bit.

As I got to this part I heard a drum drum of a plane’s engine. I did not know if it was a German plane or an English one, so I got under a tree and watched. You could just see the outline of a big plane flying low towards the marsh. It seemed to circle round the marsh and round Thorley Copse twice. It dropped two white flares and two red ones, then flew off. I ran as fast as possible in the dark. It only took a few minutes to get to the Toll Gate and home. I told my Great Uncle, who did fire watch. He went out and looked around but could not see anything. Next day when I went to Yarmouth I told my Dad. He said I must not talk about it as in the war you had to be careful what you said. But my mum told me afterwards he did go down to the police station, so I suppose he told them.

I’ve often wondered about this, and would love to know if anybody else saw it that night. I would love to hear about it. I think it must have been between seven and eight p.m.
Delia Whitehead nee Hunt b 1934

WWII Firewatch : Delia Whitehead

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War Time Fire Watch

When I was young, I lived with my Great Uncle George, Granny Hunt and Aunt Alice. Uncle George had a small-holding at the Toll Gate just outside of Yarmouth, but because it was war time he also did fire watch. We lived in a bungalow called ‘Downs View’. You could not see much from the garden so he had to walk down Thorley Road when it was dark.

Delia Whitehead's childhood home.

Downs View, Thorley Road 1940s where Delia Whitehead grew up with Granny Hunt, Aunt Alice and Great Uncle George who had a small holding there.
Photo: Delia Whitehead

There was a gent called Mr Rowley who was in charge of the men who did fire watch. He lived along the Bouldnor Road. If a fire was spotted the men would have to go to his house and tell him, or even look round to find him. Very few people were on the phone.

Sometimes Mr Rowley would visit the men’s homes to see if they had been out looking round. Trouble is in winter when it was bitter cold, Uncle George would pop home for a hot drink. He always sat in the kitchen on an old couch. It was warm and he kept falling asleep so the rest of us had to take it in turns to poke him just as he was about to drop off to sleep and hope Mr Rowley would not turn up in the middle of it.

WWII Canadians at Rofford House: Delia Whitehead

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War Time at Rofford House in Thorley Road

Now during the war, Rofford House in Thorley Road was used by service men. One day Granny Hunt and Aunt Alice and I were sitting in the kitchen at Downs View, Thorley Road, when suddenly the back door opened and two young men with shirts over their arms walked into the house, much to our surprise. One looked at Gran and said: ‘ Hello Ma, we are living in Rofford House. Can we borrow your iron?’
The other one explained they were (I think) Canadian. They had dates with two young women that evening, and there were no irons in Rofford House to iron their shirts.

Gran went out to the shed and came back with two flat irons because this is what she used then, and said: ‘They will take a while to heat up, boys, I have to put them on this range.’ Their faces were a picture. ‘What are they, Ma?’ one said. They could not believe it when Gran explained. They had had electric irons for years at home they said.

Gran decided if they tried to use the irons there would be two young ladies, with young men who had shirts full of holes, so she did it for them. Next day they came back and brought Gran several packets of biscuits. She said, ‘I can’t take them, it’s not right when things are rationed.’ They laughed and said they had plenty. Gran did bits of ironing for them and Gran got several lots of biscuits and then one day they came to say they all had to go back to the mainland.

They certainly had a forward approach but they were very nice young men. It seems that people just walked in and out of people’s houses in their home town. It seemed rather strange to us but then lot of things were strange in the war years.
Delia Whitehead nee Hunt b 1934

Delia Whitehead: War years at Yarmouth School

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There was a large brick building across the playground that was used as an air raid shelter. When the siren went off, the drill was to stand up, pick up your gas mask and then a little mat that was hung on a hook. It was sort of felt on one side and rubber stuff on the other. This was to sit on, as the seat in the brick building was very cold. We then marched to the shelter and sang silly songs, said our times-tables and listened to stories until the all-clear.

Another rather frightening thing I remember. One day, a big black van came to the school and we had to go and sit in it, about six children at a time, with our gas masks on. This was for them to test that they were working all right. They did not explain to us that it was nothing that would harm us. One young boy got so frightened that he was sick down his gas mask and had to be taken home.

One bit we did like was every so often, a lady used to arrive dressed in a green dress and a broad-rimmed green hat. I think she was from the Women’s Voluntary Service. We were given a piece of stiff paper that, with help, had to be made into a cone shape. Then the lady filled it with chocolate powder, folded the top over and we were supposed to take it home but the teacher turned a blind eye to the fact that many fingers were licked and poked down into the chocolate powder, to say nothing of the odd tongue. Not a great deal of the powder reached home, I might add!

Then there was the school war effort. One of the things done was that every so often, we were asked to bring a bag or tin dish to school, and we went to an area that is now the old train line path, to pick wild rose hips. These were to be made into rose hip syrup. But I don’t know which was worse, the insects that bit us or the boys! They would break the rose hips open to get the itching powder out and put it down the girls’ backs when the teacher was not looking. But the hips that did not drop on the ground or get put down people’s backs finally were taken back to school and weighed.

A few evacuees came to live in Yarmouth during the war years. I made friends with one little girl the day she arrived and we have been friends to this day.
Delia Whitehead nee Hunt b 1934

Colin Smith: WWII, 1945, glider pilot

I was a pilot and trained out in Canada mostly and then came back to this country.  I was scheduled to go onto fighter bombers or something like that but time went on, month after month.  Whether we didn’t lose enough of planes or what it was, I just don’t know.

Somebody came down one day and wanted some volunteers to go to the Far East to fly gliders, troop carrying gliders.  Now the army had lost a lot of their pilots over at Arnheim and places like that of course, but they had these ready trained pilots all waiting to go somewhere.  We went out there and were going to be on operations within six weeks, but we never did see any operations.  The Fourteenth Army at that time started pushing the Japs back down through Burma, then we were going to go into somewhere further down, Rangoon, but that never came off.  We did a bit of flying as kind of push out crews for a while on Dakotas flying supplies over Burma and dropping them by parachute and things like that. Just an ordinary looking type of aircraft, the Dakota, but marvellous really.  They’re still flying today.  Quite incredible really I think.

We went up first of all into Assam. From there, we moved round to various places around India and down into Ceylon as it was then.  It was a very pleasant time really.  We were annoyed that they hadn’t sent us in   We had a nice time up in the mountains up north, through Kashmir and places like that.

Print showing 'First recorded loop of a Hadian (Waco) Glider by Flight Lieutenant Jack Hayward and Flight Sergeant Colin Smith, 1945', from print belonging to Colin Smith

Print showing ‘First recorded loop of a Hadian (Waco) Glider by Flight Lieutenant Jack Hayward and Flight Sergeant Colin Smith, 1945’, from print belonging to Colin Smith

We were co-pilots on these gliders – Waco Hadrians. I was co-pilot with a man called Jack Hayward; he later became Sir Jack Hayward, a multi millionaire.  We’ve had quite a number of get- togethers for 671 squadron as it was then.

I didn’t do as much flying as I wanted to do.  We came back to this country and while we were waiting to Oxford, they sent us on some wonderful course, flying Tiger Moths again, or something like that and another course doing aircraft recognition and this that and the other, a waste of time really. I had four years in the RAF altogether.

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