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Goodbye Radar – Hello Signals
I arrived at the Radio Branch (wartime) of London Uni. It was based at Exhibition Road, South Kensington and we were living in a couple of Regency Houses in Kensington 2 stories and a basement. Next door to our house was the South African Officers club and although we always heard continous guffaws and laughter we were far too busy to concern ourselves with “Colonials” – British or nothing for us!!
There were 4 of us in a room. It was comfortable and the large Regency windows opened up to a Juliet Balcony. We were on the 2nd floor. I shared a room with Hazel Issacs – a beautiful blue-eyed
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fair skinned red haired Jewess (she knew Yvonne) Rosemary Frampton blonde and English country-style and Eileen Roke. Eileen was the first lesbian I had ever met but I didn’t discover this until much later.
There were 20 girls on our course. All were matriculated. Some had degrees or some form of tertiary education.
Our tutor was a charming man called “David”. He was a Sergeant and although we never learned much about him, he was very obviously an academic. The very first day he gave us a Maths Exam. 3 years out of school and I got 10% – most of the class the same only our “School Marm” brain, Eileen Haigh did well. So the first week it was Maths – Maths – more Maths. Then another exam and I managed 88% so that was a relief. It showed me how quickly you forget when you aren’t continually exercising the skills you have in that particular field.
A fortnight later the first Buzz-bombs started to fall on London. One fell in Prince Consort Road up near Albert Hall, which was a skip and jump from our house.
Kensington Gardens and the Victoria Memorial were at the top of Exhibition Road and South Kensington Tube Station at the bottom.
It was easy for me to get home a fast tube from South Kensington to
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Victoria Station and then the 50 minutes on the fast electric train to Maidstone.
I saw alot of Steven when I was in London. He was always good company and we enjoyed Music/Ballet/Shows going out to dinner and seeing each other in Maidstone when we were each home for the weekend.
At the end of February 1944, the Buzz bombs were almost daily. You could here the whine/throb of their motor as they flew (pilotless) towards you. Then you would hear the motor cut out and dive for cover or under a table – and then THE BANG. We had several bombs in Kensington Gardens as in Exhibition Road. We lost all the windows in our house.
On March 2nd Arend, our Dutch friend was in town and wanted to take me out to dinner. I met him at the Miabella – probably the most trendy of the West End restaurants during the war – and Jean, the French underground spy was also with him. Arend would translate when Jean and I couldn’t understand each other. He spoke little English; seemed old and serious for his years. He had straight blond hair and brown eyes and a nice smile but oh, so thin: He had just arrived back in England from France. He never spoke about what he did or where he went. Jean wasn’t even his
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proper name, Arend said. Arend knew him because they knew each other as lads in France.
We had several series of exams throughout our year in London and I did quite well in them all. We had to learn a lot about Electronics, Transmission, Wireless sets – Radar. We had to learn to send and receive norse at 17 (words per minute). We had to know how Teleprinters worked – The theory of Electricity, Radar, use of Signals in aircraft. We all had to build a wireless set that worked. We had to do lots of Maths. It was al fascinating – I had left the war behind – I was back in Academia.
And it was the year I was 21, Steven was 23 and we had been friends for nearly 4 years.
At this time Joe was involved in a torrid romance with an Army Captain she had met in Maidstone. She was really smitten and he seemed nice enough but a bit too “smammy” for me. He probably had a good family connections but I never saw enough of him to know him well. Joe had had lots of romances. One night she had 2 proposals of marriage in one night. As one left through the front door, another was coming in the back. She had become very, very attractive and a bubbly personality which drew men to her like flies. I used to feel
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very much the ugly duckling whenever she was around.
Mummy and Daddy opened the Court for a weekend house party for my 21st party and I could bring whoever I liked. So I invited Topsy, Yvonne, Cyril, Ken, Pinky. Joe invited her heart-throb. He did not reply. The morning before the weekend we were looking at the front page of the Times and we saw in the “Engagement” column, “Admiral Lord somebody or other and Lady “ditto” have great pleasure in announcing the engagement of their daughter Mary to Captain (Joe’s “heart throb”).
Whether or not Mary was encentric at the time I do not know. But they were married and returned to Maidstone Barracks with a baby shortly after. She a poor little shy sparrow of a girl with hair everywhere and bosoms leaking milk all over her clothes. She was a nice lass but I felt sorry for her.
“THE CREEP” and Joe hit it off again on the dance floor with his wife (who had brought the baby to the Ball) oozing milk all over her Ball gown.
I talked pretty straight to Joe that night. We had grown apart because of the war and our lives were following a totally different social and intellectual path. She was my only sister and I know later, when Henry came into my life, I was scared at the consequences of their meeting. He told me later, he didn’t understand my concern – “She didn’t interest me at all”. Each to his own poison!!!
(see next Book. Heigh – Ho!)
