Archdeacon's Tale II

EAST TRENT CHURCHES
Besthorpe, Clifton, Collingham,
Girton, Harby, Holme, Langford, South Scarle, Thorney, Winthorpe

The Archdeacon's Tale! (A World War II Story) By J Eric Ashton

Part II: Flights of Fancy!

Rod, Gladys' younger son, was a pilot in the RAF. Early in his flying career he was posted to a Northern station, "Yorkshire I think. Or maybe Durham". There he met a lovely girl, Penny, at a NAAFI dance. She was a 'Wren' on leave, who invited him home for the weekend to meet her family. Her father was a coal miner, and her brother Ted, who wanted to join the Paras (Parachute Regiment), was paradoxically drafted into the pits as a Bevin Boy*. One Saturday evening they all met for a drink in the Miners' Welfare Club, where Rod was feted as a hero. He played the piano whilst they lustily sang songs such as 'The Old Bull and Bush' and 'Cushy Butterfield', and a good time was had by all. Then it was early to bed in their small miner's cottage, because Father was due down the pit at 4.00 am, and Ted had to report to Oakdale Colliery in Wales.

Back in their rather overcrowded but hospitable home, Penny and her younger sister Pauline, a Land Girl, slept in Penny's room; Grandma, who had lost her husband in a recent pit accident, in the little box-room; Ted retired to a sofa in the parlour; and Rod was offered a spare bed in the parents' room. Unfortunately, in the early hours the local brew caught up with him and he was overwhelmed by the insistent demands of nature. There was only one solution; to battle his way in the dark to the privy at the bottom of the garden. He hastily dressed, tiptoed tentatively across the bedroom, then quietly along the landing, down the stairs and furtively across the parlour into the scullery. But here misfortune overtook him as he stumbled into a bucket with a resounding clatter. Everyone awoke and rushed to the scene. Before he could ask: 'What on earth was that doing there?' Ted surreptitiously lifted the bucket outside! Adroitly, Dad rescued the situation by stating it was 3.30am; time to get up and prepare for work. Rod hadn't the courage to re-visit them after this faux pas, and never saw Penny again. However, he often thought with affection of this friendly, caring mining family disrupted by the dogs of war. He also had to endure the ribbing from his fellow messmates; with jokes about: 'spending a penny', and 'did the penny drop?' "I dare say there were other unrepeatable phrases, but then he wouldn't tell his Mum, would he? You know how these highly strung young men behave".

In a more recent communication from Rod he had told her about training gunners on a firing range in Wales . . ("Oh dear! I shouldn't have said where"). He was trailing a drogue target behind his plane, and young novices were practising shooting at it from other aircraft. One or two of the shells went a little wide of the mark, clipping the tail of Rod's aircraft. His crisp retort to the gunner over the radio-link sounded something like: "Red Leader to Dixie Kid. What the _** (Unprintable!) are you playing at? Careful, you silly young basket Remember, I'm towing the b_* thing, not pushing it!" "Well, these lads have got to have some laughs, haven't they? Sorry about the language, Vicar!"

At the outbreak of the Second World War Gladys' husband, Jim, was appointed an Air Raid Warden. The family often chuckled about the time when they 'helped' him stick his transfer badge to his brand new Warden's steel helmet. As they applied themselves to the task, each acquired a piece of the transfer adhered to their fingers or down their nails. Eventually it was attached, but they were in stitches throughout the whole delicate operation! Gladys often forced back a tear when she recollected the badge 'installation ceremony'; and also the occasional hilarious exercises with the stirrup pump and its accompanying bucket of water, or pretend-water. Luke used to go outside each evening at 5.30pm to sit on top of the blast-wall outside the entrance and wait for Jim to come home. 'How on earth did he climb up there?'

Tragically Jim was killed some weeks later whilst on duty during an air raid. With other Wardens, Policemen and Firemen, he had just helped to evacuate some injured people from a bombed building when cries from within indicated another woman and her baby were still trapped. He and a Fireman friend scrambled back into the damaged shell to rescue them, but the weakened structure collapsed, killing all inside. Gladys, like many other Londoners at the time, though devastated, took Jim's death stoically. If anything it helped to stiffen her resolve.

"We aren't the only ones suffering", she would exclaim. "Only the other day I had news from a friend in Newark-on-Trent, saying . . . Follow the link below for more about The Archdeacon's Tale!

* See notes at end of final episode.

Like to see Part III 'Godiva Rides Again!' . . .?

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