The War, children and post‑war years

While I was carrying, I asked my Mum how the baby would get out.  We had no sex education at school in those days.  She told me in no uncertain terms "It will come out the same way that it went in."  When I started getting pains the midwife came and examined me and said, "No its not ready yet but if you are a good little girl you will have a lovely boy."

I was in labour for 48 hours and didn't have a very good time.  After it was all over the nurse explained that I had had a breach birth.  When my Mum came to visit me I told her "You are a fine one, why didn't you tell me about breach births." She replied, " How the hell did I know that you would have one."  Anyway she was more interested in her first grandchild than me.

Little Billy was a lovely sweet, pretty and contented baby with fair hair and blue eyes. I soon forgot about the difficult delivery. Although he weighed eight pounds and seven ounces, his Dad was a bit disappointed because he had been a ten pounder himself. So the tandem was forgotten and went into cold storage.

All my family made a fuss of the baby.  My Dad used to come round and, proud as punch, we would go into Battersea Park for a walk.

While we lived there we saved up to buy a house in Harrow.  We had to pay a deposit of twenty-five pounds to buy a Wimpy house, which had a nice garden.

One day soon after we had moved to Harrow, I went shopping and put the pram outside a shop with him in it. After doing the shopping I walked home, forgetting my baby and pram. When I arrived home I thought, "Where is my pram?"  It was not in the hall where I always left it.  I realised that I had left it outside the shop.  I ran all the way back, and found the pram with my baby in it.  Thank God he was asleep and still there, my heart missed many a beat I can tell you. 

While Billy was quite small I would take him on a Saturday to meet his Dad coming home from work.  We would go to Lyons and he would have an ice‑cream and we would have tea. Sometimes we would go to Brighton for the day and he would splash around with his Dad, who would also make sand‑castle for him.

After two years and nine months my next child was born, also a boy. This birth was much easier, only 12 hours of labour pains but worth every moment of it.  Reggie was also lovely; I tried to breast feed him like my first child but unfortunately after a while I did not have any milk.  The poor kid used to cry, so I went to the chemist and bought Glaxo and fed him this.  Later I had to take him to the clinic to be weighed.  As he was put on the scales what did he do but a pee, that went up in the air.  I was told off.  The Health Visitor said I would have to feed him, and then he would be weighed again. After I had fed him with Glaxo and Baby Parish food he was always satisfied. 

Some months later the health visitor came to see how he was getting on and why I didn't keep going to the clinic as I could have got powdered milk much cheaper.   As my mother picked Reggie up and was kissing him the Health Visitor said "Don't do that mother, it isn't hygienic."  My Mum was flaming mad, "Don't you tell me what to do. I've had nine children. How many have you got?" She blushed, "I haven't any, I'm a Miss."  So Mum said,  "Well you mind your own bloody business." The Health Visitor said she wouldn't visit us any more, so I said "I don't want you to; I fetched up my first child and I am quite capable of looking after my second, nobody ask you to poke your nose in, so cheerio."  Afterwards Mum said "Good riddance."

Unfortunately the war came when Reggie was only seven and a half month's old and their Dad had to go to fight for his King and Country like all other men.  Every room had blackout curtains up which we dyed before Bill left.

Air‑raid wardens used to patrol the streets.  I had to take my two children out to the street shelter on my own and was too scared to go to sleep.  Even now I'm not a good sleeper.

I had to bring up our two children by myself (like many more Mums whose husbands were in the services).  My Mum baby-sat for me while I went with my Dad to Waterloo to see my Bill go.  We were very sad to be parted, and we hugged each other with lots of kisses.  "Chin, chin, chin up," we said to each other. With tears in my eyes we said cheerio, and I waved to him as the train departed.

He was in the navy as a gunner on different ships and was in the North Atlantic when their ship was hit by a torpedo near Nova Scotia, Canada.

I did not know about the ship being sunk but I got a lot of my letters returned marked "unknown." So I left my two children with my Mum while I went to see my Dad at work.  I was crying all the way in the train. When my Dad saw me, he guessed what was wrong and took me into his office and shook the living day lights out of me.  He said that he thought my Bill was a goner.  His hands were filthy dirty and he said "Lil while I've got these pair of hands you and your children will never want." I waited till he finished his work and he took me home again.

After a while I got a telegram from Bill saying that he had been picked up, by chance by a ship called the Winchelsea and it had taken them to a hospital in St Johns,  Nova Scotia.

When his ship was sunk most of the crew managed to take to the lifeboats, but many of them didn't survive.   Bill was in a lifeboat with the Captain, who had a broken leg, and appointed Bill to be in charge.   They were adrift for eleven days.  As a reward the Captain nominated Bill for a medal and he was awarded the British Empire Medal.   The citation read as follows:

A.B. W.G.F.Burgar for outstanding leadership and endurance for over ten days journey in a boat when his ship was torpedoed.

Anyway after Bill was sunk it was eleven months before he came home on surprise service leave.  The day he came home my eldest kept on saying to his brother "Its Daddy!" but the younger boy, poor kid, he cried because he didn't know his Dad.

When the time came for the presentation me and my eldest son went to Buckingham Palace to see Bill get his medal.  King George VI presented the medal and our present Queen Mum was also there.  I will always remember it, there were rows of plush red seats for the relatives, maybe a couple of hundred.  All the service men that were to receive the medals filed in from the left and shook hands with the King.

The saddest part of all was that both boys caught scarlet fever.  One went to the isolation hospital one day and the other followed two days later. We were not allowed to see them but took lots of toys and new laid eggs to them (a friend sold eggs to us).   Matron told us that we couldn't take any of the toys home afterwards.  We said please keep them for other children.

They had to stay in hospital and time was getting short for Bill to go back again from his leave.  I'm glad to say that both boys came out together so Bill had a week with us all. When we went to fetch them from the Hospital they didn't look too good, so we ran towards them and I said to the Matron that they didn't look very well. Matron was indignant and said "Mother I can tell you that they have been well looked after and have been good children."  They came towards us hand in hand; I apologised and said I didn't mean to offend her and we all parted friends.  One of the happiest days.  Anyway what a nice surprise they had when we arrived home. In our front room was a pedal motorcar, which Bill had made for them while we waited for them to come home. Also Bill had saved some money while he was in Hospital in Canada and this was spent on other toys.

Bill was eventually drafted back and was about to be posted to Japan when the war ended and he came home for good, but with dreadfully frost‑bitten feet.  Like all service men he received a demob suit when he left.

When the War finished Mums started taking down the blackout curtains. There was much joy and everyone felt that the kids should have a treat.  In Latchmere Grove, where Mum lived, there was a street party and our two kids went. Every house had been contributing 3d a week towards the cost of the party.  Everyone mucked in.  The kids had to take a tin mug and their own spoon for the ice‑cream.   Paper plates and hats were given to everyone.

Union Jacks hung from windows and red, white and blue paper bunting was pinned around the doors.  There was plenty of sandwiches, cake and ice‑cream for all the kids. After the tables were cleared away the fun began. There were three‑legged races, legs tied together with string; winners got a new penny.  A magician, singing, music till time to say good‑night.  Then the Mums and Dads had their turn. We were all so happy to celebrate again.

We had a similar party in Twyford Road in Harrow.  A notice was circulated and a meeting was held to plan the party.  Some made cakes, or jellies or sandwiches.  Fancy cakes were bought from the bakers, one for each kid, as well as lemonade and ice‑cream. A neighbour who had come home from America to see her daughter fetched some peanut butter.  I had never heard of it before but some of the kids liked it. A shop lent us a big tea urn for the evening.

My front room carpet was covered with jellies, cakes.  Other people's houses were the same, but we didn't care since it was all for a good cause.  Tables and chairs lined the street outside our house, which was in the middle of the street.  It was lovely to see the kids tucking in to a good nosh.

After the kids had eaten we cleared up and the kids had games.  Races, a Magic Lantern show, singing and dancing, especially the Conga. Every child was given a new penny, which we collected from the Bank.  About nine o'clock they all went to bed, after giving three cheers for the parents.

When my Billy was young he used to have a sixpenny doll, which was called Sarah.  Well I used to have a coalman whom I called Sarah. One day Billy went with me to the street door and he said, "Mum there's Sarah."  The coalman asked who Sarah was and I thought quickly and said that it was Billy's name for his doll.

My Bill had got frost bitten feet owing to being in the lifeboat and was in terrible pain with them.  He used to put cream on them each night to stop the itching.  Then he started back to work with his old Company and they put him working in the winter outside doing shop fronts, polishing and cleaning up.  Well, poor thing, his feet couldn't stand it, so after more than twenty years (minus the War years) with the Company he packed it in.  He said that those who didn't go to War were now in charge, and he was nothing to them so‑and‑so's.

I couldn't believe he had done it. "Don't worry," he said, "we will manage."  He wrote off for a builder's licence, but there were few jobs to go to at that moment so he used to go round knocking down air‑raid shelters. Then work started coming in, mainly decorating jobs.  At that time you were only allowed to do one room up at a time in a house. 

One day I went to Rayners Lane with my pushchair and managed to buy him a large tin of whitewash.  This was difficult to obtain after the war so we both thought that we had a bargain.  We put it in the spare bedroom but the bloody thing exploded; white wash everywhere, what a job cleaning it up.  So we only got what was needed after that.

I helped mixing sand and cement for concrete paths.  Also he used to do French polishing, and used to send me to a place near Farringdon Street Station to get clean rags.  One day I was going home with a large bundle tied up when a very posh and nosy neighbour stopped me and said, "I never knew you went out totting."  I said, "I don't" and went my way home.  I told Bill "Don't ever send me again." "Okay" he said, and we both saw the funny side of it afterwards. 

He then decided to do silk‑screening and we ran the business from home, firstly in the house and then in the garage that we had specially built for the purpose.  He printed different patterns on felt and table cloths etc.

Eventually we got a workshop near Hammersmith where he also used to polish and spray cars. After a while the two sides of the business weren't paying enough and we were getting hard up.  At this time a friend asked if we would like to look after his shop while they went on holiday.  Well we gladly accepted and we both liked it and we decided we would sell our house and go into the hardware business.  We saw an old shop on lease in Hayes and we bought it.  We were there for twenty-one years till we retired because my husband had heart trouble.

Soon after the war I took Billy and Reg to Littlehampton for a day with Bill's sister and her children (Bobby and Cassie). We all had a very good time as it was a sunny day and it was the first time that the children had been to the seaside.  Most of the beach was still cordoned off with barbed wire and anti‑tank spikes, but a small part was cleared and open to the public.  Suddenly, Bobby who had been standing on the end of a concrete breakwater fell into about 5 foot of water.  The other kids started shouting but somehow or other Bobby managed to pull himself out. "Oh my God" we cried as he rushed towards us dripping wet and shaking with shock. 

As he was already dressed his mother stripped him and threw all his clothes into a bag.  Very cross she was and the poor kid had to come home in the train wearing his sister's knickers and a mackintosh.

Soon after this, at Xmas time, I opened our front door and a very odd person was standing there.  She was wearing a black coat and a flat black boater hat.  She was carrying a nanny bag and asked if we would put her up for the night.  As it was Christmas and I had Mum, Dad and all the family there, having a really good time, I felt sorry for her and said "yes, but for one night only."

I left our company and made her some sandwiches and a pot of tea.  While she went to the bathroom for a wash I let her have the kids bedroom and then went down stairs to join in the fun.

All of a sudden we heard banging, banging and more noise. We thought that she might have fallen out of bed.  Did she hell!  She had only pushed all the furniture to the door and barricaded herself in.   Consequently, we stayed up all night playing cards. She certainly frightened the kids and me.  The family said that she would have to go in the morning.  I knocked on her door and told her to come down for breakfast and then she must be on her way.  She told me that she didn't trust men and was most insulting to me.   I had a hell of a job to make her go and she said she would be back.  We had to keep the doors bolted.

I learnt a lesson.  If that is all the thanks you get for doing a good turn perhaps you shouldn't do them.  I immediately stripped the beds in the children's' room and disinfected it with Dettol to make sure that it was safe for them again. Had to do that on Christmas day, but better to be safe than sorry.

About this time Billy went into hospital to have his tonsils out.  When he came out we bought him and Reg a pair of rabbits. They had a beautiful cage at the bottom of the garden.  The kids liked them at first but soon tired of having to clean them out.  The rabbits got on well at first but eventually started fighting.  We had bought them as two bucks but it later turned out that one was a doe.  It was decided to give them to a school friend.   A little while later the doe produced a litter. What did the boy do?  Sold them to a pet shop.  The rabbits kept producing and the boy made a fortune.

One day all the family went by train to the races at Epsom for a day out, as it was a nice sunny day. We did not have any Macs with us, and all of a sudden the rain came down in buckets‑full. We got really soaked running back for the train.  I shall never forget what happened next.  My husband had on his new "demob" suit, which he had bought at Burtons.  Well it literally shrunk; the sleeves were half way up his arms; his trousers were up round his shins.  But when we got home and the suit was dried out it returned to shape and looked like new again.

On one day at the fairground I was getting on a round‑a‑bout for a ride with the children. When I tried to get on the horse I didn't cock my leg over quick enough and landed on the floor.  The floor was going up and down like the waves at the seaside.  When the man came round to collect his money I was still on the floor, unable to get up.  "What you doing down there?"  "I fell off before you gave me the chance to get on the horse.  You shouldn't charge me money for this."  He helped me up onto the horse and then let me have a free ride.  I should have done it more often.

When the kids were in their early teens we took them to a caravan at Bognor.  Reg wanted to go for a horse ride so we made Billy go with him. Well Billy's horse was a massive cart‑horse, bit of a brute who kept galloping away. This frightened the life out of him and he hasn't liked horses since.  Reg had a much smaller and nicer horse and thoroughly enjoyed his ride.  He has always liked horses and for the rest of the week he went for a ride every day.

Many years later in the New Forest Reg went up to a mare and her foal to pat them. The mare must have thought that Reggie was after the foal and struck out and bit him in the thigh. Thank God it was nothing serious.