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Helmdon Historical Articles The Second World War: A Compilation of Memories |
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Alfred George Humphrey
From Commonwealth War Graves Commission Records Family name: HUMPHREY Given name(s): Alfred George Rank: Gunner Service No.: 1604983 Date of death: 01 January 1941 Age: 30 Regiment/Service: Royal Artillery 357 Battery, 114H.A.A. Regt Memorial: Helmdon Churchyard Additional information: Son of Jonas & Lillie Humphrey of Helmdon From Forces War Records Family name: Humphrey Given name(s): Alfred George Date of birth: C 1911 Age: 30 Resided Town: Helmdon Nationality: British Date of death: 01 January 1941 Fate: Died at Edinburgh Castle Military Hospital Rank: Gunner Service No.: 1604983 Duty Location: United Kingdom Alfred George Humphrey is commemorated on the village war memorial and on the memorial in the church.
For further details about Alfred George Humphrey please visit the War Memorial Project page.
Two Land Girls Chris Bazeley tells us that on the left is Vera Burt, a land girl working for Jim Watson. She lived in the cottage on the right as you turn up Weston Road, and, much later, on the Green. On the right is Vera Gibbons, who was born in Helmdon and was later a land girl in Baldock. Her plaque was in the now demolished Helmdon Chapel.
Vera Gibbons at Baldock
On the family’s very large allotments they grew swedes and mangolds (rarely seen now but used then to supplement the pig feed) and water was drawn from the well in the lane and served almost the whole of what is now called Field Way. (Street names, eg Wappenham Road, Field Way, Church Street, were given to various parts of the village after the end of the war.) The earth lavatory was situated in the garden and caused much comment from some of the people who lived with the Turnhams, either friends and family, or service personnel, billeted with them, who had never seen such a toilet before. It consisted of a plank of wood with one large and one small hole in it, with newspaper to read and use! In the dark hours, a candle was needed to find the way, and on windy nights it was often blown out!! Before the war there were always two or three milk cows kept in the fields where Hintons Close now stands, so there was a constant supply of cream to make butter. During the war, milk was collected in a can, directly it had cooled, from Hill Farm and milk was also delivered around the village by pony and float from Jessetts at Lukes Farm. Many town folk were evacuated to Helmdon during the war and Mary and her grandmother had their fair share.
In 1940, Mary joined the Women’s Land Army and went to work for Major Doyne at Lois Weedon House, doing general farm work and helping with the cows, which of course, were all hand milked. Her transport was a bicycle and she cycled everywhere. However, cycling to Lois Weedon in the blackout on a cold, frosty morning was a nightmare. Mary explained that she could not see the state of the roads from the thin glimmer of the cycle lamp she had to use. Often she walked across the fields with her dog, Vaux, in the really bad weather. Because of conscription, extra manpower was needed and so German and Italian prisoners of war, who were based in a hostel at Sulgrave, also worked on the farm. Mary started work at 7.00 am and worked six and a half days a week throughout the war years. Life was hard but she also enjoyed a social life in spite of the disadvantages. At Syresham, there was an Air Force cafe and at Wappenham an RASC depot. Visiting the service canteens with other Land Army girls, all of them in uniform, they were made very welcome - not quite the forgotten army in those days! Dances were regularly held in the hall behind the Bell here in Helmdon, and many village romances started here. Fund-raising concerts for the Red Cross were enthusiastically received, and happy hours were spent collecting hips from the hedgerows for bottling by the WI. They knitted scarves and socks and sent them off with their names and addresses tucked inside in the hope that they would get a reply! Mary corresponded for some time with two soldiers who replied and actually met one of them in Northampton. Black-outs were always a nightmare. Mary remembers at the beginning of the war, hand-sewing yards and yards of stiff material to form curtains to hang at all the windows. Shutters were made for the windows on the old farmhouse. There was a Sixth Light Infantry Searchlight Battery at Kiln Farm and some of the service personnel would regularly stay in the front room at Field View for their leave of one day or so at a time as travel was very difficult. Mary’s grandmother, who died in 1942, would feed them, dry their wet clothes and store clothes and personal belongings at the house. One of them had a piano accordion and Mary almost learnt to play it. She used to cycle up to Kiln Farm to collect their swill for the pigs, precariously balancing two buckets on the handlebars of her bike! Good Friday was spent ‘primrosing’, a practice that is outlawed today! The family would go to Whistley Wood or Plumpton Wood and pick masses of primroses to decorate the house and church and give away to neighbours. On Sundays, Mary’s half day, the joint of meat and prepared Yorkshire pudding were taken in the early morning to the top of the lane (in what is now Jean Spendlove’s house) where Tom Needle and Harry Hawkins kept a large oven. It was collected at 12.30 pm for the traditional family lunch, which frequently included the families or soldiers staying with them. Mary doubts that she would ever have left Helmdon if it had not been for the war; joining the Women’s Land Army and living in a WLA hostel in 1947, certainly gave her an insight of life outside Helmdon. Cis Terrey “My life began on 1st October 1919 at "The Lilacs", Helmdon. Sadly my mother passed away 6 weeks later on 17th November. My father's sister came to look after my two sisters, brother and myself. She was widely known as "Aunt Pat". At the age of 5 I started at the village Church of England School as it was then, but when the new school was built it changed to council. Life was happy then. My father was a sheep and cattle dealer so we had plenty to do helping with the animals. We had our own donkey cart and later I used to ride a pony shepherding my brother. A familiar sight were the sheep and cattle being driven through the village. At the age of 11 I left Helmdon School and attended Brackley High School for Girls. We had to cycle through all weathers until I left at the age of 16 to help at home. A few years on and the rumbles of war. I joined the A.R.P. (Air Raid Precautions) and won my badge and also a First Aid Certificate. September, 1939, we were at war. Petrol, food and clothes were rationed. Our life had changed, the Blackout was in operation, troops were always on manoeuvres around, and at the age of 21 I was in the first women's Call-up. I joined the Women's Land Army and worked on the farm from morning till night, ploughing, sowing, reaping and mowing, etc. We had to plough up acres of our grassland. Evacuees arrived in the village; a searchlight was installed in Wappenham Road. We were able to watch the soldiers trying to pick up the German Planes. A contingent of Canadian soldiers on manoeuvres rested for a while through the village. I had just milked our Jersey cows and carrying a pail of milk past the tanks they held out their mugs which I filled, and soon emptied the pail and also the cake tins. We had a Prisoner of War camp at Sulgrave and I used to fetch the German prisoners to work on the farm. Some of them were good workers so we encouraged them with a little food, usually huge Yorkshire puddings, which they loved. We were working in the fields at Sulgrave when we invaded France. The sky was full of planes going over and they realised that something was going on. They were talking between themselves in German but we had to keep very calm. The Home Guard used to have to guard the viaducts, as that line was a direct route for moving ammunition. We watched Coventry burning from the top of our field when the bombing was bad the village was lit with flares. On the lighter side we had some good entertainment with soldiers and airmen and often their wives. We were in the Reading Room on one occasion when news came through that the big battle ship the German Graf Spee had been sunk - there was great rejoicing. The day we were waiting for at last arrived, with Churchill announcing on 8th November 1945 that the war with Germany was over. We had great rejoicing that night, and again 8th May, V.J. Day”. Noreen White Noreen White (née Ayres) was born in 1920 and lived in Helmdon for most of her life. She had a brother, Jack, and a sister, Edith. “During the Second World War Men & Women had to go in the Forces or Land Army or ammunition Factories ….. we also had lots of evacuees from the Towns also the army had search lights in a field down the Wappenham Rd, also the village had lots of Dances, Concerts to entertain the troops ….. the Dances was held in the Bell hut also in the Reading Room. ….. Had a clinic in the Reading Room in the early 1950s for Mums to take the Babies to be weighed and collect Welfare foods."
During the war we could see and hear the planes going over to Coventry when it was being bombed ….. we also had some bombs dropped up near the Viaducts, also one plane crashed about 8.30 am one morning down in a field at Astwell.” Some of our reminiscences of the war come from evacuees to Helmdon... Malcolm Care was evacuated to the area from Folkestone first to stay with relatives and then to live on the Falcutt estate. “My aunt must have talked Captain Lees into the deal since that little house was a tied cottage, as it was unlikely that any of us could contribute anything on his farm. However, it must be said that it had been condemned with its neighbours before the war and was being put into use again. There was no electricity, no water on tap, and it had a backyard loo and wash house.” During the first year in Helmdon, 1941/2, a whole ‘gaggle’ of evacuees arrived from London to live opposite us in one of the two stone built houses, also part of the Lees estate. The Lees chauffeur and odd-job man was Mr Croutear who lived in the other two-storey unit with his wife and two children, Violet and Arthur. The London kids were a revelation to the village youth and vice-versa. Most of them had never seen a cow or a sheep and their reactions to village life, and now existing nightlife, was predictable.” Alice Hearne “When the Second World War started, Mrs Hearne evacuated to Helmdon with her daughters, and stayed initially with Frank Watson at the farm in Cross Lane. Her husband remained working in London and she and her youngest daughter returned to the city, as the anticipated heavy bombing did not materialise until after the fall of France. Then, fearing the worst, they returned to the safety of Helmdon.
Three years after the war started her sister-in-law, Lady Murray, was bombed out in Pall Mall in London and came to stay, also initially with Frank Watson, and eventually Mrs Hearne and Lady Murray together rented part of Fountain House. They had bedrooms, a sitting room and use of the kitchen. They were obliged to have lunch at midday in order that Mrs Barrett, the owner (and reputed to be related to the Barretts of Wimpole Street) could continue to eat at her regular time of 1 pm!
“During the Battle of Britain airplanes from many aerodromes nearby fought in the skies over the farmlands. On those fateful days the sounds and sight of Spitfires and Hurricanes were common over the farm and surrounding area. Bombing locally was rare and not premeditated as mainly the German bombers would release the loads they had been unable to drop on target. One such event was at neighbouring Astwell Park farm but luckily only a few farm buildings were damaged, unluckily though the farm stock bull was killed.
One of our duties was all night guard on Helmdon viaduct. AS squad of six had two on duty at the viaduct for two hours while the other four played cards and drank coffee in the station waiting room. On duty we loaded our rifles.
”We had to plough up most of the grass. We bought a Field Marshall tractor and two Fordsons. We grew wheat and oats on the land at Brackley. At harvest time, we had help from the army. They sent two lorries and six soldiers so help cart the sheaves. That year we have sixteen corn ricks, large ones and Tom Robbins and myself thatched all of them. We stacked oats in the barn at Brackley. At threshing time we had a load of land girls to help. Being enclosed in a barn there were literally thousands of mice in these oats. Later we had prisoners of war, some German, some Italian. Some were useless, but we eventually settled down with two Italians, Carlo and Augustino. They were nice lads and good workers.” Geoffrey Ipgrave
It was a time of fund-raising for the war effort:
It was also a very unsettled time, with evacuees coming and going.
But, finally:
George Turnham "For a thirteen year old at the start of the war, nearing seventeen as the long dreadful war drew to a close, stark memories remain of varying contrasts ; on the radio singing “Hang out the washing on the Siegfried line”; the reality of the Germans by-passing the French Maginot line fortifications; Dunkirk; boys from Syresham on merchant ships travelling the cold cruel seas to help our Russian allies; getting to know bomber crews that seemed part of the local pubs; a girl WAAF ground crew in tears, Charlie lost on a mission; all the stark realities of war. Several planes crashed on their return, a Flying Fortress, six o’clock, over our cow shed, all in flames, a crescendo of engines, one last dive and it exploded about a hundred yards from Astwell Castle, the farm of Mr Roberts and his son, my good friend, Bill. Later nearing the end of the war, when our once desert 8th Army was pushing through Italy, the tallest, best looking, most athletic, soldier to join up from Helmdon, lost a leg – what a cruel, dreadful price to pay. Italian prisoners of war hoeing mangolds, all with ready smiles, but, oh, their coffee! By and on, the hour, a fly infested brew, though always remembering the possibility of the next hot day, so not willing to refuse. Then the baskets they wove in their captive hours in exchange for Woodbines, a change from the evil smelling Abdullahs that were all they ever had, and then in a very limited supply. On into the war years, the ever circling Wimpey bombers from Turweston, the thirsty air crews chasing the meagre beer rations. Often Mrs Prentice at the Kings Head or Henry Wills at the Bell, both at Syresham, only open for perhaps two hectic hours, each evening. The airmen and WAAF’S would cycle off to Helmdon in the hope that Mr Stewart at the Bell, or Mr Spencer at the Chequers, would have sufficient beer to quell their considerable thirsts. The evening sight of four engine bombers from Silverstone and places far away joining up for a thousand bomber raid on German towns until now unheard of. A steady throb of low flying aircraft relentlessly powering across the once peaceful countryside. Oh what music to that of a year or two previously that had been seen on moonlight nights, the dreaded junkers heading for Coventry with the drum, drum, heralding a deadly mission. ……………………………. "The ending of the war was very much an anti-climax. The clock never goes back, all changes are irreversible; a tide of unemployment blokes working in double-breasted demob suits, probably the only civvy clothes they possessed. There were changes in our language. Words and sayings like “up the creek without a paddle”, a wizard show, had a prang, black market. There were petrol coupons, ration books, queues, shelters, gas masks, tommies and a man named Mussolini, called a jackal in a contemptuous tone for all the world to hear; Goebbels the voice of propaganda. The cheeky informed the world our local clock in Buckingham was two minutes’ slow. Those days, so long ago." Extracts by permission from Joan Whitehead from the hardback My Helmdon, by George Turnham. Possible date early 1990s. (As of 2024 copies were still available at Amazon.) Elizabeth Monck neé Kirwan
“For a while we kept chickens in a fenced-in run; they were given a lot of household scraps, but also had a boiled up mash which smelt delicious. They had a small traditional hen-house on wheels with a door which was firmly shut at night to prevent the foxes getting in; this wooden house had to be moved around the lawn - no doubt another task of Moley’s. Hens are stupid birds, but I did like collecting the eggs from underneath them, and I liked feeding them their mash too. The eggs were preserved [preserving being an important part of a housewife’s tasks in the war] in buckets of isinglass. This meant they could be kept until the months of the year when hens don’t want to lay much. Of course, the war also brought ‘dried eggs’; a strange yellow powder which you mixed with water to make an ‘egg’. Actually it made not-too-bad scrambled egg and cakes.” Compiled by Audrey Forgham |
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