Memories In A 1948 Notebook (15 April 1978)

I was sorry to read recently of the death of one of my oldest Bletchley acquaintances, Mr. Bill Nash.

I met him on the evening of my very first Saturday in the town.  I was lodging in Newton Road at the time and, having nothing better to do, I went for a walk in search of local life. I strolled round Old Bletchley, Fenny and Water Eaton without finding much and guessed that everybody was either in one of the numerous pubs or at one of the two cinemas.

But as I was walking along Newton Road on my way back I heard sounds of revelry emerging from the Yeomanry Hall.  Sticking my head in at the door I came face to face with Mr. Nash.  He explained that a British Legion social was in progress, that he was the secretary of the Bletchley branch and that if I was an ex-serviceman he would enrol me as a member right away, which he did.

During the years after the war, Mr. Nash was disappointed at the lack of interest shown in the Legion by the veterans of that war compared with the interest still shown by the veterans of the first war.  He calculated that there were 700 men and women veterans of the second world war living in the town, of whom only a small proportion had joined the Legion.  He said it was all very well joining regimental associations and the like, but when it came down to the nitty-gritty of war pensions those associations could only refer them to the Legion, which thus acted for members and non-members alike.  I do not know whether that is still the case.

The Legion’s benevolent work goes on all the year round, of course, but the annual Poppy period was always a busy one for Mr. Nash and especially for his wife.  Beforehand, their bungalow at the top of Water Eaton Road was full of poppies and collecting tins.  Afterwards, the unsold poppies went back there.

It was no more than he deserved when, eventually, Mr. Nash was awarded one of the Legion’s highest honours.

The meeting at which Mr. Nash gave that 700-figure was held in 1948.  Some other items from my notebook of that year now follow ….

SCHOOL DINNERS: “Whole” meat was now coming onto school dinner menus for the first time since the war, but at a Newport Pagnell RDC meeting concern was expressed that many children would not touch it.  It was stated that more was spent on it than on any other item and that it ought not to be wasted.  The children were said to prefer their meat minced, although this was reputed to be bad for their teeth.

Eventually, there came a reply that, owing to the war, many children had never seen Sunday joint.

Well, well.  On a recent tv programme it was stated that many children among the 6,688,000 people in this country who today are living below the poverty line know no meat except sausages.  And there has been no war to excuse it.

AIR DEATH: In September, Mr. Edward Ruston, a Bletchley Road (Queensway) chemist, was among several people fatally injured, when a Mosquito taking part in the Battle of Britain Week display at Manston, Kent, crashed onto a busy road near the airfield.

Mr. Ruston, a 68-year-old bachelor, living at Aspley Guise, had for 20 years run a chemist’s business in the premises at the corner of Albert Street, fairly recently vacated by Carlow Radio Ltd.

Another chemist, a Mr. Hands, had previously run a business there and also one in Aylesbury Street, but Mr. Cecil Hands, of Clifford Avenue, recently told me that their families were in no way related.

BUTCHER: Also in September the butcher’s shop fronting on the green at Newton Longville changed hands from Mr. G.E Whitten to Mr. Peter Pollard.  Mr. Whitten had run the business for 24 years, but Mr. Pollard has now run it for 30 years and seems to be still going strong.

LEON CHAUFFEUR: In October the death occurred at Houghton Conquest, at the age of 65, of Mr. Alfred Jacob, a former member of the Bletchley UDC, who left the town in 1926.

Mr. Jacob came to Bletchley as chauffeur to the Leon family at Bletchley Park, but left to start a garage business in the Fenny High Street.  He also took over the “Picture Palace” next door (formerly at Wesleyan chapel), rebuilt it and named it “King George’s Cinema.”  Later it became the “County Cinema.”  Somewhere I have one of the cinema programmes.  But both cinema and garage are now gone.

FIRE! FIRE! In April, Newport Pagnell RDC received word from the Bucks Fire Authority that there was no reason to expect that “the unfortunate experience” of the previous November would be repeated.

This referred to a complaint that when the Olney fire section leader dashed into the fire station to go to a fire he found that men from headquarters had taken the wheels off the fire engine!

What he then said is not recorded.

SELF SERVICE: We now take self-service stores for granted.  Indeed, Bletchley is full of them.  Too full, some would say.  All this has happened in the past few years.  But I first heard about self-service shops in June, 1948, from a Mrs. R.D. Clarke, who had just returned to Bletchley from Ontario, but intended to go back there the following year.

My report of the interview states, among other things now irrelevant: “She also went to a large store where each customer was given a sort of perambulator and wheeled it from stall to stall.

“The goods were put into this perambulator and the exit was through a cash office where the account was calculated, the goods removed and the perambulator returned”.

So self-service is at least 30 years old and I wonder how much older …….