Week 1: 1st January – 10th January 1959

 

Having followed Peggy through her 1943 War diary we’ve decided to jump forward to the late 1950s for this year’s weekly diary blog. So, welcome to Peggy in 1959, exactly sixty years ago. In 1959 Peggy and her husband Cyril had moved from Peggy’s home town of Malvern, where they met and married after the War, to Frimley in Surrey, about 35 miles south-west of London. Cyril commutes daily to his Government Ministry of Supply job in London, while Peggy stays at home with their daughter Gillian, now 14 months old, and Suzy the poodle.

Here’s what’s going on in the world this week in 1959

• The Soviet Union successfully launched the Luna 1 satellite from Baikonur Cosmodrome. Luna 1 would become the first man-made object to escape the pull of the Earth’s gravity and orbit the Sun.
• Alaska was proclaimed as the 49th U.S. state by President Dwight D. Eisenhower. A new American flag, with seven staggered rows, each with seven stars, was introduced. Given that a 50th state might soon be admitted, the 49-state flag was not widely produced.
• In Bowling Green, Virginia, Mildred and Richard Loving were found guilty of a felony for violating Virginia Code §20-59, the law against miscegenation. Richard was white, Mildred was black, and they had married in Washington, D.C., on June 2, 1958, then returned to live with her parents in Central Point. They were arrested ten days later. Judge Leon M. Bazile sentenced them each to a year in jail, suspending the sentence on condition that they leave Virginia for 25 years. Mr. and Mrs. Loving moved to Washington, D.C., but in 1963 they filed a motion in the court to vacate the judgment. After Virginia’s highest court upheld the law, the Lovings appealed to the United States Supreme Court. On June 12, 1967, in the case of Loving v. Virginia, the Court ruled as unconstitutional the Virginia law, and similar laws in 15 other states.
• Charles de Gaulle was inaugurated President of France, the first under the new constitution as the Fifth Republic, while Michel Debre became Prime Minister, the office formerly held by de Gaulle.
• The U.S. District Court in Atlanta ordered the University System of Georgia to admit qualified African-Americans in its segregated colleges, striking down a requirement that at least two college alumni had to sign for a student to enroll. Meanwhile, the federal court in Little Rock ordered the school board to integrate and reopen the Arkansas city’s high schools, which had been closed for four months.

And here’s what was keeping Peggy busy:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thursday 1st January 1959
Cyril had the day off. I went to Camberley to the bank. Had a quickie at Page’s Sale, bought Jill a shower proof turquoise colour ?? suit for £2.9.11. Very high winds today. Almost Gale force.

Friday 2nd January 1959
What a rough night it was last night. T.G (thank goodness) it’s not so windy today. The sun came out so I took Gillian to the village this PM & bought her a pair of shoes – Clarks – 14/9!!! She has been good today until tea time when she started crying & she’s cried ever since – until 6pm!!

Saturday 3rd January 1959
Gillian had a much better night last night – didn’t wake until 05.15. We were glad of the nights sleep!!! The sweep was here pretty well on time & it didn’t take long to sweep the chimney. It’s not smoking now!!! Cyril went to Camberley this am. and I’m going in this afternoon for an hour. Jill behaved quite well while I was out – I was home just after 3.30. She’s very tired & was quite bad tempered at bed time. She & I have an invitation to tea at Jacksons tomorrow.

Sunday 4th January 1959
Tea with Elaine. We woke up to a white world – we’d had a heavy fall of snow overnight. It’s been quite sunny though & this afternoon I took Gillian & Sue for a walk before Jill & I went to tea at Jacksons. Cyril cold isn’t much better yet. 

Monday 5th January 1959
A dull damp & miserable day – no hope of drying the washing so I’ve brought it all in. Jill has been good this morning – didn’t want to go in her cot at 11 – so she’s been in the pram in the lounge since midday – quarter to two now! Letters from Mum (Cyril’s), Joan

Tuesday 6th January 1959
Lousy day again so we haven’t been out at all. Cyril came home soaked last night so that won’t have done his cold much good. I don’t know why but I’m feeling down in the dumps these days! Gillian played up a bit this am. so was all behind with my chores. Letters from Jim, Eileen, & Mutty – ? dog ?tumblers Xmapresent from Dick & Phyllis. 

Wednesday 7th January 1959
It has been a bit brighter today & I was able to hang out the pyjamas. Gillian has been so good – a little angel in fact. We went out this morning & afternoon. Had a cup of tea with Mrs. Mac – Olive too. Letter from Dick & Phyllis

Thursday 8th January 1959
Fine & cold today – very cold in fact but I’ve dried quite a big wash & shall finish ironing it tonight. Jill has been very good. Mrs Mac & Marion called in this afternoon Jill is always pleased to see Marion. No letters. Must write some.

Friday 9th January 1959
Gillian’s 2nd Polio injection. Cold & snowy but fine – I’d made up my mind to walk to the Doc – Olive was coming too – But Mrs. Mac came up & said she would take us. Gillian didn’t cry at the injection but I wonder what will happen tonight. Afterwards we went to the clinic & found she had lost 2ozs in weight. 

Saturday 10th January 1959
Bitterly cold this morning – all day in fact. I nearly went down on my bot several times this morning. Cyril had fun & games with Jill while I was out & couldn’t get on with anything. I took her (& Sue) up to the Green – Jill went to sleep when we got back until 2pm. We haven’t been out this afternoon – I’ve had the first baking session since Christmas. It was a great effort. Written to Mur & Dave & Dick & Phyllis.

Week 52: 26th December – 31st December 1943

 

Here’s what’s going on in the world this week in 1943

• The German battleship Scharnhorst was torpedoed and sunk during the Battle of the North Cape by the British battleship HMS Duke of York, with the loss of all but 36 of her crew of 1,943 German officers and sailors. Among the dead was Konteradmiral (Rear Admiral) Erich Bey, 45, the commander of the German Navy’s destroyer forces.
• One day after abolishing the Kalmyk Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, the Soviet Union began the forced relocation of the roughly 100,000 people of the Kalmyk ethnic group to various locations in Siberia, after accusing members of the predominantly Buddhist minority of collaboration with the Germans during the war. The surviving exiles would be allowed to return in 1957, and the Kalmyk ASSR would be granted autonomy again in 1958.
• Leo Pasvolsky of the U.S. State Department finished the draft proposal for the basic organization of the United Nations Charter, which Secretary of State Cordell Hull presented to President Roosevelt. Under Pasvolsky’s plan, a “General Assembly”, with representatives from all nations, would vote on most matters; a four-member “Executive Council” (composed of the four Allied Powers, the United States, the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union and France) would vote on security matters, with the right of any one member to veto a decision. In the final version of the UN Charter, the Executive Council would be renamed the Security Council, and would include China as a fifth member.
• Hitler delivered a New Year’s message to the German people admitting that 1943, “brought us our heaviest reverses,” and that 1944, “will make heavy demands on all Germans. This vast war will approach a crisis this year. We have every confidence that we will survive.” Hitler stated that it was no news that the English intended to carry out a landing somewhere, but assured the German people that defences had been prepared that would, “surprise our enemies more than their landings would surprise us.”
• British Deputy Prime Minister Clement Attlee broadcast a New Year’s Eve message of his own to the people of the United Kingdom. Attlee declared that the, “hour of reckoning has come” for the Nazis but urged the British people not to be complacent, stating: “We do know that in 1944 the war will blaze up into greater intensity than ever before, and that we must be prepared to face heavier casualties. 1944 may be the victory year; it will only be so if we continue to put forward our utmost efforts, and if we allow nothing to divert us from our main purpose.”

And here’s what was keeping Peggy busy in the ATS:

Sunday 26th December 1943
Got a terrific head – guess I ate too much yesterday. Went skating or trying to. Had great fun! Met two Yanks – stayed at Red Shield Club. Not bad.  

Monday 27th December 1943
Spent the morning eating! Very tired after Christmas! On Guard – feeling quite low & depressed. No news of Les yet. To bed early after ENSA show.

Tuesday 28th December 1943
On guard this morning. Very cold & still tired. Nothing much happened. Hear I’m to go on a Course ?? I for the course have to have a Local acting Unpaid Stripe! Went to Regt. to interview with s/e – was an hour late!!! 

Wednesday 29th December 1943
back to BHQ ? & after tea went skating – had great fun. Back in about 2200hrs! 

Thursday 30th December 1943
On Guard again today. Hear Doreen going on a course too so it won’t be too bad. Our Joan is going to Beaumaris so we shan’t be far away. 

Friday 31st December 1943
New Years Eve concert & dance. Concert went down quite OK Dance was just a repetition of Christmas We saw the New Year in sitting round our fire!! Very tired. Had to come over to BHQ today (Sat.) Went to the Ice Rink & had a very nice time – all the gang of us. Caught the 2230 back to B.H.Q. Am just about getting the hang of skating! And here I am at the end of this diary. I never thought when I started it that I would ever keep it up. But now I’m going to miss writing in it. 

It’s Sunday now & I’m still at B.H.Q! I’m beginning to feel a wee bit nervous about this course as I think there will be only Snr. W.C.O’s on it. Poor me. Anyway I’m hoping I shall see something of Joan while I’m up there.

Much to my disappointment I still haven’t heard from Les. Can’t quite understand it as he seemed so genuine. I’m very disappointed but guess I’ll soon get over it!

Am now going to have forty winks. No doubt in Years to come – when the world is at Peace I shall enjoy reading this diary – and all ?? my army life.

So – in the words of C/r Temple Green (friend of Renées)

This is It

Week 51: 19th December – 25th December 1943

 

Here’s what’s going on in the world this week in 1943

• On the Philippines’ Panay Island, ten American Baptist missionaries, three other Americans and two children were captured by the Japanese Army after having hidden for two years, and became the Hopevale Martyrs the next day, volunteering to be executed in return for the Japanese allowing their Filipino captives to go free. The following day, after being granted an hour to pray, the adults, ranging in age from 39 to 59, were beheaded by sword, and the two children, including a nine-year-old boy, were bayoneted.
• In an act of mercy that would be written about nearly 70 years later in the popular book A Higher Call: An Incredible True Story of Combat and Chivalry in the War-Torn Skies of World War II, German Luftwaffe Oberleutnant Franz Stigler, a fighter ace with 22 victories, declined to shoot down the severely damaged American B-17 bomber  Ye Olde Pub, and instead escorted the plane until it left German airspace. The American plane, piloted by 2nd Lieutenant Charlie Brown, had been on its first mission and was shot up before it could release its cargo of bombs. Flying back to England, it landed safely at its base at RAF Seething. Forty-seven years later, Brown would locate his benefactor, and he and Stigler would remain close friends until the death of both of them in 2008.
• Pierre-Étienne Flandin, a former Prime Minister of France, was arrested in Algiers along with four other one-time Vichy France government officials who had collaborated with the German occupiers of France. Flandin had headed the government in 1934 and 1935, and then served again for two months as premier of the Vichy government. Jailed also were former Interior Minister Marcel Peyrouton, Information Secretary Pierre Tixler-Vignacourt, member of parliament André Albert, and Pierre François Boisson, the recent Governor-General of French West Africa.
• Beatrix Potter, 77, children’s book author known for the Peter Rabbit series, died of leukaemia.
• Allied bombardment of Berlin was temporarily halted after a week of raids by the Royal Air Force and the U.S. Army Air Forces that had ended with a heavy attack on the morning of Christmas Eve that had killed more than 2,000 people. At the same time, no German bombers flew over the United Kingdom.

And here’s what was keeping Peggy busy in the ATS:

Sunday 19th November July 1943
More or less settled down. On Church Parade to Speke Church. Practising for concert tonight. Concert went down VERY WELL But can’t get rid of the soot!! 

Monday 20th November 1943
Clean at last! Thank goodness. ? show at night by No. 1 factory – quite good – though not so good as ours!! Modest! Changed the buttons onto my ?Oldest? uniform – bed about 2315.

Tuesday 21st November 1943
Had Boxing Exhibition in Nissen. Very good & interesting. Al won a prize! Boxing lasted until nearly 2200hrs. Very tired.

Wednesday 22nd December 1943
On guard this morning so had to be up with the lark! Still no letter from Les – but maybe it(s) the Christmas rush. Do hope I hear from him. Show by R. 205.

Thursday 23rd December August 1943
Manning. Did some ?An Coop?? A/G from Jim – but no word from Les. On Evening leave. Went to ?Gawston – back to dance Quite good fun – but I’d a sore throat. 

Friday 24th December 1943
Christmas Eve – might as well be in the Workhouse!! Very depressing here. Still no letters from Les! No letter from home. Very dull in the evening. Not a bit like Xmas.  

Saturday 25th December 1943
Most depressing! Good food though got the tea & supper. Everyone direct and disgusting. Went to bed at 2300! Party broke up at 0400!

Week 50: 12th December – 18th December 1943

 

Here’s what’s going on in the world this week in 1943

• The German 117th Jäger Division carried out the destruction of Kalavryta in Greece, rounding up to 460 adult men in the town and executing them with machine gun fire, then burning the town.
• A wave of 1,462 American airplanes flew an early afternoon carpet bombing raid over the German cities of Bremen, Hamburg and Kiel. In a departure from previous missions, all bombers in a unit would release their high explosive bombs and incendiaries, simultaneously, on the population centres.
• The French Committee of National Liberation, government in exile for France, issued a decree granting full French citizenship to those Arabs in Algeria who were classified as “Moslem elites”, the criterion being the ability to fluently read and write the French language, and dropped previous requirement that a prospective citizen “renounce the Koranic law”, and added that the attainment of the same rights as “non-Moslem French” people would be granted to Arab Algerians “without abandonment of their personal Koranic status”. The order was expected to enfranchise at between 20,000 and 30,000 Algerian Muslims.
• The first war crimes trial of World War II began at Kharkov in the Soviet Union, when three German officers and a Russian collaborator were tried for “crimes and atrocities [that are] … links in a long chain of crimes which have been, and are still being, committed by the German invaders on the direct instructions of the German Government and of the Supreme Command of the German Army.” The four men (Abwehr Captain Wilhelm Langheld, SS Lieutenant Hans Ritz, Corporal Reinhard Retzlaff of the Secret Field Police, and Mikhail Bulanov of Kharkov) would be found guilty on December 17 and hanged the next day, in public, in front of thousands of spectators at Kharkov’s main square.
• The sister of Erich Maria Remarque, the German-born author of All Quiet on the Western Front, was beheaded after being convicted in the German “People’s Court” (Volksgerichtshof) of “undermining the war effort” by failing to denounce her famous brother, who had become successful in the United States. Judge Roland Freisler told Elfriede Remark Scholz, “Your brother is beyond our reach, but you will not escape us.”
• On the fortieth anniversary of the Wright Brothers’ historic first flight at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, President Roosevelt announced that the Wrights’ airplane would be returned to the United States from storage in England, and donated to the Smithsonian Institution. The Wrights had allowed the aircraft to go overseas after the Smithsonian had refused to recognize the Wrights as the makers of the first flight, crediting Samuel Langley instead.

And here’s what was keeping Peggy busy in the ATS:

Sunday 12th November July 1943
Took Ted & Rob for a walk. After tea went to flicks, saw ‘Convoy’ – very good. Terribly cold – came straight home & to bed early.

Monday 13th November 1943
Up about 09.30! Very nice too. Went to flicks saw ‘The Great Waltz’ – not very good – except music. Met a friend of Mur’s Yank – named Leslie. Very nice! Home about 2300

Tuesday 14th November 1943
Went down the Link – then to dance. Danced a lot with Yoda (!) till Les came. Came home with him – didn’t get in till 00.10! Les awfully nice. Very tall.

Wednesday 15th December 1943
Went up town. Still very cold. Met Les at 1830. Went to the flicks. Saw Humphrey Bogart in “Action in N. Atlantic”. Les is so nice – I shall miss him a hell of a lot.

Thursday 16th December August 1943
Stayed in bed till 1100. Didn’t go out as Les couldn’t get out. Pressed my frock.

Friday 17th December 1943
Found out trains. Packed. Met Les at 1830. Went to flicks and saw Bing in ‘Sing you Sinners’ for the 3rd time! I didn’t mind – was with Les. Wore my civvies – pouring with rain when we came out. Very downhearted leaving my Les! Hope he writes to me!

Saturday 18th December 1943
Train two hours late! Terribly cold & very very browned off.

Week 49: 5th December – 11th December 1943

 

Here’s what’s going on in the world this week in 1943

• The Indian city of Calcutta (now Kolkata) was attacked, for the first time in a daylight aerial bombardment, as Japanese bombers made a brief raid. There had been seven previous bombings of Calcutta, but all had taken place at night. The British Indian government announced that 167 civilians and one soldier were killed.
• The first Jews were shipped out of Italy as a train took prisoners from Milan and Verona to the Auschwitz concentration camp.
• At Tunis, President Roosevelt personally informed U.S. Army General Dwight D. Eisenhower of a transfer from the command of forces in the Mediterranean Theater of Operations to the newly established Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force (SHAEF) in London. According to witnesses at the scene, the President told General Eisenhower, “Well, Ike, you are going to command Overlord,” the forthcoming Allied invasion of continental Europe.
• The Battle of San Pietro Infine began in the Italian Campaign. It marked the first battle in which Italian troops fought alongside the Allies in World War II.
• President Roosevelt visited Malta and presented a scroll dedicated to its “people and defenders,” expressing the admiration of the American people for Malta’s contribution to democracy.
• Tullio Tamburini, the Chief of Police for the Nazi-controlled Italian Social Republic, issued exceptions to the November 30 order to arrest all of the Jews in Italy, and directed the release of any who were over 70 years old, or “grievously ill”, or who had a non-Jewish parent or spouse. About forty percent of the recent arrestees were allowed to go home for the time being. Tamburini would be dismissed by the Nazis in April, and would survive being arrested and sent the Dachau concentration camp in February 1945.

And here’s what was keeping Peggy busy in the ATS:

Sunday 5th November July 1943
Did (‘nt?) get wakened till 0700 – so late on Guard! Not on Majors inspc work, work & more work – all afternoon – getting ready for the old G.O.C. Working, but a lot of BULL! Haven’t even had time to write home.

Monday 6th November 1943
Nick sent for me again to know if I would take a Com! Told me to talk it over with Dad! Wish he’d let me be!! Went to the flicks. Saw “Jungle Book”. Good. Slept at Red Shield.

Tuesday 7th November 1943
Did loads of shopping – took £1 out of P.O. Spent all of it! Bought all my Xmas presents – very tiring job. Shopping til 12.30!! Got 1 o’cl bus back Very foggy.

Wednesday 8th December 1943
Blinking kit lay out for G.O.C. Camp in upheaval. G.O.C. didn’t come. Played hockey for Regt. Vers 179 Regt on I.C.I. Ground. Won 6-4, Very hard & strenuous game. Paid for Leave!

Thursday 9th December August 1943
Got to L’pool about 0720.B’ham at quarter to one. Eventually got home about three. Joan here. Didn’t go out – bed about 9.30. Lovely to be home again.

Friday 10th December 1943
Lovely sleep! Went up town with Joan & Mum. Went to dance – had a very good time – met Joan’s Yank & some more! Came home with one – but don’t know his name!!

Saturday 11th December 1943
Went to Worcester. Saw Dot & Jim – back on bus & went up town – saw “Dubarry was a Lady” – disappointed in it.