"I hope this letter finds you well, as it leaves me"-Miss Pemberton and Ingatestone Boys' Own Club.

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“I HOPE THIS LETTER FINDS YOU WELL,

AS IT LEAVES ME” - MISS PEMBERTON AND INGATESTONE BOYS’ OWN CLUB

MESSAGES AND GREETINGS HOME: 1939-1945

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An exhibition to take place at Essex Libraries Ingatestone from 06 December to 23 December 2013, which will initially form part of the Ingatestone Christmas Festival on Friday 06 December 2013, running from 18.00 to 20.30 (Details from: Essex Libraries Ingatestone: 01277 354284 or Robert Fletcher: 01277 354431/[email protected])

1 Official War Office Photograph 12247: Somewhere in NW Europe, 29 November 1944 (Courtesy: Mrs D Willis)

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“I HOPE THIS LETTER FINDS YOU WELL,

AS IT LEAVES ME”

“I should have liked to have seen your exhibition of Xmas cards from all the quaint places Club members have found themselves in; it’s marvellous really that so many were able to contribute some sort of card for the occasion.”2

I had been meaning to create this exhibition a few years ago, but Thomas Brand Hollis and Lady Audley’s Secret came first for a number of reasons. In 2006 I did an exhibition on the ten Old Members who died in the Second World War to tie in with the new war memorial for Ingatestone & Fryerning and in 2012 I re-visited the RAF men of that ten for the RAF Bomber Command Memorial in London. We are coming up next year to the various anniversaries for the First World War but in many ways the club was a product of that war, having been founded on 2 February 1919 by Miss E V Pemberton, in a way to deal with the social concerns that came out of the first great conflict in the twentieth century. The importance in the 1939-1945 war in the life of the club can be explained by the fact that many members would have been of military service age by September 1939 and this is why we have such an amazing and important set of documents relating to that time.

Having just passed Remembrance time I did not want to include anything from the ten Old Members who were casualties in the Second World War although some of their material would have been relevant. In passing, it would be right for me to point out that of the twenty three names on the 1939-1945 part of our war memorial ten are Old Members of the club. I wanted to choose as many Christmas messages from men on war service as I could but also wanted to include other interesting material and photographs. Quite by chance I chose twenty three members and have split the exhibition into three parts. The first display covers twenty men and includes one who was in Belsen in May 1945, another with wonderful material from India and Burma and a POW in Italy. The second larger part includes material from three men. D Clayton served in Signals and then the Foreign Office in East Africa and the Middle East and his file contains letters to Miss Pemberton from Sylvia Pankhurst and letters and descriptions of his own which are interesting in themselves. My grandfather G Cox was with the RAF in the Middle East, Sicily and Italy and I have access to many interesting photos he brought back which are included. V Willis served with 1st Para in Tunisia, Sicily, Italy and at Arnhem and finished his war in Copenhagen as part of the liberation force after the European War surrender in May 1945. It is poignant to reflect that someone who was described to me as “The bravest man in Ingatestone” suffered shell-shock in Tunisia, the fact of which was not known by his widow Daisy until I showed her his letters in 2005. Daisy has recently gifted some of Vic’s papers to the Airborne Museum at Duxford and I am grateful to her for letting me copy and use some of these photos and papers. The display cabinet includes the files and documents relating to these three. There are also two poems here, from C Balm and V Willis and I have added poems by Alun Lewis (1915-1944) and Keith Douglas (1920-1944) who served in Burma and Tunisia respectively. No fewer than sixteen of these men were present at the 1979 reunion of Old Members, again a remarkable fact.

Can I finally explain the title of the exhibition which was once a common phrase to begin letters, and was used by my grandfather, his brother Leonard Cox and other Old Members; something that must have been taught at school. Can I therefore hope that, having left me, you find this exhibition interesting and thought provoking.

Robert W Fletcher

INGATESTONE, Essex

6 December 2013

2 2594475 Sgm D Clayton, British Legation Addis Ababa, c/o FOREIGN OFFICE LONDON SW1 to Miss E V Pemberton at Grange Cottage, Fryerning Lane, Ingatestone, Essex, England – 21 March 1943

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Goodbye So we must say Goodbye, my darling, And go, as lovers go, for ever; Tonight remains, to pack and fix on labels And make an end of lying down together.

I put a final shilling in the gas, And watch you slip your dress below your knees And lie so still I hear your rustling comb Modulate the autumn in the trees.

And all the countless things I shall remember Lay mummy-cloths of silence round my head; I fill the carafe with a drink of water; You say ‘We paid a guinea for this bed,’

And then, ‘We’ll leave some gas, a little warmth For the next resident, and these dry flowers,’ And turn your face away, afraid to speak The big word, that Eternity is ours.

Your kisses close my eyes and yet you stare As though god struck a child with nameless fears; Perhaps the water glitters and discloses Time’s chalice and its limpid useless tears.

Everything we renounce except our selves; Selfishness is the last of all to go; Our sighs are exhalations of the earth, Our footprints leave a track across the snow.

We made the universe to be our home, Our nostrils took the wind to be our breath, Our hearts are massive towers of delight, We stride across the seven seas of death.

Yet when all’s done you’ll keep the emerald I placed upon your finger in the street; And I will keep the patches that you sewed On my old battledress tonight, my sweet.

[1942]

Alun Lewis (1915-1944)

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“I HOPE THIS LETTER FINDS YOU WELL,

AS IT LEAVES ME” - MISS PEMBERTON AND INGATESTONE BOYS’ OWN CLUB

MESSAGES AND GREETINGS HOME: 1939-1945

PART 1: ATHERALL A

BACKHOUSE R

BALM C

BARR P

BATH F

BOOTY F

BOOTY R

BRUCE A

CHEEK S

CROUCH N

HOLLIDAY C

HORSNELL G

KING H

REYNOLDS R

SORRELL L

STANFORD S

WHITEHOUSE F

WILLIS R

WILSON J

WRIGHT E

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ATHERALL A

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BACKHOUSE R

Bob Backhouse was Manager at the Co-operative Stores for many years

Miss Pemberton outside the church in 1979 and the same spot in November 2013

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BALM C

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Lost Heroes Slightly east of India, just south of Tawng3 Bazaar, Fights part of a noble army, you all know who they are. The 14th is what they call them, just a number not a name, Yet should you use a dictionary, you could not word their fame. Now in the papers every day you read of the glorious 8th, The fighting 5th and 7th, and aren’t the Russians great? But stuck in some corner hardly noticed, but it’s there, The Arakan4 front is doing well, activity everywhere. But those civvies cannot understand exactly what is meant By that one word “activity”, in this environment. So I’d like them all to gather round and see just what I mean And use their imagination to conjure up this scene. A tough but tired army, no rest for months and more, Battling with three enemies, it’s not been done before. They haven’t had a full night’s sleep since they arrived up here, They’re fighting, fighting all the time without a sign of fear. They’re up and down the highest hills, all alike jungle clad, The boiling sun shines overhead, enough to drive them mad. They lose their comrades every day, yet mostly by disease, This enemy they cannot see yet lingers on the breeze. And when they move to meet the Japs, out in the battle zone, They cannot see their enemies and appear to be alone. Yet they all know that he is there, each one in a hole, The muzzles of their LMGs5 ready to take their toll. They stay there like the vermin their ugly mugs resemble And when our lads go in to attack their yellow livers tremble. I’ve mentioned now two enemies the Japs and the disease But soon we’ll have a third one here as everyone foresees. The heavens they will open, the clouds will burst and fall, Then all the roads will be like mud, no use to us at all. And so there’s added terror to this “Bloody War”, The convoy of supplies must stop and rations cut once more. 3 I am not sure of the precise spelling but this would be south of Cox’s Bazar in the extreme south of Bangladesh near the Myanmar/Burma border, the site of the longest sea beach in the world at 125km 4 Arakan is the coastal area in northern Myanmar/Burma on the Bangladesh border. C Balm was fighting the Japanese on Ramree island here in 1944 5 LMGs – Light Machine Guns

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While all along the narrow paths to left and right you will see, Little graves lying there of men like you and me Who fought and died in silence and did not seek for praise. On behalf of their devotion, one point I’d like to raise, Why are these dead unnoticed, unfeatured with the brave? And where are all the headlines to say they died to save? I haven’t seen a single one, just a column now and then To say that Private Smith has gone and won’t return again. No mention of their suffering which death could but discern, Nor yet a sign of our showing of gratitude in return. But when this war is over and happiness is rife Remember all the brave ones, who for it gave their lives, Don’t leave them as they are today, forgotten to a man, Because the front they fought upon was called the Arakan.

[3 August 1944]6

Miss E V Pemberton/after C Balm

(Robert W Fletcher – 30 November 2013)7

6 The poet Alun Lewis (1915-1944) was killed in an accident with a weapon whilst in the Arakan region on 5 March 1944 7 In reproducing this poem I have tried to update the capitalisation and punctuation and attempted where necessary, to change the wording to make reading easier. The emotions and terms used in this poem must be taken and understood as relating to the world at war in 1944 and the emotions at that time

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BARR P

Memories of Belsen 1945 on P Barr’s “Old Members War Service Record” form

Belsen – April 1945 (George Rodger for Life magazine)

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BATH F

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BOOTY F

BOOTY R

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BRUCE A

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CHEEK S

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CROUCH N

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HOLLIDAY C

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HORSNELL G

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KING H

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Once Henry King’s Cycle Shop (well, everything shop!) in the High Street

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REYNOLDS R

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SORRELL L

STANFORD S

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WHITEHOUSE F

WILLIS R

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WILSON J

WRIGHT E

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The Old Rectory (Sidgwick’s), now Fairfield – 1950s

(Thanks to Mrs M Bassom for this certificate presented to her late brother)

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(The Old Rectory - this then became the house known as “Sidgwick’s”, now Fairfield Estate, off Stock Lane and adjacent to Fairfield Recreation Ground)

(My father is second from the right holding the pole)

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“I HOPE THIS LETTER FINDS YOU WELL,

AS IT LEAVES ME” - MISS PEMBERTON AND INGATESTONE BOYS’ OWN CLUB

MESSAGES AND GREETINGS HOME: 1939-1945

PART 2: CLAYTON D COX G WILLIS V

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CLAYTON D

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“The Woodlice” – 14 February 1941

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“The Lion” episode – 27 July 1941

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Christmas 1941 – 31 January 1942

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(Christmas 1941)

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“The Boys” and “The Shifta” – 22 October 1942

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Christmas 1942 and the Alamein church bells – 7 January 1943

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Sylvia Pankhurst’s interest in the D Clayton letters – 28 May 1943

Permission to print is given by Anthony Eden’s office – 1 June 1943

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A very, very hot Aden – 22 April 1944

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Swimming in the Med near Beirut and thinking of the Wid Valley – 3 September 1944

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The Holy Land and Bethlehem – December 1944

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The Levant, Homs and Aleppo in Syria – January 1945

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Aleppo to Jerusalem – January 1945

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Thoughts of coming home – 6 February 1945

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COX G

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The socks are received – 2 September 1941

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The Pyramids, Cairo, Egypt – 23 August 1942

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George Formby (with wife) entertains – probably late 1942 Alexandria

Churchill visits the RAF in Egypt – probably Alexandria 1942

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Montgomery in visits the RAF in Egypt – probably late 1942 Alexandria

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Football, probably in Libya or Tunis – Mid 1943

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A photograph is received of his new daughter Jane – 22 March 1944

In Rome with friends (on the right) – probably June/July 1944

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6 November 1944

At the Old Members Reunion in 1959. At the table left to right:

L Sorrell, V Willis, R Willis, S Abrey and G Cox (and the cake!)

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WILLIS V

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Letter revealing treatment for shell shock after Djebel Mansour - 1943

Tunisia – March 1943

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Copy of the “Djebel Mansour” poem by G A Baker – post War publication

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DJEBEL MANSOUR8 Up the hills of mental anguish Crept three companies, four hundred men and more, To kill or wound, or die or lose their reason, In yet another holocaust of war. Through God’s own blessings, undergrowth and darkness, They crawled and ran, some fell no more to rise, Forward, onward, upward to the summit; The foe’s teeth gnashing on all sides. His Verey pistols hiss and light the slopes with cunning, The better for his guns to spit their molten dew, His grenades burst-and from the greedy jaws of mar’s own minions Survive triumphant, but the chosen few. But onward yet, towards another strong-point, The ordeal is but yet begun for them, Through screams and groans and blood and perspiration, The echoes blend in murderous anthem. Through all the night it seems to them they struggle, But soon dawn breaks to bring the foe’s reply, Of mortar shells that burst and blast among them, Cruel hailstones from a cloudless sky. Then back from this to mount again the incline, As steep to them as any Alpine slope, To hold and wait in vain for reinforcements, And hope and pray and hope. Three days they sit and wait in shallow dug-outs, Waiting for help and food and water to come soon, Four score unhurt of one, once proud battalion, To them their comrades fate would be a boon. At last at dawn, the Hun’s artillery rouses, And shells among them herald yet another hell, Four hours of broken nerves and muttered prayers and curses, And then the machine guns bark as well. 8 Now known as “Jebel Mansour”. The fighting for this hill to the south west of Tunis took place in January/February 1943 and involved French troops, including the Foreign Legion, as well as 1st Para

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At last their resistance is shattered, Their wounded friends perforce must stay alone, While they, half dead with cold and fear and hunger, Retreat, and soon from sight are gone. But still the shells and bombs burst round about them, The enemy means but few to get away, He follows still with cruel determination, Machine guns snap and snarl around their prey. At last they reach the heaven sent quietness, Of peace, and friends awaiting their return, Hot food and drink and relaxation, and news of friends- Not pleasant things to learn. But this to them brings to their thoughts not only sorrow, It brings determination, grit, perhaps a prayer, That soon this war will end forever, And that their sons may never have their share. Tunisia 1943

V Willis/after G A Baker9

9 This poem is quoted at the end of V Willis’s letter in 1943 after his rest treatment for shell-shock in Tunisia and was subsequently printed after the war for veterans of 1st Para who took part in the attack

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Mascara, Algeria – 1943

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Operations in Sicily by 1st Para - Christmas 1943

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Taranto, Italy – Summer 1944

V Willis (middle and far front right) - NW Europe 1944

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Vic’s friend Anthony (Tony) Lloyd who was killed at Arnhem in September 1944

(He was originally buried in a garden and reburied after the war)

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Official War Office Photograph 12247, 29 November 1944 – somewhere in NW Europe

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Official War Office Photograph 13745 18 January 1945 – somewhere in NW Europe

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Official War Office Photograph 13890 20 January 1945 – somewhere in NW Europe

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V Willis on the right (Copenhagen May 1945)

Rooftops of Copenhagen – May 1945

1st Para in Copenhagen, Denmark – May 1945

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Copenhagen, a cycling city even in 1945

V Willis on guard in Copenhagen (probably outside the Royal Palace) – May 1945

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Vergissmeinnicht Three weeks gone and the combatants gone returning over the nightmare ground we found the place again, and found the soldier sprawling in the sun. The frowning barrel of his gun overshadowing. As we came on that day, he hit my tank with one like the entry of a demon. Look. Here in the gunpit spoil the dishonoured picture of his girl who has put: Steffi. Vergissmeinnicht in a copybook gothic script. We see him almost with content, abased, and seeming to have paid and mocked at by his own equipment that's hard and good when he's decayed. But she would weep to see today how on his skin the swart flies move; the dust upon the paper eye and the burst stomach like a cave. For here the lover and killer are mingled who had one body and one heart. And death who had the soldier singled has done the lover mortal hurt.

Tunisia [May-June] 1943

Keith Douglas (1920-1944)

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(Rectory Close, Fryerning lane, Ingatestone - This was the site of the New Rectory built for the Rev Earle by Fred. Chancellor in 1907)

(After the death of her father, the Rev R Pemberton in late 1940, Miss Pemberton moved to Grange Cottage, Fryerning Lane, the last of the original cottages going down towards the

High Street, known as “Coronation Cottages”)

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(St Cedds, Market Place, Ingatestone – Miss Pemberton’s home from the 1940s to the late 1980s when she entered a nursing home in Warley to her death in 1992)

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Miss Pemberton’s headstone at Fryerning Cemetery

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(PRE – 1959)

INGATESTONE PARISH ROOM - STOCK LANE, INGATESTONE, ESSEX – 2013

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(Pemberton Hall, High Street, Ingatestone – current Club House, and the visit of the High Sheriff of Essex Julia Abel Smith on 4 May 2013)