Between 1942 and 1944 there were no land battles on the Western Front, and the threat of invasion by the Nazis had receded with the victory in the Battle of Britain. Of course there were air raids and smaller raids, like that on Sark, and operations by the SOE in occupied France. The Allies instead took the war to Germany, instigating bombing raids on their towns and cities, while the German army was battling away in North Africa, the Balkans, and on its Eastern Front, finally lifting the siege of Stalingrad in January 1944. The war was beginning to turn in the Allies’ favour.
Admiral Ramsay, now safely back in England, was in charge of planning the naval element of Operation Overlord, which finally took place in June of that year, and became known as the D-Day landings. He was to be killed in an air crash in January 1945.
Sheila, meanwhile, is stuck in Alexandria and extremely frustrated. When she hears that one of her junior officers, who was sent back home, has managed to get on Ramsay’s staff as a 2nd Officer, she is quite beside herself. Like Bruce, she is an ‘invasion addict’ and feels useless now that the action has moved back to Europe, and her office and work has been significantly downgraded.
Her boyfriends, on the other hand, are still involved in the fighting, as the battle to take Italy is in full swing. In January the Allies landed at Anzio and by June they had taken Rome. All of them were to be there at some stage during the year: Bruce at the turn of the year, John and Robin in August. The latter has left Iraq and she is expecting to see him in Alexandria on his way to Italy, via Algiers. She has even heard from Paul, who is now in Gibraltar as a flotilla officer, ‘not at all bad for an RNVR’. She intends to visit him on her return to England, as she was ‘always rather keen on him’.
Thus 1944 is the year that she tries desperately to get a transfer – India, Ceylon, Algiers or, as a last resort, back to England to apply for a final posting. Her scrapbook contains copies of all the cables she sent in her efforts to go to India and Ceylon and bear witness to this. She has not seen her family for two years and she is bored with Egypt now the battle is over. You get a real sense of disappointment and frustration as the year unfolds, although she never loses her sense of humour or capacity for enjoyment.
❖❖❖
In January, there is ‘very little news’. She doesn’t even recount her New Year’s Eve, normally a big fixture in her life. She is pleased to report that she is to receive the Africa Star for her services in the Middle East. However, in the same letter, she sadly notes, ‘Please note my new address – there no longer exists a C in C Levant – we now form part of the Med Command Flag office, Levant and Eastern Med we are. What a comedown, how are the mighty fallen.’
She is worried that Ann Halliday, no longer a ‘great friend of mine’, stationed in Haifa with John Pritty, has been ‘putting him off me’, as she has not heard from him for over a month. Adding to her feelings of isolation are the departures of many of her close friends – Esmé to Cairo, Idwal and Dick from her watches, both to London, yet she seems to be stuck despite having been in Egypt longer than anyone, although she writes hopefully, ‘we are liable for service anywhere in the Med now, so don’t be surprised if I suddenly change my address.’
She has been filling her time sending parcels home, ‘jellies, cream, peel and so on’, and to Bruce in Italy who is finding it hard to get things like ‘blades, soap, boot polish, hair cream etc. He is a very great dear.’ This expression is Sheila’s highest accolade of affection and she applies it rather liberally to various men, and sometimes to girlfriends too. In the next letter Robin Chater is described as ‘a great dear but terribly shy.’
Her mood changes when Robin arrives, as promised, in Alexandria and they have a great few days together. She ‘immediately removed … bag and baggage to Le Mediterranean Hotel nearby, and lived in luxury for 2 days. It really is the most comfortable spot I’ve struck in Egypt – remarkably soft beds, beautifully furnished (the place has only been opened about 4 months and is brand new) and it was so heavenly to have a private bathroom of one’s own – I spent my time popping in and out of the bath!’
He is very musical and they go to hear Pouishnoff play and then to a concert by Sheila’s teacher, Elizabeth Vegdi. No sooner has Robin left than she goes on to Port Said, where she was evacuated during The Flap before going to Ismailia, to the very same YWCA, and into the arms of yet another boyfriend:
In bed 29/1/44
… Sybil Hoole and Barbara Banks are stationed here and it has been grand to see them again, and Jaap van Hooff is here at the moment, and it has been very interesting to see what we think of each other after two years. He has changed a lot in my sight, but funnily enough he doesn’t think I have altered much at all, so now you have first hand knowledge, from someone who should know, of what I am like at the moment! I feel very calm about the whole thing, quite different from two years ago and really we are having a very gay time. I like Port Said, it’s small and friendly – a lovely flat hard beach to walk along – yesterday Barbara and I walked about 5 miles, and I even paddled the weather was so marvellous – eventually we picked up a truck and drove back – Today Jaap and I are going to hire bicycles and cycle along the beach as far as we feel inclined – and this evening we are going to dance at the Officers’ Club. Tomorrow we may go down to Ismailia – it depends on duties, really. I am staying here till Wednesday. It would have been fun to have gone to Palestine, but alone would have been a bad thing I think. Anyway, the rest here is doing me tons of good – not that I’ve had a very hectic time in Alex these last six months! I am very much hoping my days there are numbered. I am determined to get out at all costs, wherever I go – Algiers, Gib, home, Colombo – anywhere – I can hear you saying ‘I wish Sheila hadn’t met that Dutchman again’! Don’t worry, I’m emotionally stable these days – too much so, I think. It has been grand for 2 such good and old friends as Jaap and I to meet. By the way I sent you 8 jellies, and 2 tins of cream last week – I hope they arrive safely. I am going to look for my grandfather’s grave when I have a minute. Heaps of love to you and Pa – Sheila.
It is fascinating to read that she has been looking for her grandfather’s grave in Port Said. As mentioned in the introduction, her grandfather, Findlay’s father, died at sea en route to China with his regiment. It was believed he was buried in Port Said where his body was off-loaded. According to the Nautical Report of 1895:
January 23rd [1895] 3.00 am Sgt Major W. Mills departed this life
10.15 am Arrived Port Said
0. 05 pm Sent Remains of Sgt Mills on shore for burial
1.42 pm proceeded
My mother was always fascinated by her father’s forebears and, after her death, I found a whole series of files and correspondence with various genealogists; she was quite determined to reveal the secrets of her grandfather’s illegitimacy. Sadly she never did. However, in a letter dated September 2000 to one of the researchers, she wrote:
I was in the WRNS during the war and one of the jobs that fell to me whilst serving in the C in C Med in Alexandria in 1942 was to help prepare accommodation for the Wren ratings at a convent in Port Said. When I told my father about this some time later he said Oh that must be the one to which my mother and I were taken on my father’s death at sea. Stupidly, I never followed this up, and he certainly didn’t tell my mother with whom he had rather an unsatisfactory relationship! The convent was on the sea front; I don’t remember its name but doubtless could find it. Subsequent enquiries in Port Said, which I have visited several times since, have revealed nothing as to where he was buried.
❖❖❖
Her letters now frequently refer to her agitation over her future and her growing discontent over her treatment by her superiors. She seems convinced that she is headed East, all the same:
Office of FOLEM
7/2/44
My dear Ma – As you see, here I am back again in Alexandria, the same old office! I really had a marvellous leave in Port Said with Jaap van Hooff – dancing, eating, drinking, laughing, and being altogether very gay. Leave’s much more fun with old friends. When I arrived back in Alex I found to my fury that I had been removed from my own watch, whom I was very fond of, and in charge of one with none of my old friends on – This made me very cross, as I always seem to hold the baby for someone, so I determined not to sit down under it, added to this was the fact that we may not be sent home for at least 2 1/2 years, so I have written a request to the Signal Office for further service abroad in India or Ceylon, and he has said he will do his best to get me there, quickly – I don’t know where it will be – I rather hanker for Ceylon – and don’t want to go to Bombay much, but will certainly go anywhere I am sent (I’ll have to anyway!) I have been medically examined and am fit, so all is well! I do realise that this may be rather disappointing to you, but as far as I can see I wouldn’t be home immediately, and as you know, I am longing to see a bit more of the world having gone this far. I was very keen to take a signal course in Haslemere, but there again, I would have to wait for it and I feel I must leave this place soon –
9/2 Yesterday I went off to see the 1/O, and have got things straight with her. As a Cypher Officer I stand little chance of returning to UK until July or later, and so I really do hope to be away from here in 2 months. Anyway, she said she would do her best to expedite my draft – though I do realise she has very little to say in the matter. She suggests I might like to go to Kilindini – my goodness, I soon said no!
… I am having my hair permed this week, and am gathering together cottons for the East, including a red check cotton evening dress, which I know that you would love. Please give my love to Pa and Rosemary, and say a prayer for my quick draft! Heaps of love, Sheila,
Perhaps it will be Delhi, I know lots of people there.
Sheila always likes to have a dig at her sister when she’s feeling depressed and frustrated! It seems as though no-one expected the war to end quickly as she talks about being posted for 18 months. Again she acknowledges her ‘wanderlust’ and desire to see more of the world:
FOLEM. 19/2/44
My dear Mummy – … I hear Rosemary has gone to Air Ministry which I think is a great pity, as I think it would be a good thing if she could break off from all her London friends and start afresh in a new place. However, the job sounds quite good. So we shall see!
I can’t think how Aunty Rose got hold of the idea that I was coming home in February! All I can guess is that I probably told her I was due home in February, and she jumped to conclusions – as a matter of fact I am very surprised to hear the wheels have been set in motion for drafting home the Levant Wrens and I believe the first set of officers are due to relieve us next month. However, as they are all 3/O’s, it wouldn’t affect me, and anyway, as I have already told you, I have applied for, and am very much looking forward to going to Eastern Fleet. I do hope my draft will come through soon. I must make enquiries about when it went in, and see if I can make out how much longer I shall be here – it seems very funny to be gathering together one’s whites while still wearing greatcoats, but that is what I am doing! Molly Rendell, my stable mate, fell out of the brake and broke a bone in her foot a week ago, so I have been kept very busy visiting her in hospital – we have been out to tea together for the first time today, to the Sporting Club, where we met some ‘local’ friends of mine, wealthy Jews, who are very kind and awfully nice – I believe I told you how a month or so ago, I went out to dinner with them, and we sat down 15 – all but 2 of us being family! They ran into swarms of brothers, sisters, wives and mothers, so that you never know where you are – and you have to be solemnly introduced to everyone – One amazing thing is that the children are so polite – always shake hands and are not in the slightest bit self conscious. Everyone shakes hands on every possible occasion out here. It was very strange to me at first, but now I shake hand like the rest and you will laugh at me terribly when I come home and start my tricks in your household!
Robin has arrived in Algiers, and has pronounced it a poor place – not advisable for me, he says. I wonder where he will land up – I don’t expect we shall meet again till after the war – even he says this, not knowing I am off for the East – but we shall see! I don’t expect to be there more than 18 months at the least, inclusive of going there and coming back – it seems too good an opportunity to miss – as you know I am a very restless person with a horrible wanderlust! I am going to make enquiries about WRNS after the war, as, if I’m not married (you never know – tho’ don’t expect any telegrams!) I think it is the only life for me!
Heaps of love,
Sheila
As ever, things do not go to plan and she is ‘rather wild’ when her transfer request still had not been forwarded to the Admiralty four weeks later. She tries to ‘set the ball rolling and made the powers-that-be send a signal about it – but I don’t know yet whether they will play. A very mean trick I call it – when they knew I was rampant to get away, and had promised to speed things up a bit.’
She is so grumpy that, even though John is in Cairo for a few days, she refuses to go and see him, as she doesn’t ‘feel it a good thing. He must come down here if he wants to see me!’ Her room-mate Molly, not content with having broken one foot, immediately on having the plaster off, fell over and ‘cracked the other one’ and is ‘worse damaged this time’. Life is ‘boring’ and consists of ‘nothing but work’.
To add insult to injury the mails are disrupted –‘not one bloodstained letter (as the saying goes)’ – for three weeks. This is set to continue for the next few months, until after May, as there was a lot of naval activity around Italy to support the Allied push culminating in the battles of Monte Cassino. The navy lost several vessels off Anzio, including the destroyer Janus and HMS Penelope.
But a week later her dogged pursuance of her transfer is rewarded and she is ‘on the move again, tho’ I’m not sure where I’ll end up’:
6/3/44
… last Friday, I arrived in at midnight to find a message telling me to stand by to dash off to the place where I last spent leave [Port Said] in order to catch a ship – The next day it was decided that I should go off to this place anyway, ready to pop on to the ship should occasion arise – not bad on the Navy’s part – as they had said in the signal to the ship they would take either 2nd or 3rd officer in exchange – so I dashed from dressmaker to dressmaker, packed my bags in an evening (how on earth I got everything in I don’t know – but I did) and I caught the 9 o’clock train here arriving at 5 last evening. So this morning I betook myself to Navy House to fill out the form, and was promised a phone call when they knew – at lunch time it came – from the O/C Naval draft, asking me was my wish to transfer on compassionate grounds (husband, fiancé or family) as no one wished to change, but a swap could be arranged if I had a very good reason. I’m afraid I hadn’t the pluck (or heart) to tell a lie, and so he said he was very sorry, but it couldn’t be arranged! Alas, this was terrible, so I rushed off to Navy House again and rang up the SSO in Alex and told him the story. Well, he said, would I like to go down to Suez, relieve a Paymaster there temporarily, and he would go and see the 1/O about sending a signal – so for the minute I am staying put. If I go to Suez it will be much easier for me eventually to catch my ship – and I won’t have to rush all the way back to Alex with my luggage to the office which I loathe. So I really hope that I go there. It will be a new place anyway, and I know several of the people there. What adventures we do have! It shows, anyway, that if you don’t shout for yourself you don’t get anywhere (not that I’ve got very far to date, but I’m on the way). I have bought you a nice hot water bottle, and have packed it up with a nightie for Rosemary, and 2 pairs of Italian silk stockings which Bruce sent to me, but which were too small. The parcel isn’t posted yet, but I’ve asked Molly to do so when she comes out of hospital – I’ve also sent you a photo I had taken before Xmas, which I think is rather awful, but which everyone seems to like rather. I hope you’ll like it too. I must now rush off to the dhobie because I asked them to do some things in a hurry – thinking I’d be away tomorrow! Heaps of love,
Sheila
When Sheila arrived at Suez she was told that she was to be made Principal Cypher Officer and Confidential Book Officer:
… which fact didn’t please me at all, as what’s the use of taking over a lot of complicated stuff when you’ve got to turn it over to someone else within a matter of weeks. Needless to say nobody here has heard anything about the reason for my coming here – and as the present PCO is going it all fitted in very well for them. However, I have firmly told everyone I’m not here to stay so I hope they’ll realise it in time.
Worse still, there is ‘absolutely no work to be done at all. I come and go exactly as I please – a thing unheard of in Alex where we were so busy we nearly killed ourselves. I hate having no work to do.’
As for Suez itself, it is a ‘frightful spot, dirty, filthy and anyway out of bounds as they have had plague there! It is dying out now, I believe.’ However, there are several people she knows there and social life seems good: she goes to a cocktail party in her first week and on ‘to dance at the French Club’, which seems to be the meeting point for the officers stationed at Port Tewfik, where they actually live, a ‘pleasant little spot, built by the Canal Company … with modern houses, trees and grass’.
She takes to her new job, like the true professional she is:
HMS STAG (Suez)
C/O CPO
24/3/44
My dear Ma – …I’m afraid I’ve not written for 12 days, but believe me I’ve been busy! To begin with, I have now taken over my new job entirely, we have moved shop, and my reign has begun – I work from 0800–1230, and from 1800–2000 daily, so you see I don’t do too badly – Later on I am going to take the odd day off to Cairo or a half day’s bathing etc. but at the minute I like to be at the office to see that everything starts OK. I do believe in kicking off as you mean to go on, and I have naturally made quite a lot of changes in the office – added to all this I have been paying visits to the Navy all round – 2 lunch parties and one tea on board HM Ships this week, the first lunch party was a scream – we’d given up all hope of going as NOIC [Naval Officer in Charge] has to give permission and hadn’t done so, so we’d gone off and had lunch. Then permission came through and a special boat laid on from the ship, so off we went, 3 of us, and had another lush meal, topped with Drambuie. The Captain was R.C.N. [Royal Canadian Navy], and a charming man. Afterwards we did a ton of inspection, and ended up by sending a signal to a ship just passing in from one of the Wren officers who knew someone aboard. Quite a precedent! We came back in a motorboat and got absolutely soaked! 2 days after that I went aboard this same ship to tea with 2 other Wren officers and some ratings. It was such fun – everyone was young and full of fun. We went off at 2 o’clock and didn’t return till six! There is a rule on the station that you can only visit ships on an instructional tone – however, we usually manage to swing that – I get so bored climbing in and out of sea turrets – I do like to visit the bridge, tho’, and the galley is always rather fun. Today I had lunch on a small vessel in dock here – I was horrid enough to be frightfully bored – one of the officers took the letter of the law very much to heart, and insisted on showing us everything in the ship – despite the fact she was 34 years old! Katherine Piddocke … is living in nearby. She is going home to have a baby, and it was marvellous to see her again. What a chat we had! She tells me grim tales of Eastern Fleet, so that I’m almost beginning to wonder whether I have barked up the wrong tree, but there’s no turning back now! I hope to go up to Cairo next week – It only takes 2 hours by road and it is very difficult to get things here – in fact, I think we have 3 or 4 shops only. Mail has been putrid lately, absolutely none. Mollie Rendell is going to Aden, they asked me if I’d like to go but I refused. It’s only a 9 months’ station anyway. Damn cheek after two years here, I think! … Heaps of love, Sheila
She is still maintaining that this is a temporary posting and is pleading with Alexandria to be allowed to go on the next convoy; by applying for an Eastern transfer she is barred from returning to England, so she really is stuck! Despite her work being a great come-down after her previous responsibilities, she throws herself into activities such as arranging hockey matches and going to the club, even if the company is less than scintillating. Her mother obviously thinks her new job is ‘very good’, and Sheila is more than happy to disabuse her of this notion in several of her letters:
HMS STAG (Suez)
C/O CPO
24/3/44
My dear Mama – … As for the ‘job’ – it probably sounds better than it is – I have 8 Cypherers working for me (I had one watch of 15 in Alex!) 5 of which are 3/O’s, and the other 3 are W.T.S. (F.A.N.Y’s [First Aid Nursing Yeomanry] from East Africa) all are very nice – I spend my time checking up on office details, placating people who say they are meant to have had such and such a signal, but haven’t, granting leave, signing movement orders, phoning Alex, and even ‘seeing’ the maintenance Commander about giving Wren personnel a proper cloakroom and lavatory, which we haven’t got here! Such are the trials of a P.C.O. [Principal Cyphering Offcier] – issuing orders and messages to ships and going gray when one sails without her last minute instructions – as for being C.B.O. [Confidential Book Officer] – that is rather a nightmare as it is up to me to change all the signal books in force whenever they have to be, see that they are destroyed on the right day, and get court martialed if any go astray. Pray for me! It’s not a very terrific job, but quite fun for a change. Nothing is very urgent down here – unlike Alex when all our work was top line and had to be attended to straight away. At the minute I am sitting under the dryer at the hairdressers – thank heavens the place rises to one – (sorry – pen’s run out) it is half men and half women, but the one who does us is awfully good – I played hockey yesterday – never again – It was a sandy pitch – a hot day, and I hadn’t played for over a year. Today I have blisters all over my feet, and am terribly stiff – We played the Shell Refinery people – The umpire, one of them, was very anti-Navy and kept on giving free hits against us, explaining in detail what we did wrong – eventually he told somebody off for standing and blocking the way ‘like the rock of Gibraltar’, he said. I was mooching past, so I acidly said ‘well, that’s what we are!’ Damn cheek – we won, however, by about 5 goals to nil! My swan song in the hockey world I think! I went out to the French Club to dine and dance on Saturday, and the local sub-area are having a dance in their mess on Thursday – I am going with an elderly 2/O her boyfriend a Lt. Col (medical) whom I’m not very keen on (I strongly suspect him as a dirty old man) and the P.M.O. [Principal Medical Officer] at the Naval base here, Cdr RNVR, who has one eye! However, he seems quite nice, so I am putting on my best dress, and will see what I can do!! Everyone down here seems to be either over 40, or else very wet – the worst of a backwater! Still, we do have our fun! I hope to go to Cairo this week – do a bit of shopping and see Esmé – I’ll send you a cable when I do a move – when …
Lots of love
Sheila
Nevertheless life is quite pleasant in the ‘backwater’. Sheila goes to visit Esmé in Cairo, enjoys bathing – ‘we are all quite brown’ – and participates in several expeditions to the Attaka mountains, where there are two chalets which belong to the friends of the mountain club:
17.4.44
We were rather an ill-assorted crowd, Monica Powell, Dorothy Peck and I – 3 Wrens – M. and Mme Daumas, a French couple who live here (he is in the Canal Company) Mac, (Dorothy’s boyfriend - a rather colourless but very kind Captain in the RASC [Royal Army Service Corps]), Major Roe, O/C Signals down here, and another Frenchman who was a friend of the Daumas – the climb wasn’t too bad – but I got terribly puffed – It’s no good – I always revert to pencil, having no ink! The chalet was a small white 3 roomed affair on the top of a hill – with a rather lovely view over Suez Bay and the surrounding country. We took up plenty of drink and tons of food all ending up very merry on the flat roof of the chalet, singing lustily to the surrounding hills – The lights of Suez, Tewfik and the ships were marvellous – they made me think of Cape Town. Of course there is no blackout here – even tho’ we did have a siren here last week. The next morning Major Roe and I were very energetic, and ran over the hills down to a valley known as the Garden of Eden and back before breakfast – I got more puffed than ever! When we arrived back at Tewfik, he was told that one of his tents had been burnt to the ground, and he’d got the Brigadier coming to inspect that day!
That evening a party of us went to the French Club to dance – all very gay – On Sunday we had another boating picnic, but it was so cold, I didn’t enjoy it a bit, and ended up by hearing Mac’s part in ‘French Without Tears’ in one of the cabins – terrific love scenes which made me quite embarrassed and everyone else laugh!
Another expedition takes her to Abu Zenima, to carry out reconnaissance for a rest camp with three other officers. Again we see the writer in Sheila beginning to emerge with these descriptive passages of the terrain:
c/o Fleet Mail Office
Suez
24.5.44
My dear Ma – If you look on the map of Africa or Arabia you will find one mid of the way down the west coast of Sinai, a small place called Abu Zenima – that is where I am writing to you from now – There is a manganese ore mine here or nearby and this is where the ore is brought down to the ships – But to tell you how I came to be here – One of the other Wren officers, Dob, was asked to go with 2 people she knew and another girl was needed. The idea was to come down here on a recce for a rest camp for the soldiers, so the day before yesterday we got up at 5.45, packed our things, took a boat across the canal and picked up the two men and the truck the other side – So off we set; to begin with it was very chilly, as it was then only 6.30 and the road which is a track in the desert, flat and uninteresting, the further south we got the hillier it became with an occasional oasis here and there, a few palms or trees. Now and again we met a bedouin on a camel, or one of the Sinai police, also on a camel, but otherwise there’s no one about – half way down, we met a truck with an officer in it who told us his general and staff were at a camp in Abu Zenima where we wanted to stay, and that all his division were scattered about somewhere – however, when we got here, we befriended the sole survivor of the mining company, the only European for 80 miles, a Yorkshireman, and he opened one of the disused bungalows for us, so we have done very well after all. This morning we motored down the coast to look at this proposed camp – a disused stone house built for an ore company long since defunct, on top of a hill overlooking the sea – There are marvellous mountains all round, sandstone but of the most curious strata – they seem to have been eaten away by rains, which have cut deep gullies into the rock, producing a triangular effect on the mountains – They are a deep cream colour and look heavenly against the blue sky and deep deep blue sea – We had 2 heavenly bathes and once on a calm shallow beach and the second time we climbed round the headland the house was on and bathed on the windward side and rode lovely breakers – After lunch, which was the most wonderful fish, just caught, cooked by Mr Baugh’s cook, a most remarkable Sudanese boy, Mac and I decided to augment our tan, so we oiled ourselves and sat on the beach till it became too hot to be bearable so we walked along to the jetty, where we spent about 2 hours diving in and out, and watching the fishes – the water is very clear, you can see right down to the bottom and watch shoals of bright emerald fish dart here and there, larger grey ones, and even bigger white ones with huge black eyes. It has been a fascinating afternoon and we are a marvellous colour – I have to confess that the backs of my legs are burning somewhat! The bathing really is perfect – no current, soft sand underfoot, a marvellous bay and mountains all round – I believe there are sharks, but we haven’t seen any. I wish you were here to enjoy it all – tho’ it’s hot you don’t notice it, because of the breeze, it’s dry too – more later. Love Sheila
Of the boyfriends, only John is nearby but she suspects she is in his ‘black books again’. She is cheered when, out of the blue, Robin sends her some Jane Seymour Peach Skin Food, ‘I couldn’t help smiling when I opened it and am longing to know its history as Robin is so shy I can’t imagine him going into a shop and buying face cream!’
A week later John gives in and pays her a visit; they ‘spent the afternoon sunbathing. He was in good form and we got on very well. Poor man – he says he will still hang on – for as he says, you never know – but I told him I really couldn’t marry him, and he said, well if he didn’t marry me, he wouldn’t marry anyone, so it looks as if I have made a permanent bachelor out of him.’ He has volunteered to serve his final months in India; as he has already been abroad four and a half years, Sheila thinks he is mad as ‘once there he’ll never get home’.
She and John go to Cairo overnight to do some shopping and to see Esmé Cameron, who is going back to England too, as she has been unwell. Diana Booth is also returning to England and Sheila is increasingly desperate to find out what will become of her. The Eastern Fleet seems as ‘remote as ever’, the UK is ‘uncertain’ but there are some possibilities for the Mediterranean. They have also been told that no one at their station is being relieved to go ‘home’ until after the Second Front, which was continuing with Operation Overlord and the D-Day landings on 6 June. She thinks they have something ‘in mind’ for her as she had to have yet another medical.
Her last few meetings with John were fraught: one of the rows was over Sheila wanting to go to Ceylon and John’s disapproval: ‘really he is quite impossible’; and a few days later he appears unexpectedly at the French Club, having turned down her invitation to a dance there. So Sheila had gone with a girlfriend and her party – and guess who was sitting at the neighbouring table after all:
Tewfik 30/5/44
Old John was furiously jealous because I was at the French Club in another party, and also because of the trip to Abu Zenima, which he was very rude about! All this time Owen Meade, who is a clown, was making the most terribly funny remarks – the band was playing Night and Day (you know what the words are) and there he was encouraging John to ‘spend his life making love to me’, etc. to a very black looking non responsive John who informed me that his faithful girlfriend from home will be out here soon and from then I shan’t get a look in! ‘Don’t be pompous John’, commented Owen and really it was all so funny and yet maddening, because it’s hard to speak out your mind with a whole host of people round who would wonder what on earth we were thinking of! However, I gather John has gone off to Palestine in a huff – and I am to see him no more! It’s rather strange really, as I was beginning to wonder if one day I wouldn’t marry him after all – he’d been so much better lately and strange as it may seem, I am very fond of him! Still, I’ve no time for stupid people like that!
Needless to say the ‘high and mighty John came down from his pedestal on high last Sunday, when he deigned to pay me a visit – Really, what babies men are!’ and in mid-July they go to Palestine together, the travel writer’s eye taking it all in:
c/o Fleet Mail Office Suez
11.7.44
John and I had very pleasant leave in Palestine, punctuated by a few quarrels, of course! We travelled up to Haifa by train, spent a night there, and then took a bus on to Jerusalem, via Tel Aviv. Jerusalem is among the hills, and stands very high so we had a beautiful journey there, and weren’t too hot. We couldn’t get into the King David, which is the best hotel there, a modern place, awfully nice, so we went to a small pension in the German Colony, where we lived like fighting cocks, on the fat of the land, which is black market of course. Everything is rationed, and sugar absolutely unobtainable. We’d brought a bag of our own, so we were all right. I very much enjoyed visiting the old city – a terribly smelly place surrounded by the old walls of Jerusalem. We visited the church of the Holy Sepulchre – a terribly commercialised affair, the old wailing wall, where as it was Friday, all manner of Jews were bemoaning their sins, and eventually wandered out of the city by the Via Dolorosa. The following day we went to the Garden of Gethsemane, a glorious spot outside the walls, on the side of a hill. Above stands a most picturesque Russian church, with many minarets rising above the Cypress trees, and in the garden itself is the Church of All Nations, a quiet peaceful spot, with glorious purple stained glass windows. We also visited Bethlehem (where I lost my identity card!) and saw the stable and manger where Christ is said to have been born, a lovely old church is built on top – dating back from the times of the Crusaders and there are some beautiful mosaics. Eventually we returned to Haifa and stayed in a small Jewish village called Nahania [Nahariya], some miles away. The pension was delightful, owned by a German Jew called Weidenbaum. From Nahania, we went to Acre, the Crusaders’ town, which is still enclosed in old walls and battlements and seems exactly like it must have been hundreds of years before. We climbed to the top of a minaret in a famous old mosque there, and viewed the city – a jumbled mass of streetless buildings, wherein, in a square kilometre, live 17,000 people. It’s unbelievable! I was more impressed by Acre than by any other place in Palestine – it really is worth a visit!
Heaven knows whether I’ll come home or not, but maybe I’ll turn up some day. Lots of love, Sheila
By this stage Sheila had made up her mind that if she doesn’t go to the Eastern Fleet by the next convoy she will never leave Suez, so she decides to apply, via Alexandria, to come home, which would mean arriving back in England in August. Stung by the news of her former junior colleague’s appointment with Admiral Ramsay – even if this is after the D-Day landings – she wants to be there so she may ‘do likewise in the next show’. She believes she could still get a job abroad if she ‘wangled hard’ at it.
John in the Garden of Gethsemane.
On return from Jerusalem she is ‘annoyed’ to find that in her absence she was given an appointment in Colombo which was turned down by FOLEM ‘in view of the fact I had applied to go home’. It was as Principal Cypher Officer and would have entailed promotion. Showing remarkable humility she says perhaps it was a ‘good thing’ as it would have ‘worn her out’ and made her ‘swollen headed’.
Despite having promised her a place on the next convoy she is let down again:
c/o Fleet Mail Office Suez
19.7.44
… I do hope you get the wire I sent off to you yesterday also telling you that I have literally missed the boat this time. I am really very annoyed about it. They promised me I could go in this trip – otherwise I should have made more effort to get to Colombo and now they have let me down – only 2 Wren officers are going this time, and both with their husbands, tho’ neither have been out as long as I have – I have pulled every thing possible, but of no avail – my relief is not here yet. However, I may try and get an air passage in which case I may arrive fairly quickly. Otherwise, don’t expect me till the end of September. Maddening isn’t it? I am firmly resolved to have another shot at Colombo from home after a little leave.
Nevertheless she begins to prepare for the trip home despite feeling extremely unsettled. Her luggage is a major concern: ‘I have got an awful lot of stuff I am afraid.’:
c/o Fleet Mail Office Suez
24.7.44
My dear Mummy – I haven’t been doing very much of note lately – In fact I’ve rather gone into a recline on hearing they are not sending me home yet – they are devils really – a whole lot of Wrens from S. Africa have recently gone through on the way home who haven’t even served their two years! Still, we are on a different station and it seems to make all the difference – However, I have packed up my trunk and my large black box, and have sent them off to the Navel Stores Officer, who will embark there over the next ship going to England. They will then be sent to the N.S.O. [Naval Stores Office] at Newcastle, who will either send them down to Durham direct, or write to me and tell me they are there for collection. It certainly saves me a lot of bother, as I am now only left with one suitcase and a small bag for if I have to fly. If I do this, then I shall give my big case to anyone who is going by sea next time, and they can bring it home as part of their luggage – I’ve hardly got anything to wear left at all – all my whites, of course – 1 suit of blues with everything to go with it, greatcoat, 3 summer dresses, 1 evening dress, 6 pairs of shoes, underwear, 1 afternoon dress, 2 shirts and 1 pair of shorts and that’s about all, except for a bathing dress – at the minute I am knitting wildly at a thick red jersey, as I am sure it’s going to be awfully cold! I’ve got very used to the heat, that, tho’ whilst I am sitting now, I am all sticky and little channels of water are running down my legs, I don’t mind a bit – I like it! It must be about 90 degrees in this room at the minute – somehow it doesn’t seem hot at all – Have you told the family I am coming home? If not, for goodness sake keep it dark – as I don’t want to have to do a ton of relations on my return, and exhibited as an interesting specimen from the M.E.!
Love, Sheila
It seems strange that Sheila never writes of any war news, but I suppose it was all so far away and she felt very distanced from any of the action. She doesn’t even mention Italy, where both John and Bruce had been fighting, and D-Day comes and goes, then the liberation of Paris in August. She remains completely focused on getting out, but continues to work hard. Her relief has finally come and she is free to leave when the opportunity arises. So she and her friend Aenid Brothers decide to seize the chance, have some fun, and get some last-minute leave in Cyprus. First they go to Ismailia to see Aenid’s family who live there:
Sheila and Aenid in Suez, shortly before her departure.
c/o Fleet Mail Office, Port Tewfik
5.8.44
My dear Mummy – … No further news of my coming home yet, except that everyone seems to think I’m definitely going.
On Wednesday Aenid and I went up to Ismailia with 2 Naval people we know from here. Her family lives there, so we stayed with them – A grand change we went up in a truck – a frightfully bumpy one – and stopped at the U.S. Club at Ismailia for a bathe first. I hadn’t been there since the Flap – I was just filthy – however, it’s salt, so we came to no harm! In the evening we dined at the French Club and returned to Suez the next morning. Ismailia is the best place in Egypt for mangoes – and the Brothers have 3 trees in their garden – lovely things! These two Naval people are quite fun – one, called Tony Cox, is a New Zealander, and if he can get in a row or scrapes, he’s always right in the middle of trouble – Tonight we are motoring up the canal and coming back down here in an ‘R’ boat – a sort of landing craft – There’s a full moon – so should be rather fun. Last night I went out to a duty dance in a South African Sergeant’s mess – we had a sit down supper first, and danced after – but it’s really too hot for dancing especially as it was inside. They had a band of Italian P.O.W.s – there are hundreds of them round here. Personally I loathe the Iti’s – oily creatures. We have on occasions been asked on board Italian Naval ships which sometimes come down here, but I wouldn’t go on a matter of principle, tho’ I should be most curious to go and see what they are like.
Our S.O.O. [Senior Operations Officer] has been drafted away recently, and as he was Signal Officer, I was asked to step in and take the job over – which I said I would do. It doesn’t entail much extra work, but I am now in charge of the W/T [wire/telephone], coding office and S.D.O. [Staff Duty Officer] – as well as the telephone exchange. However, having been personally asked by NOIC if I could and would do the job, the first time I sent a signal, he made me look a frightful fool by stopping it, altering it so that it wasn’t intelligible, and then telling me that I have no authority to make signals and am not to do so in future. If I wasn’t leaving, I should kick up a hell of a fuss – whoever heard of a Signal Officer with no powers to send signals, especially when she’s the only person who knows anything about it!
Aenid and I are going to Cairo on Monday to do a wee bit of shopping – All the boy friends seem to be getting on OK. Robin and John are both in Italy – and Bruce has now gone to France but says he hopes to be back on leave by the time I get home. John hopes to be back in UK by October – things will be very complicated! Have you got your evacuee yet? I hope she will be nice. Molly Rendell hopes to be down here next weekend. I do hope she can come, she is such a dear.
With heaps of love
Sheila
This is the last ever mention of John Pritty in any of Sheila’s letters; we will never know if they met again in England, whereas Robin and Bruce continue to play an important part in her life. I found some of Robin’s letters to Sheila penned from Italy, tucked away in her writing case; tiny, spiky writing, not at all romantic, talking mainly about opera. They were written after her return to England in the last part of 1944.
Finally, at the end of August, Aenid and Sheila go on leave, which turns out not quite as they plan, but it is a great adventure. The photographs show them disporting themselves among the ancient ruins at Baalbek, clad in their whites, complete with hats! Remember it is compulsory to wear uniform at all times in public, except when ‘at dances or sporting events’. A recent rule has just tightened up the wearing of civilian clothing, which causes great ire among the girls:
My dear Mummy – I have just completed the most hectic week – a grand one, too. I hastily turned over to my successor, a rather wet individual and Aenid and I bailed off to Cairo last Wednesday to try and fix an air passage to Cyprus. Yes, Sub. Lt. Collis said he could fix us up, would we come back in the morning? Next day we went down to the RAF people near Shepheards to be weighed, yes we had a passage! Where too! Oh to Habanya. Where’s that? Oh, somewhere in Palestine I think said Lt Corporal. Then up came a Fl. Lieut whom we also asked – it’s in the Persian Gulf, he replied – they do send you to some funny places, don’t they? More and more we insisted we asked what would we do when we got there? Oh, get in a boat and sail down the Euphrates, he replied. We really did jib at this, and said we only wanted to go to Cyprus – he nearly had a fit and said that he’d no idea, but anyway, he could do nothing for us, so we stormed back to Collis who took a very maleish [meaning ‘so what?’ in Arabic] attitude and said well, we’d have to go by train. We did! Our companions to Haifa were an Indian sister, and an Italian, presumably married to an English soldier, and her 2 children – one of which had a cold and the other spots. We have since caught the cold, but not spots to date! When we arrived at Haifa we found the last way to get to Beirut was by military diesel, which took 4 hours, but as it was such a lovely journey on the edge of the sea we didn’t mind – on arrival at Beirut we fixed accommodation facing the sea and collapsed into bed – The next day we went up to Tripoli with the Naval M.O. [Medical Officer] – another lovely drive by the sea – we took with us an Army M.O. who was scared stiff of the driver, or at least the way he drove! He sat up in his seat muttering away and could even hear him heaving his breath when we shot past anything as we invariably did! However, we arrived OK and soon we were pottering round the souq and exploring a castle on a hill. It seemed to me to be a smaller edition of Beirut, unfortunately we didn’t have time to go down to the harbour which is most picturesque they say, full of caciques. We returned the same way, but over the Chekka Pass, a new road cut in the mountains by 9th Army Engineers in 100 days – a great feat. The other road invariably gets blocked in winter by land slides. The Army M.O. nearly had a fit, but the Naval M.O. insisted we should go across! Anyway, we got back in time for a grand bathe. Next day we planned a spot of hitchhiking and eventually arrived at the crossroads for Baalbek and Damascus after 4 lifts including one with the Greeks, and another with the Poles, who could speak no English at all. However, one of the priests spoke a little French and we got on marvellously, chatting away in the most frightful grammar! They were thrilled to the marrow when they heard I knew Romanowski, a S/M [Submarine] Captain, and there was much frivolity – all in Polish, Russian and broken French. I was most sorry to leave them. Aenid had a bright idea we ought to go up to the nearby NAAFI, so we did and soon a truck drove up with about 4 army officers and 3 O/Rs [Other Ranks], on a recce of sorts. They were off to Baalbek and soon we were off with them. Those people had set their hearts on a good lunch, so we drove up to a hotel in Baalbek with the grand name Villa Kaoum – Hotel de la Source, where we had lunch under the trees. Baalbek is a fascinating place, streams of clear water running everywhere, even under the houses, of course, we visited the ruined Roman Temple a magnificent affair, and we pottered round for over 3 hours – when we’d seen all there was to see, we drove back to the NAAFI, for tea, and as Aenid and I were keen to get on to Damascus that night, the senior member of the party fixed us up in an ambulance that was just going on, so we pompously sat in the front and simply tore through the mountain passes until we approached the city when it was dark. You drive in through a narrow pass with a river running beside the road and there were lights everywhere. We were most impressed and although very tired, had to have a prowl before going to bed! The following morning we set off for the Souq – probably the most famous in the world, 3 small boys besieged us to guide us round – each accusing each other of being liars, bad boys, not Boy Scouts, tho’ what this had to do with it we couldn’t guess! However, we saw all there was to see including the silk factory and the place where St. Paul escaped from the well in a basket. We left Damascus at 4 and arrived in Beirut at 7 – after a lovely drive over the hills and very cold it was in places! Alas, almost as soon as we had arrived, I received a message recalling me to Tewfik, so we hared down to Haifa the next day and I caught the 3.20 train to Ismailia where I now am – sitting in the French Club awaiting my car to be sent from Suez. I must really run over to Navy House now and see if it has come – so no more.
c/o Fleet Mail Office Suez
30.8.44
‘A Romanesque Group’: Aenid Brothers and friends at Baalbek, August 1944. Note the full uniform and hat!
Sheila with a gargoyle, Baalbek.
Tons of love – Sheila.
This was the signal that Sheila had been waiting for – that she was to prepare for departure.
However, this letter was written just before an almighty row blew up, which was never revealed to her mother. Tucked in her writing case, I found a memorandum written on 1 September to the Chief Officer, WRNS, Levant and Eastern Mediterranean, defending herself from a charge of ‘deliberately disobeying the Maintenance Commander’s instructions’.
After arriving in Suez at 0550, where she wrote the above letter, she was ordered by the Maintenance Commander to catch the 16.15 train to Alexandria in preparation for sailing. However, she argued that she had ‘no luggage’ and he gave her permission to travel early the following morning, whereupon she took her uniforms to be ‘dhobied’. Permission was rescinded, however, and she was then re-ordered to catch the afternoon train with a couple of hours’ notice – which of course she could now no longer do as she had not ‘even begun to pack’ and her uniforms were being laundered. She then called the Chief Officer in Alex and cleared that it was ‘in order’ to travel the next morning.
However, this message did not get through to Suez, and the Maintenance Commander’s Chief Petty Officer arrived to fetch her; when told she was not going until the next morning, she was hauled before the Naval Officer in Charge, Suez, who ‘severely reprimanded’ her and told her she ‘was not to be trusted’ and that he was ‘very disappointed’. To add insult to injury, she was ‘confined to quarters’.
Naturally she was devastated as she felt she was leaving Suez ‘under a cloud which is not justified and, in view of the fact that I am leaving this Command for the United Kingdom, an adverse report would be most prejudicial to my future career in the Service’. We will never know whether she was exonerated or whether this was indeed to form a blemish on her perfect service record. That she kept this letter – in pristine condition – hidden away, demonstrates how serious a matter it was.
❖❖❖
Sheila’s joining instructions, carefully pasted into her scrapbook, show that she was travelling first class on the Highland Princess, departing from Alexandria. What a difference it must have made to be able to sail back via the Mediterranean rather than round the Cape! She was ‘Officer-in-Charge’ of all the Wrens on board.
On arrival in England on 2 September she received her ‘discharge certificate’ and one assumes she then received her leave entitlement and went home to Durham. There are no letters until they resume in May 1945, right at the end of the war, when she was sent to Germany. The only ones that survive are those from Robin.
She was instructed to report for duty in Harwich on 4 November, where she worked as a Cypher Officer. Unsurprisingly there are no scrapbook entries or letters dating from Harwich in 1944. It must have been quite a come-down after the excitements of Egypt.
She had been away from home for four years, and abroad for the best part of three. During that time she had been closely involved in probably the most important military campaign of the war, the invasion of Sicily, whose success triggered the further invasion of Italy and was the turning point for the Allies. At last they could begin to see that the strategy of encircling the Axis forces in Europe with a pincer movement could work – starting in France (the Normandy landings), down to North Africa and extending back up via Italy to Russia.
She had left England a newly commissioned Third Officer, still rather green and naïve; she returned a decorated Second Officer, with a wealth of experience, who had rubbed shoulders with some of the greatest of the naval commanders and admirals as well as countless dashing and sophisticated army officers. In other words, she returned home a sophisticated and worldly woman and a senior officer. Quite something for a girl from Norfolk.
But for Sheila, it was a homecoming with mixed emotions: the circumstances of her departure must have caused her great anguish; her love-life was in disarray and, while she would have been delighted to see her father and other friends and family, one suspects that she dreaded the inevitable criticism from her mother – in particular over letting John, Bruce and Robin slip through her fingers – that would no doubt be meted out, now that distance was no barrier. Once again she would have been champing at the bit to regain some excitement in her life through a final posting.