In July 1942, General Montgomery had taken over from Auchinleck and the tide began to turn. The Anglo-American First Army had landed in North Africa in November 1942 (Operation Torch), and met up with Montgomery’s Eighth Army in Tunisia, finally capturing Tunis on 10 May. The three-year battle for the Western Desert and North Africa was finally won. This paved the way for the Second Front that Churchill and Roosevelt had agreed in January 1943 in Casablanca: an attack on Europe through Italy, perceived to be its soft underbelly, leading to an unconditional surrender.
As a result the focus of the war shifted back to Europe, and Sheila was sent from Alexandria to Cairo to help Admiral Ramsay and his team plan Operation Husky, the invasion of Sicily, the precursor to landing in Italy itself. She was assigned to the important work of monitoring, via cyphers and signals, both enemy and British fleets in the Mediterranean. The work she did with Ramsay remained her proudest achievement and she was rewarded with the coveted ‘second stripe’.
When looking through her papers, I found a letter she sent to The Times on the fiftieth anniversary of D-Day, singing the admiral’s praises, which elicited a response from his son, David Ramsay. In her reply she says:
For myself, I knew little about your father when I was plucked from the C-in-C’s cypher office in Alex to join his staff at Cairo, save that he masterminded the evacuation of Dunkirk. Only 22, I was to be in charge of the speedy circulation of signals which came up from Alex each day … we were a motley crew to join the cream of Navy in a dusty old house in the backstreets of the road to the Pyramids, crammed into a tiny room with nothing but functional furniture – no detailed maps on the walls, and wastepaper baskets which had to cleared and the contents burned only by responsible personnel … security was minimal, although first class. No Wren in those days ever signed the Official Secrets Act, Egypt was bursting with spies, and we all lived ashore in various YWCAs in the city. It goes without saying that we were entirely trusted.
As for the Admiral, his calm and friendly manner belied the importance of the task he was undertaking. He had time to entertain even most junior officers such as me, and I was enormously impressed to hear from a Wren friend who had been on his staff at Dover in the days of Dunkirk that he had recognised her walking down the street in Cairo and had stopped to greet her by name.
It may seem strange to you, but in after years when faced with problems of integrity it was the memory of your father’s example which guided me to stick to my guns.
Her scrapbooks contain an admission ticket and a copy of the memorial sheet from his service in Westminster Abbey (he was killed in a plane crash in France in 1945, not long after the D-Day landings, when he was Naval Commander-in-Chief). She writes vehemently in his defence to her mother, who must have been critical of him.
While the letters reveal a seemingly never-ending social whirl of dining, dancing, sightseeing, yachting, the races, all jockeying for position with her hobbies of singing and riding, there are frequent mentions of the long hours and the rigours of office life – including an obsession with hair length – and her desperation to rejoin the war on a more active front after the thrill of working with Admiral Ramsay on the invasion of Sicily. As she herself says, ‘Our shadow is diminishing instead of increasing. Soon I feel we will fade out altogether and then what?’
Admission ticket to Admiral Ramsay’s memorial service.
Cairo in the middle of the war was a vibrant place, despite all the political upheavals of the time and a profound anti-British sentiment felt by some sectors of Egyptian society. Things were not only expensive for the forces (Sheila complains about the price of various necessities), but for the poor fellahin, or peasant, the wartime inflation and shortages of cereals, sugar and paraffin represented an enormous hardship. Anti-British propaganda – for Cairo was a hotbed of spies – would have fuelled such feelings; and with the king openly at loggerheads with the British ambassador, as well as with his own Prime Minster, the state of Egypt was far from calm.
Nevertheless for the officers, whether stationed in Cairo or when on leave, life was to be enjoyed at all costs. The military working day began at 9 a.m. and then broke for lunch at 1 p.m., when one retired to either the Gezira or Turf Club to swim and play tennis, with lunch being a sumptuous buffet. Then back to work from 4 p.m. until 9 p.m., when it was out to a restaurant followed by dancing. Other ranks were not admitted to the clubs, nor to the more upmarket nightclubs, such as the Continental and Shepheards, where Sheila danced the night away with her beaux. Groppi’s, on the other hand, was open to all, but was prohibitively expensive. This is where old Cairo society met for gossip and coffee on a daily basis.
The ratio of women to men meant that women were, according to Artemis Cooper, a ‘privileged minority’. She continues, ‘it was open season for husband hunting … young women in Cairo knew they would never have such choice again, certainly not in post-war Britain … the war provided not only the first real romantic opportunity for these young women, but also the most powerful argument for giving in to male supplication. That the man in question might be killed next week lent not only a poignant intensity but also a noble, generous element to the affair.’
In 1943, Sheila is tiring of the endless rows with John Pritty, although I imagine she felt torn, as he must have endured privations in the desert, weeks on end in terrible conditions – either stranded by sandstorms, or bogged down in mud (yes, mud) depending on the season – and mindful of the extremely high casualty levels suffered at the front due to the Germans’ superior air power, tanks and guns.
She has all this time retained a friendship with Robin Chater, whom she met on the boat coming out and, now in Cairo, meets a much more stable suitor in the form of Bruce Booth-Mason, a major in the Indian Cavalry, although he, too, is also drafted to the Eighth Army. She still writes fondly of her ‘childhood’ sweetheart, Paul, and of Jaap, her dashing Dutch officer, whom she met in Scotland. I suspect it was a case of rather hedging one’s bets, as the chances were that one or more boyfriends would not survive.
I only discovered the answer to the obvious question of whether she slept with any or all of her boyfriends when I, quite by chance, found a bundle of love letters from my father to her, written in 1946, during their engagement. Despite Olivia Manning’s loose living or, as my mother would have said, ‘fast’ ladies in The Levant Trilogy, the rule seemed to be that ratings did, while officers didn’t! I will return to these letters in a later chapter.
❖❖❖
The New Year gets off to a rocky start with a row with John Pritty, her current boyfriend:
C in C Mediterranean
10/1/43
My dear Ma and Pa –
First, a happy New Year, second, thank you for your cables, letters, pc’s and aircards which have just started coming in again. I’ve had no airmail letters, tho’, since the beginning of December, and fear they may be lost. I do hope not.
Well, I wrote and told you of my Christmas so now of my new year. New Years Eve and I had to spend on duty unfortunately, but Audrey Dean (a new girl and so nice) and I danced round singing Auld Lang Syne, and we drank to the New Year in ginger beer and munched bananas! Then the next day (New Year Day) I had 3 days leave and went up to Cairo. I had arranged it all beautifully, to fit in with John coming out of hospital, but he suddenly took umbrage and we only met once. However, I stayed with Ann Halliday at the YWCA and was determined to enjoy myself. So on my 2nd day, 3 of us took a gharry and went to the Musky, which is the native market and bazaar. There you really see Egypt as it has been for thousands of years. Narrow narrow streets with little shops open to the street, and inside men and boys sorting cotton, beating copper into pans, making minute and intricate silver bracelets in filigree. It’s full of shrieking children, beggars, guides, merchants and people buying. We suddenly found ourselves by the Blue Mosque which is a place I’ve wanted to visit for ages. It’s the oldest mosque in Cairo and is 900 years old. We went inside and soon found an awfully nice little man who became our guide. It was small, really, inside, with very high ceilings and a dome 40 or 60 feet high. Pillars of granite and marble which had been brought by goat from Aswan, taking 3 months. The tops of the pillars and the ceilings were inlaid with gold and lapis lazuli, and the windows were filled with the most gorgeous coloured glass you’ve ever seen. In the centre was the tomb of the man who built it, a king from Turkey: this was plain and made of sandalwood, and there was a short pole at the head with a monk showing how tall the king was. Actually, he was a hunchback and therefore very small. Then a fortune teller came along with a little bag of sand which he laid on the floor, drew a circle in the sand, and told our fortunes. Apparently I am destined for 3 children, the 1st being a boy with red hair and green eyes! So! While coming out of the Blue Mosque, an old old man came in in rags, bearing on his back a water bag made from goat carcass. It was just like the Bible. Then we went on to see a very old home, now protected by the Egyptian government, which is the only one of its kind left in Cairo. It is 600 years old, and perfect. You go down a narrow street and through a gate and find yourself in a courtyard with a palm in the middle, and then house all round. There are rooms for reading the Koran during Ramadan, and balconies for the women to sit and listen too. Coffee rooms, with fountains in the middle, and old old carpets on the floor. Bathrooms with hot and cold water and the harem where the Sheikh lived with his 3 wives. Little mosques and large garden behind with vines and orange trees growing and lastly, a water wheel and wheel used for grinding corn. All exactly as they had been 600 years ago. I was just thrilled. There was a dear old boab or ghaffer in charge who had been a sergeant in the last war and who had won a medal. Well, our little guide then took us to a silver factory, where we saw little boys of 5 and 6 making beautiful filigree brooches and bracelets. I bought one which I am sending to Rosemary. I didn’t think you’d wear bracelets, mummy. After drinking coffee with the owner, a young man who was most helpful, we then proceeded on to a silk shop, because the Egyptian brocade is heavenly and I have an evening gown made of it. Well, I bought a glorious bit – a deep royal blue, with gold flowers all down it, and shot so that it shines gold when worn. Already I have given it to the dressmaker and she is making an evening dress for me. By this time we had been exploring for about 2 hours, and really thought we had better go back to lunch, but no, the little man insisted on taking us to the perfume shop which we found in the spice market. The smell here was simply marvellous. Great sacks of cloves, chilies, cinnamon, corn of all kinds were displayed in front of the shops. When we found the perfume shop, the man immediately produced chairs and we proceeded to smell, and have dabbed all over us, all the perfumes of Arabia. It really was most amusing! Ann eventually bought the secret of the desert (!) (it smelt like citronella to me!) and I, Camabon (which I have since lost). Then we really had to go, so having tipped our guide (who was most fair about it) we rushed off to find a tram – which was so full that we had to stand on the step and cling on for dear life! How we all laughed and everyone was so kind to us, gave us seats, told us where to go! I did enjoy it so. I know you would have adored it mummy. I think I’ll do as last time and continue this on another card. I hope they both arrive at the same time …
Well, that afternoon Ann and I decided we would go and visit the Pyramids. Unfortunately we left it rather late but set off on a tram, as usual, it was terribly crowded and we found we had to travel 2nd class as there was no room. It was absolutely packed with fat old women with baskets, people who looked like Bedouins with all their earthly possessions with them. English, Arabs, Greeks – just everyone. Eventually we got out at Giza, and took a taxi. We arrived at the Pyramids at about 4:30 and the sun was almost setting. However, we hurried on, and saw 2 horses which we decided to hire. Here we did strike a patch of unpleasantness as the 2 syces kept saying ‘give me tip now’, but we were firm. We chartered a guide and off we sped. I wasn’t in the least bit disappointed, as most people are, and wanted awfully to climb up and go inside, but there wasn’t time. The sun sets so fast here. So we rode round to the Sphinx which I adored, but I am very annoyed with Napoleon for knocking off his nose. We also saw an old granite temple nearby, and a lot of tombs cut into the rock. Unfortunately it really was growing dark, so we had to turn back. What we want to do next time is to start out early, thoroughly explore the Giza pyramids, and then take horses and ride over to Sakara, where there are some more far older pyramids, tombs of the kings and the ancient city of Memphis. But I’ll have to get more leave before we can do this. It was now quite dark, for we rushed off and caught a tram and landed up in Cairo about 3/4 hr later. The blackout there is negligible, and all the shops were open and ablaze with light. We really were terribly tired by now, and so had dinner and went back to bed.
The next day I had to return to Alex, but I visited Ann’s new office which I liked tremendously, and we had coffee in the famous Groppi’s.
Since I have been back here, John has been staying here on convalescent leave, and eventually, after seeing him around the place, we did meet. The trouble is, in a nutshell, that he wants to become engaged to me now, and I feel it would be a silly thing to do, we have been engaged, on and off, several times now, and at the moment I’m not at all sure how things stand, but he really is so temperamental it rather frightens me. I really feel the best thing to do is to wait till the end of the war and see how we feel. Another thing is that he’s probably leaving this country and going miles away, which wouldn’t entirely help matters would it? Anyway, at the moment, we are the best of friends.
I was told this week by the P.P.O. [Principal Personnel Officer] that he had recommended me for a 2nd stripe but not to bank on it as all promotions have to come from home. Well, I just know that I won’t get it, or really deserve it, in view of the far senior people there are out here, and anyway, feel it must just have been a matter of routine as you have to give an assessment of everyone’s ability at the end of the year. So I never expect or even want to rise and think of the jealousy it would cause. All I feel pleased about is that I have been recommended, so please don’t breathe a word to anyone – and will wait and see. You see, to get 2 stripes restricts you terribly. You can only do jobs which are worthy of your rank!
… I suppose you haven’t heard or seen any more of Paul! He is still in your waters, I know, and I have had no mail from him for some time. We have lost a tremendous amount of mail lately, and I just hate to think of all the letters of mine which will have gone missing.
So no more, with tons of love to you both and many happy new years,
Sheila
In the Musky.
The next few letters describe the ups and downs of her relationship with John, and she is still hankering for news of her old boyfriends, Jaap and Paul. It must have been hard for Sheila with so many of her friends getting married or engaged and seemingly settling down. Nevertheless she is determined to make the most of life, seeing the sights of Cairo and Alexandra, while shopping and having fun – riding, singing dancing – just like any normal 22-year-old. She finds time to send parcels home as well, and voices her disapproval – again – of her sister’s activities:
C in C Med 19/1
My dear Ma – … Well, this week I have sent off a parcel containing 2lb sugar, 2lb marmalade and 1lb butter, which I hope you will get all right. We have at last found a shop which can send sugar, and I will send you some as often as I can. I have also packed up very carefully a necklace which I bought ages ago for you, but didn’t know quite how to send it and a bracelet I bought for R. Today I found some Velouty [perfume] which I know you like and am wondering how I’ll send it. I think it is better to send things separately, as if they get lost, it’s only one article … Yes, I think it would be a very good thing if R could get her commission quickly, as I thoroughly disapprove of going about with this and that just for the sake of a ‘good time’ (if you call it such). We never did when we were Wrens but then of course I always had Jaap in the background which completely kept me going. What is all this about promotion after being commissioned a year? We’ve heard nothing of it out here – if it’s true, then nearly all of us automatically jump up.
I have been busy this last week, as John has been spending the last week of his leave here. He has gone away now, and really I think it’s quite a good thing as he was getting more and more worked up and we seemed to do nothing but argue and argue each time we went out. Pity, as he can be so nice. In all fairness to us both I couldn’t promise to marry him, as he is such a jealous person I should have been expected to immediately retire labelled ‘property of J.F.C.P. keep off’. Every time I went out with anyone he at once imagined I was violently keen on them and it wore me out having to account for my every harmless action. When one is at home and there’s no war, it’s slightly different, but out here with everyone away from home naturally a bit more lonely. It’s too much to expect one to stay in the whole time. And I’m not an awful gadabout. I had an awful fright because he calmly told me one evening he had announced our engagement in the Egyptian mail – all without having told me. Sure, at one point I had agreed to marry him, but not till after the war and I saw no point in making it public with him going away as it wouldn’t be a good thing for either of us. This was too much for me, as I felt it was all a way for keeping me safe so I rang up the paper and cancelled it. We had a frightful row, and then were terrified that it would appear, because he’d entered it in the Cairo office and I’d cancelled it at Alex. However, it hasn’t appeared yet so I presume all is well. I suppose it may have seemed queer but I don’t think you should announce your engagement unless you’re quite certain it’ll come off and with him going away for perhaps years, anything might occur to either party. So he said he’d see me no more, or write even. It seemed a pity after all the good times and fun we’ve had, but what could I do but agree? However, the day he left, my favourite pink roses appeared with a note saying we couldn’t part thus, which means, I presume, we will be writing as usual. Oh the trouble one has! Diana [Booth] and Mary [Henie] have been advising me all the time and we’ve come to the conclusion it’s better this way. Somehow having fallen hard once, it’s difficult to fall again in a hurry.
Mail has been shockingly bad and I know we have lost a lot. Promised letters from other people haven’t arrived as well as yours. It is so disappointing. I am going riding this afternoon, then on duty. But to dinner on Thursday and Saturday, singing on Thursday and Friday and riding again on Thursday. My singing is apparently progressing very well. I certainly enjoy it and am now allowed to practice by myself. I do hope you get all the parcels I have sent off. If you don’t reply that you’ve had the food one in nine weeks, the dealer with send another free!
Sheila
With heaps of love (please keep my story QUIET. I should hate all the family to discuss this).
C in C Med 20/1
My dear Ma – … It is really awfully cold (not freezing but bitter in comparison to Summer) and we are all in greatcoats, have extra blankets and hot water bottles and just shiver. These houses are so vast and airy, with no central heating and we only have one fire – you can’t imagine how chilly it is. I am thankful for my winter dressing gown and wish I had brought more warm clothes. I am a lucky girl – a big bunch of roses and asters has just arrived from John, asking why I haven’t written. I didn’t know I was expected to! Anne Halliday has just become engaged to a marine. She is still in Cairo and another girl we need to work with has also announced her engagement. Seems to be the fashion. I have just been to a singing lesson which I enjoyed tremendously. Mme Vegdi is a dear and strange as it may seem, is very pleased with my voice. Unfortunately it takes 2 or 3 years to fully produce it, and I’m sure we won’t be here for that length of time! As for riding – well, I am still very much in love with it, but I went on Sunday and had a typical riding school horse, which wanted to walk the whole time and always tried to take the short cut home. He was terribly obstinate and we kept going round in circles – in the end he fell down a water hole and I was terrified that he’d break his legs, but he was alright. I had to jump off and pacify him, but found it awfully hard to get on again as he was so tall. One really needs spurs for such an obstinate brute … Did I tell you I had a contretemps with the C/O. resulting in my having my hair cut. It wasn’t frightfully long (some of the others are far longer and haven’t been told) but she was with a Rear Admiral, who remarked on it, so poor old Mills got a bottle! Within 15 minutes I was in a gharry and off to the hairdressers, where I had it cut and permed. Actually it really looks quite nice, tho’ it felt a bit strange at first. I haven’t sent off the necklace yet, but will do so soon, and you should get it within a month, anyway I love it and have one like it.
With heaps of love
Sheila
C in C Med
9th February 1943
My dear Ma – I haven’t heard from you for some time but mails have been awfully bad lately. I sent off another food parcel last week with 2lbs sugar, 2lbs butter and 1lb marmalade. I do hope it reaches you all right. Unfortunately we are only allowed to send 2lbs of sugar at a time or I would send more. I have just returned from a couple of days in Cairo. I went up on Saturday morning and returned last night Sunday. I met John, and we spent all the time together, on very good terms. I have told him definitely I won’t be engaged now, and he accepts the fact and we seem to get on very well in spite of the fact. We ate an enormous lunch where we gazed at Cairo from above – a wonderful sight, mosques, domes and minarets rising above the houses, the pyramids in the distance and the sun shining on it all. It is very much like being in Edinburgh castle and looking over the city. Well, we then drove through the Dead City, which is nearby and out of bounds really. There is a part of Cairo which had plague very badly 600 years ago and which was closed. People were buried just where they were and consequently there are tombs in houses, tombs everywhere. I longed to get out and look at some of the mosques, all is old and interesting but of course couldn’t. Then we went to have tea at Shepheards, the very famous hotel everyone goes to when in Cairo … After a prolonged tea, John went to have a bath (being in more or less desert, baths are scarce) and I to change and then we went back to Shepheards to dance, me in my new blue brocade evening dress which was quite a success. The following day we were only able to have lunch together and I had to catch the 4.30 train back. … Our pay isn’t bad at all, and tho’ things are terribly expensive it’s easy to manage if one’s careful. For instance I spend most of my money on singing and riding, 2 things which are structurally beneficial and I try and buy as many useful clothes as I can, as I know how hard they must be to come by at home. Just to show you the prices out here, my short time in Cairo cost John £10 – do you know that 2 Pimms No.1 cost 40 piastres, or 8/- isn’t it fantastic? The weather is so pleasant here now. Warm and Spring-like, and not too sunny. It was lovely in Cairo yesterday afternoon. We walked to the Nile and looked over one of the bridges near Kasr el Nil Barracks, with Gezira Island to the right of us, all trees and green. Today was a rest day because the King has been here. Great arches were erected in Rue Fuad and banners, flags were flown from all windows. Soldiers lined the streets and there were bands making an awful din. On top of all this, tho’ I was out and I missed the King. Apparently, in Cairo he drives about in an enormous car escorted by 90 motor cycles, fore and aft all going very fast at about 40 mph. We are enjoying the strawberry season now – oh they are heavenly. Oranges, tangerines and bananas are at their best. I’m even rather tired of them! I think probably your Xmas present to me has gone down, as it hasn’t arrived yet.
With very much love to you both. Sheila
17/2/43
My dear Mama – I’ve at last had some mail – 10 letters in all, including 3 of yours It was a lovely surprise … I have had John down for the weekend, but he has gone back now and I know not when we’ll meet again. I asked Eve and Clement [Barber, Alexandria residents and riding friends] to meet him and their opinion afterwards and one was that I’d be a fool to marry him as they think he is too serious and old for his years for me. However, I’ve told him definitely no for the moment, but what will happen in the future I can’t tell. He won’t change, that’s the one thing certain. We went to the Union Club dance on Saturday night, and I wore my new blue brocade dress. It’s a deep deep blue with gold flowers on it in shot gold, and is made plain with low neck, short sleeves and a split back. … No, I didn’t hear the broadcast from the Wren who has been to Casablanca. But did you hear Anne Halliday broadcasting home to her mother from the M.E. the other day. Just before the end she squeezed in ‘John Pritty of Prestwick sends his regards to his people.’ Quite illicitly for John, and we are wondering what it sounded like. They get all the luck working in Cairo! No, I am still in the same job and still a 3/O. There are dozens of others of greater seniority then me in the same boat. I certainly won’t get promotion. I am going to ask for a move tho’ so that I can get more into the war. It’s getting rather backward here and I’m tired of the people I have to work with … I had a letter from Dundee who mentioned Jaap is now a Lieut. Commander. With all this loss of mail I feel very discouraged!!! But I haven’t written either, for ages. And still no news of Paul too … I’ve got so used to being out here that I often wonder what it will be like returning to UK. Tho’ I often long to be back among the green fields, trees, hills, and sea, especially when we have weather like this mild and sunny, not too warm – rather like May at home and everywhere rather misty and dewy in the early morning. Naturally I want to come back and see you and Daddy but having come this far, I want to go on and see more though of course with a war you can’t do everything you want to. I don’t feel for a moment that we shall return before the end of the war and I don’t think that given the chance I would accept it! I am going to learn to ride from a new master, who is going to teach me to do exercises on the horse, lie down while it is trotting and all sorts of tricks to make one feel confident on the horse whatever he may do. I have my first lesson tomorrow with Eve. I must get up now. My clock gets fast and so I found myself up and about at 0700 instead of 0720, hence writing this now.
Tons of love to you both. Sheila
Having been the longest-serving Wren officer in Alexandria, she is devastated when the office is demoted from C-in-C Med to C-in-C Levant – and so feels more than ready to move on:
C in C Levant
C/O CPO London
27/2/43
My dear Daddy –
… As you will see, we have now changed our address and are now C in C Levant – a very great come down! I have been in the office longer than any Wren and more than most of the men, so now I’m agitating for a move. I have 2/3 definite places in view, which I can’t of course mention here. The C/O says I am selected for accelerated promotion, but whether that will even come to anything I can’t say. No I should guess, really. However, as promotion is NIL in the service and I’m happy as a 3/O, I don’t mind a bit. It’s really rather difficult working with men, as they get the promotion automatically and after 6 months you’ll find a sub/lieut. you know and trained as a raw recruit from King Alfred is then a Lieut and your boss. It makes me rather cross!
However, life is really quite pleasant. Alexandria, unlike Cairo, is a quiet spot. Everything closes at midnight, and it’s more like a provincial town – like Bournemouth or similar places. I should say, I simply adore Cairo, and try and get up there as much as I can – once a month if possible at the moment. John is stationed there and it is great fun going up. I’ve explored the Musky, Citadel, Blue Mosque, Dead City and Pyramids, but I want to go to Sakara and see the Pyramids there as they are meant to be much older and more interesting. Whenever I shall have time to do all this I can’t say, as I only have one day off at a time, and it’s rather a wangle going anyway. It’s really rather a blight working in C in C’s office, as we’re the only people who haven’t had leave. All the other Wrens have had a week and been up to Palestine and even Syria – places I long to visit! I want very very much to go to Luxor and Aswan – one member of my watch has been and I’ve seen his photographs – the Egyptian remains there are wonderful, only have to be seen to be believed, and you know how I love old buildings and tombs!
There is very little of that kind of thing in Alex – we have some catacombs, which I’m afraid I’ve never yet seen, but will do so some day. Alexander the Great is reputed to have been buried in Rue Nebi David, but as it’s under the street, nobody seems quite to know. We also have a big pillar attributed to Pompey (!!) [the name of their cat] but nothing is left of the Pharos as its foundations are now under the sea beyond Ras el Jin.
In spite of all those interesting things, I feel a move on is indicated – one gets stale in one’s work and I’m just a little tired of the men I’m working with! When it will come is debatable, but I hope it will be quite soon.
… It’s terribly English to talk about weather, but really it is heavenly just now – very cool, yet sunny and perfect for all sports, even swimming, tho’ I haven’t swum since last October!
… So au revoir, camera films are almost nil here, otherwise I would have sent you some.
With much love,
Sheila
C in C Levant
5/3
My dear Mama – I’ve had your airgraph in which you ask if my tale of woe re evacuation [The Flap] can go in the school magazine. I don’t think it can, actually, as we aren’t allowed to publish anything about the service without it being vetted first. On Monday I went round the Catacombs with Miles, one of the men from our office. It really was awfully interesting – you go down a long spiral staircase deep into the solid rock until you come to a series of corridors and rooms, all with holes cut in the walls where bodies need to be put.
There are layers, 2 of which you can explore, and the 3rd which is filled with sand. After thoroughly exploring these (we went with a special guide and about 50 other people in a fleet of yellow Alex taxis) we then went to Pompey’s Pillar which is a very tall pillar erected to commemorate something that I can’t remember. All around are earthworks and a couple of sphinxes and other statues – mostly of Roman time and origin. I was awfully glad that I’d done this, because 2 days ago, when I went on watch at 1300 I was told I was to go off to Cairo and work as soon as possible! This was a tremendous shock. So off I rushed, packed all my things, saw my dressmaker bade farewell to Mme. Vegdi and Eve and all my friends, and caught the midday train from Alex yesterday …
Heaps of love,
Sheila
She has in fact been summoned to work with Admiral Ramsay on Operation Husky, but of course cannot mention it. She must have been thrilled.
Operation Husky was the result of the Casablanca Conference held on 14 January 1943, where Roosevelt and Churchill met to discuss the next step in the Allied strategy, following on from the successes of the north-west African landings in November 1942, and Montgomery’s victory at El Alamein. At this stage the Allies were split in their views: Stalin desperately wanted an Allied offensive to relieve his forces from the relentless German attacks on the Russian front, while the British and the Americans wanted to make safe the Mediterranean sea-routes, reduce Axis air power and eliminate Italy from the war.
By the end of the successful and extremely short campaign – Husky only lasted from 10 July until 16 August – both sides could claim that their objectives had been met. The Italians had surrendered, their fleet captured; the Germans were diverted away from the Russian front and, of foremost importance, the Allies had shown they could attack the Axis on its home territory and win. It was a demonstration of grand strategy at its best; the whole of Operation Husky took only six months from inception to delivery:
C/O RNGHQ, Cairo
16/3/43
My dear Mama – …Well, here I am in Cairo – quite settled down in my new job (not cyphering this time) and living in the YMCA. These are very good places, not a bit full of tents or grim, but quite charming, well furnished, good food and altogether pleasant. I share a room with Mary Henie, who came up with me, Maureen Brennan, who has been in Malta since the beginning of the war, and a Polish girl who doesn’t speak English. I’m working quite hard for me – 08/30 till 1300, then 1500/2000, but at the moment I don’t have to go till 1700. When it gets hot and we have to go in at 1500 I don’t know what I’ll do! John is in Transjordan, on a course, and won’t be back till 30 March. HOWEVER, I have been having quite a good time, mainly due to the fact that an awfully nice person called Ronnie Croker, Major, Skinner’s Horse, is on leave in Cairo, and we have been hitting the high spots. I knew him vaguely in the summer – he is a friend of Pam Boyne, who was in our draft, and also knows Robin Chater very well. We have been dancing these last three nights, twice at Shepheards, and the other time at a nightclub here; today we are lunching at Gezira Club and I expect we’ll watch the polo. Tho’ it’s not supposed to be very good. Ronnie is a crack player, I believe – I’m afraid John’ll disapprove frightfully as he hates me going out with anyone but him, but as we aren’t engaged I can’t see any thing against harmlessly enjoying ourselves … Life in Cairo is very gay; dancing at Shepheards every night, full evening dress, lots of cinemas and good places to dine, but the food is really better in Alex. I like Cairo, but oh it is awfully expensive. I had to pay 3/6 for a bottle of Swan ink which I’m sure is only 1/- at home – and everything else in comparison … About the photos, I told you I sent you 2 of which I had taken in Alex in the Autumn – by sea – so they should be arriving soon. They aren’t too bad – John likes them anyway. You say you think he sounds a dear – well he is and he isn’t. Awfully temperamental and hard to get on with, and oh so jealous. It quite frightens me, and I find it makes me rather deceitful against my will, as I never like hiding any of my activities from anyone. He really is very good looking, not that that’s terrifically in his favour, tho’ … By the way, you never need worry if you don’t hear from me, if anything happened to me the admiralty would wire you at once! Have you had the necklace yet – I sent it a month or so ago. I’m very pleased with my new work, as I’m the only Wren officer on the staff and everyone is so nice. Long may it last! I had something so important to tell you but I can’t remember it. Oh dear. Tons of love, Sheila.
Despite having to work gruelling hours, Cairo was obviously fun and, with John away, Sheila loses no time in finding a new admirer to take her to Shepheards, dancing – she obviously loves dressing up – and to the Gezira Club (her temporary membership card is stuck in the scrapbook). Rosemary is still firmly in her sights now that she is on a roll, yet it doesn’t prevent her from sending her lovely gifts:
RNGHQ MEF 27/3/43
My dear Ma – I’ve just had your airgraph of 2nd March – very quick. Did you ever get the necklace? I did send it and you should have had it by now … I’ve just had an airgraph from Paul, who is in UK again, doing a course at Portsmouth. Very browned off he isn’t out here! He’ll be ashore till the end of the year. Funny, isn’t it, I’ve not seen him for nearly 2 years now, and he still seems keen to meet me again and keep up contacts. I like him. When I write I’ll tell him to look you up if he’s ever up your way. As regards life out here – I’m still very pleased with it. Ronnie Croker went back to Iraq last Saturday. We had several good evenings together before he left. I like him too! Very tall, rather thoughtful, and very much the soldier, dances well and is altogether rather after my own heart. John, alas, won’t be coming back here, this I rather feared, but the regiment has moved and he’ll have to join them. He may, however, manage to get down here on Monday for the night.
… I’ve had several airgraphs from Rosemary lately. I think it’s a great pity she can’t get her commission quicker, as I really do think her activities sound rather ‘cheapening’. Actually, I know this sounds awful, but she really sounds as if she’d go out with anyone in trousers, whatever he’s like, from what I can gather in her letters. Have you felt the same? … I wish Rosemary would get married, much more fitting of her to do so and then perhaps I could (not that I’m thinking of it at the moment!). One of the people on our staff is just like Jaap – same laugh and smile – it’s most disquieting! Tomorrow’s my half day, I do hope it’s fine, as last Sunday a horrible dust storm arose, blotted out all the sun, made us all filthy, and was, to all intents and purposes, exactly like a pea soup fog in London. It made us so depressed! With heaps of love, Sheila.
My last letter, unnumbered, was 41.
RNGHQ MEF 4/4
My dear Ma – … Well, life in Cairo is still very happy for me – most days I work 10 hours and when you come to think that it’s now pretty hot over 80 degrees in the shade and getting warmer. I don’t think this is at all bad! But I love my work and everyone is so nice – it’s a pleasure to be able to work under such conditions. I’m waiting for the bump, as usually one doesn’t get a lucky break without a snag or two. I work with 2 Pay Lieuts. (1 RN and 1 RNVR) and we laugh and joke all the time. Tho’ I work flat out without stopping from the time I start to the time I go home. The snag is, I suppose, that I’m terrified of the secretary but that keeps me up to the mark, so I suppose it’s a good thing. The dust is appalling, and we have plagues of ants, but I’ve a tin of Keatings handy and that soon kills them off. The day I wrote my last letter, which was delivered I hope, by an officer returning to the UK, I had been to the Musky with Flags and two other officers. First of all we had lunch at Gezira with another of the staff and then off we set in a taxi, Flags bought a grand pair of slippers, and we spent a minute or so in a perfume shop, but otherwise we didn’t buy much. The smell in this latter shop was heavenly. It costs £1 an ounce – undiluted. We did have fun, all smelling different perfumes till we didn’t know where we were. In the end we walked out without having bought any. You would love the amber shops, mummy, I go crazy about necklaces and have seen a natural turquoise one I’ve just got to have, tho heaven knows how much it is.
… Tonight and tomorrow I am going out with Ronnie Croker who was here on a course. He’s nice. John will be down on a course soon. He sent me a message from his mother. I quote ‘I am happy to hear of S.M. and always welcome your confidence (!!!) Maureen (his sister I knew as a Wren) says she remembers Sheila and thought a lot of her. Give her my best thanks for being so good to you’ !!! So I am approved of – but what a terrifying message! He goes on to say ‘it’s such a pity you are looking for someone with more than me!’ However, whatever happens we are still the best of friends, though if I don’t marry him, I feel awfully sorry for him as it must be dreadful to feel as he does and not attain his desires. He is now a captain … Ronnie has just been on the phone to say the Continental again tonight, and so what would I wear?
Short, I’ve just told him, (no, mummy not shorts) I shall wear a new nice blue-green one I’ve just had made (like this). Do you like it? And some new deep burgundy shoes like this, rather smart I think (!!!). I suppose you’ll think I spend too much on clothes (John does and says I should save more) but I have saved £5 which is in a new P/O Book and I do feel clothes are an investment. With lots of love to you all …
Sheila.
❖❖❖
The sinking of the Medway, referred to in the next letter, in fact took place in early July 1942, just off Port Said. She was sunk by two torpedoes fired from a German submarine. Sheila’s two great friends, Audrey Coningham and Esmé Cameron, were on board as signals officers. As Alexandria was preparing to evacuate for The Flap at the end of June 1942, they had been ordered to join the Medway:
RNGHQ, M.E.F. 14th April
My dear Ma – Many thanks for your card of the 1st received today (55) No. 52, and an airgraph … Every time you write R. seems to have or just going to have, leave. I’m so jealous, as I heard yesterday all C in C’s Cypher officers are having a week – as I’m out of that racket, I stand little as no chance of getting any at all. I feel I never shall see Palestine or Syria. At the moment I’ve got tonsillitis (of the walking variety) nothing at all serious tho’.
I went with Maureen to the Musky on Monday and have bought you some slippers, tho’ I’m now wondering whether they will be big enough. They are bright royal blue leather. I also got some leopard skin ones for Rosemary and will pack them up and despatch when I can find a box to put them in. We had more fun there – I also treated myself to a gazelle skin (all hairy – like the beast itself) handbag. Would you like one. Do please let me know at once and I will buy you one. I think I shall get you one anyway. They are most unusual at home, and I love them. I also bought for 12 piastres (about 2/4d) a native bangle of very heavy metal which I’m rather pleased with. In silver they are much more expensive about £1/4/-.
On Sunday morning I rose at the crack of dawn and went riding with one of the chaps I work with. I’ve had rather bad horses and I’m now so stiff I can hardly walk! In the evening I went out with Myrette Acfield, another Wren officer, who is public relations officer here and we went afterwards to a houseboat called ‘Puritan’ which is run on the profits of Gezira club for servicemen on leave. There we met some of the repatriated P.O.W.’s back from Italy. Most of the ones I met had been taken at Tobruk, what tales they had to tell!
I see the paper today mentions the loss at the ‘Medway’. Well now we can reveal more – there were 3 Wren officers on board. Esmé Cameron, Audrey Coningham and one other. The day we left Alex, Esmé came rushing into our room and packed up everything she had, down to her fur coat, and all Audrey’s things as well, as they were sailing that night. Off she went and off we went to Port Said. The following night just as I was getting into bed very very tired, a girl came to my room to tell me Esmé was downstairs and wanted to see me. The ‘Medway’ had been sunk!! I just couldn’t believe it – our most valuable ship with all s/m [submarine] torpedoes, spares and equipment for the E. Med on board. Frightful. However, I dashed downstairs to see Esmé looking bright sun burnt pink all over, absolutely filthy and without one thing in the world – everything having been lost. She’d been on watch when the ship was hit at 0830, had locked all the C.B.s [Citizen Bands – radios] in the chests, and with the 2 other girls, had clambered down the side of the ship, already heeling over, and had had to swim for it. They were in the water about half an hour, by which time the ship had sunk – a terrible sight they said – a very calm sea and the ship taking it’s last plunge. Audrey (she was always the cat that walked by itself – she came out with us) swam with the other 2 to a nearby destroyer, decided she didn’t like the look of it much, so turned round and made for another one. En route she met two sailors, one without a life belt and very exhausted, so she took hers off and helped them both to the ship. She was recommended for an immediate award of life saving medal – I noticed it in Levant orders last week. What times we live in! You see, Wrens do go to sea. Yes I shall miss the sea now I’m in Cairo, but I still like being here. Ronnie reappeared last Friday, his course having been put back a bit and we went to Gezira Club dancing …
With tons of love to you both,
Sheila
The film Desert Victory, referred to in the following letter, was a documentary charting the Battle of El Alamein, considered by many to be the turning point in the war, when the Allies eventually routed Rommel and his Afrika Korps. As well as explaining tactics, it contained footage of the battle itself, including some captured from the Germans, and of Churchill, Montgomery and other leaders. It also paid tribute to the men and women who played their part by working in factories at home, which made it extremely popular. King Farouk himself attended the premiere in Cairo, a rare occasion, as he was avowedly and openly anti-British. Indeed, most people believed that even though Egypt was nominally self-ruling, Sir Miles Lampson, later Lord Killearn, Ambassador to Egypt, was really in charge:
RNGHQ, M.E.F. 20 April
My dear Ma – as usual I’m completely adrift with numbering – I know I wrote roughly a week ago – 14th I think, when I’d a bad throat, well, as I couldn’t go sick, I celebrated by going gay and have recovered. I went to see an amateur rendering of ‘The Shine and the Rain’ with Maureen and some of her friends, but it wasn’t awfully good. The following evening we went to Gezira club and danced and the next evening Ronnie came back from his course and we made up a party of 4 and went to Shepheards to dance. It was great fun. Unfortunately he has departed for Persia indefinitely. Funny he knows Robin Chater isn’t it? I have had 2 letters from Robin this week who is still up there but hopes to be down sometime. I should like very much to see him again. On Sunday, Mary and I had arranged to go to the Pyramids and Idwal Humphrey (yes Welsh) who works in the same office as I do, (a Pay/Lieut. RN) wanted to come too, so we made up a three and went. The journey was made via tram, incredibly crowded – and when we got there we at once hired camels and proceeded up the hill in traditional style. They do lurch terribly, you have to cling on to a sort of pole on the saddle to stick on at all. Eventually we dismounted (the guide, too from a little donkey we had hired for him) and were conducted to a tomb belonging to some Prime Minister or other (who we were never quite sure, but possibly it was to do with King Cheops, because it was near the Cheops Pyramid).
Eventually we came to the tomb itself and of course had to clamber down doubled up – as it was a very narrow hole. The guide took us to the coffin which was a huge stone affair terribly tall, and then we climbed up and looked inside and there, according to the guide, was a ‘skellyton’. How we laughed! There was too! After this, crouching in the corner of the tomb by the light of two fluttering candles, he told our fortunes in the sand. I have 61 1/2 more years to live! More laughter! We then proceeded forth on camel past the Sphinx, did a bit of trotting (very bumpy) and took some snaps and then back to the Great Pyramid itself, which we’d promised ourselves we’d climb. It is 450 feet high, and the blocks are as big, and sometimes bigger, than a man. However, up we went. Mary gave up half way, but Idwal and I pushed on and eventually reached the top in under 20 mins, which is quite good. It really was an amazing sight.
You could see so clearly where desert ended and Delta began and of course you could see all Cairo, the Citadel, the Pyramids of Sakara, some 8 miles away, and so on. I was quite frightened of falling off, but the top is a flat surface of about 15–20 square feet. There were also on top an American and English RAF officer, and a funny little Syrian who climbed to the top of the flag post (much to my terror!) and insisted afterwards in taking lots of photos of us with my camera, for which I was very grateful as I discovered afterwards he was a professional photographer. Once down again, we had a large tea at the Mena House hotel, which I am sure had never seen such tramps, all in shorts, beneath its portals on a Sunday afternoon. Now, of course, we are all terribly stiff, but it was certainly worth it! … Tomorrow 4 of us are going to see ‘Desert Victory’ – I am longing to see it. Actually, I have also been invited to go by some more people tonight, but of course, can’t see it twice. It is showing in 3 cinemas at once here. Tomorrow, also, I am having lunch with my Big White Chief [Admiral Ramsay], rather awe-inspiring, but he is a dear and in the afternoon we have been asked (Wrens I mean) to take part in a quiz over the wireless, but as I’m working don’t expect I’ll be able to go! Oh yes, life is very pleasant.
I have had 2 airgraphs from you lately Mummy. I feel such a pig writing and telling you all the lovely things I do when you all at home aren’t having such a good time. You would love it out here, I think, in Alex anyway. I am in whites again, much to everyone’s amazement, but I am not cold and enjoy the sun – will send photos when printed. Tons of love Sheila.
In Cairo, Sheila meets Bruce Booth-Mason for the first time, then a major, and later a captain, in the Indian Cavalry. He is destined to become one of Sheila’s serious boyfriends, competing for her affections with John Pritty. He was a completely different character to John: considerate and kind and, above all, calm. We can only guess at how the romance blossomed, but taking a girl dancing in the moonlight at the Mena House Hotel with the pyramids as backdrop is a sure way to a girl’s heart. John is predictably possessive and jealous. Meanwhile Sheila is working hard with Admiral Ramsay on ‘Operation Husky’, the Sicily invasion:
RNGHQ 5/5/43
My dear Mama –
… Cairo is getting very hot and you can now go out in the evenings without a coat at the risk of gippy tummy! I have been working abnormally hard and have had to ask for someone to help me – the superintendent excelled himself by sending us a 2nd officer who, luckily, I know and I like very much. However, she is only temporary as the situation might have been rather awkward. What a time I had last week – again I felt ashamed at enjoying myself so much – On Tuesday I went to Shepheards with Idwal Humphreys the A/Sec I work with, Maureen Brennan and another Paymaster who works with us – on Wednesday the film and the following evening found me at Shepheards again – this time with Ula Bowing (the 2/O) and 2 friends of hers, one very tall and one very short. We had also played tennis all the afternoon till 5. The following day Idwal and I went sailing at the Yacht Club, and there we were entered for a race! Of course, this terrified me, as I’m no experienced crew. However, Idwal showed me the ropes and off we set! It was such fun and we were getting on really well, when on rounding the first buoy, we hooked on to somebody else, and had to withdraw! We were annoyed. However, we had a good sail on our own and went back to work at 5. In the evening Ula and I had arranged to go to Mena House Hotel (near the Pyramids) to dance, with Bruce Booth Mason (a vague relation of Diana Booth’s) and an unknown quantity whom we’d specified had to be tall, dark and handsome. Well he turned out to be a Major in the Indian Cavalry regiment, and the party turned out to be the most hilarious one I’ve ever been to. We drove out there in a taxi, it’s about 10 miles and as soon as we got there started dinner. The dance was held in a huge Moorish style ballroom with tables all round – well, I’ve never laughed so much in all my life, they were the funniest pair, in fact quite disgraced myself with ribald laughter! We are planning to go again when there is a moon so that we can go and scan the Pyramids in traditional style. On Monday I had arranged to go sailing with Bruce, but our plans fell by the wayside and I came back here to Connaught House champing at the bit. A minute or so later a knock came at my door, and was told someone was waiting to see me outside. That someone turned out to be John! What an afternoon we had, nothing but arguments and disputes as to my behaviour since I have been in Cairo ending up by a most unfond farewell – to my intense amusement 10 minutes after he had taken his leave, a parcel containing a sheaf of four huge lilies on one stalk appeared for me – stating that lilies were usually given at funerals! How we laughed. However, the great high and mighty reappeared the next day full of apologies for his behaviour!
Yesterday afternoon Ula and I had lunch at the club and then I went on to the Yacht Club and sailed with Bruce and another man and we all got soaking! No races this time, tho! Tonight and tomorrow and the next night I shall be out with John and tomorrow afternoon I am having lunch and a sunbathe session at Gezira with one of our staff and Friday I am duty secretary which entails working the best part of 12 hours at a stretch!
… My scrapbook I am keeping is getting on so well and is nearly full. It’s filled with snaps and cuttings and everything under the sun. Oh yes, I have had my hair cut yet again. Really I shall look like a convict any minute now, but those things must be done! Now I have got to rush out and get tickets for a thing called Polish Parade, which is an all Polish revue on this week, John and I hope to go this week. So no more – with very much love,
from Sheila
RNGHQ MEF
11/5
My dear Mama – I’ve just had your airgraph of the 10th April, but have had no mail from you for ages.
How nice the garden must be and I wish I was there to see it – you would love the flowers here – Just now the shops and street corners are banked with roses, carnations, arums, delphiniums, stocks and all sorts of gorgeously coloured flowers – men pester you in the streets to buy them late at night even. But we get no green – no grass or fields – just blazing colours and sand. Last Monday John suddenly appeared from out of the blue – on a course till Friday. I’m afraid we didn’t have a hilariously happy time, because all the time he was attacking me because I have been having such a gay time in Cairo. I’m afraid he expected me never to go out at all and to sit at home waiting for him! I tried to explain that I couldn’t do this after all, working as I do sometimes ten hours a day and with very little free time – I must enjoy myself while I can and get away from work and the YWCA. However, nothing seemed to be any good, and it all ended up in what one might call a free fight – him struggling with me to pull off my scarab ring which he gave me and which he succeeded in doing – nearly breaking my little finger into the bargain and me giving him a sound slap on the face for his pains. We did not part friends I can assure you. It all seems such a pity, but I couldn’t end my days married to someone so impassioned with jealousy so maybe it’s just as well. I have many regrets, now, especially when I look back on the tremendously happy times we had in Alex which are now a closed book. I often wonder if I shall ever go back there. Now I am away and it is so hot here (has been over 100 degrees in the shade last week) I remember our lovely bathing parties, riding, and visits to Eve Barber all so well. She is coming up here to stay next week, I hope. I have been sailing again this week, twice with Idwal Humphrey, whom I work with, and once with Bruce Booth Mason, in the army and a vague relation of Diana’s. He is the most amusing boy – Ula and I, and he and another person called Waddylove (yes, it’s true) all went to see a Polish Revue on Saturday – very good. Ending up at Shepheards with champagne and sandwiches at midnight. It had been the hottest day of the year so far and all I’d had to eat since breakfast was an ice cream, punctuated by glasses of lemon and orange! We’d had dinner, but that mostly consisted of fruit cup, you just can’t eat in the heat. We all laughed so – I have been working hard under not so ideal conditions, rather at loggerheads with my sec, and to laugh makes all the difference. Please apologise to R. that I haven’t written – and explain that as well as having been out a lot, I have been working sometimes 10 hours a day which makes one rather dead beat in the heat! …
With very much love to you all,
Sheila
RNGHQ MEF
19/5
My dear Mama – … I’m delighted you’ve had the 2nd parcel and there should be another on the way if I remember rightly. We have all laughed and laughed at having to cut the sugar in half with a saw! How did you like Desert Victory. I thought it was just wonderful – and relived it all once more – though, of course, we weren’t there, we were all so very near and I remember well on the night of the 21st October (the night it began) hearing the guns roaring away in the distance. For some days we’d known in the Cypher Office ‘something’ was in the air, and that was what it was! The same thing applied to the landing in N. Africa. Even way back in July we’d known of the mysterious ‘thing’ all very hush, and so it had grown bigger and bigger till we knew what to expect. Of course I had to be ill at the crucial moment, so that I wasn’t on watch when all the exciting signals came through. I remember well the VAD coming in and announcing with glee what had happened, and I, with boredom and a feeling of being very much in the background, answering ‘Yes, I know!’
… I have heard no more from John so expect he really has cut me off with it this time. Well, maybe it’s for the best – we were temperamentally very ill suited. It seems a pity though! … Tons of love S.
June 1943 marked the transition of Operation Husky from planning to action. Admiral Ramsay, in charge of the British Eastern Naval Task Force, was himself transferred to Malta, where the landings were being co-ordinated, and where the Admiral of the Fleet, Sir Andrew Cunningham, had already shifted. Sheila’s promotion and mooted move to Kilindini are therefore unsurprising in this context:
RNGHQ MEF 2/6
My dear Ma – many thanks for No 63 which has just arrived. I’m glad you got the snaps and that you liked them. Well, I have got rather a surprise for you, I am now a second officer! Isn’t it amazing? I will tell you all about it, ages ago, last February or so the PCO [Principal Cypher Officer] had told me I was being recommended but naturally I rather pooh poohed the idea as ridiculous. When I was just off to Cairo, the Superintendent told me I had had a very good report and that they would try for my 2nd stripe – however after being here for some little while I quite gave up hope, as I am working for an over efficient man who gives me a complete inferiority complex and makes me feel an absolute boob! Well one day I was looking through a batch of signals and read one saying that I was to be promoted + immediately transferred to Kilindini – relief being sent from there. What a fright – as I’m not particularly keen to go anywhere much hotter than this. However, a signal was sent saying they wished to retain me here, but as recommendation had already been sent for promotion to 2/O, it was requested I should become 2/O and reappointed – and Admiralty agreed!! I really am rather pleased as there are only 2 other 2/O Cypherers out here, and one of them is a P.C.O. – I do feel, though, that although I have worked hard (and dammnably so) I’m not the most efficient person there is, but I can do things awfully fast – hoping hard I haven’t made a mistake. It is really a very good thing working for someone as efficient as I do, I just can’t afford to be slack – every little point is noticed – BUT I never get any encouragement, which would go an enormous long way in the middle of all the toil. But I don’t care how hard I work so long as I can help. What does worry me terribly is that there are others (or only one, really) who do deserve promotion – Anne Halliday (now Bamber) being THE one. She is most terribly efficient and conscientious – better than I am I know – and my senior, too, she has been rather done out of promotion by moving around a bit, and I know she will feel it dearly. Mary Henie will, too – but she isn’t really as good, or conscientious as Anne and I am very sorry about it. Others in Alex will be furious – but I don’t care about them.
… With very much love to you and Pa (who promised to write and hasn’t!) Sheila.
Sheila: ‘the planning’ (quote from scrapbook).
The following letter was received on 20 June. Scribbled on it in my grandmother’s writing are the words ‘Brought by Gen Montgomery’. Montgomery worked closely with Ramsay in planning the Sicily invasions: Ramsay was in charge of the naval strategy and Montgomery of the deployment of the Eighth Army once landed. Initially he had rejected the American plan, which ‘breaks every commonsense rule of practical battlefighting … and has no hope of success and it should be completely re-cast’. Indeed, the eventual plan for the invasion was changed and followed Montgomery’s suggestion to concentrate the attack on the south-east area only, to avoid dispersing the troops. A rather fitting way to learn of her daughter’s promotion:
6/6/ 43
My dear Mummy –
… I don’t suppose you have had my air letter card yet, but I am now Second Officer Mills, much to my amusement – because it wasn’t exactly anticipated. I have told you fully about it in my letter card posted 2 days ago, no 3 … Really, this is such a surprise – I can’t believe it.
I have made up the quarrel with John, and he has given me my scarab ring back. He came up all unexpectedly last night, and though we started off badly, ended up all right. So that is a good thing. I can’t bear these often quarrels. Life is too short. I am on the scout for your lipstick, and hope to be able to get it and send it on this week.
It must be very lovely at home now – here strange to say it is still beautifully cool. We have started dancing in the open air, though and everything is as summery as it possibly could be. My only regret is I have so little time to wear cotton dresses and for swimming etc. We do miss Sidi Bishr beach very much, as you can guess – but still, Cairo has its advantages.
With very much love to you and Daddy,
Sheila
xx (one each)
RNGHQ MEF 21/6
My dear Ma and Pa – it is now the longest day of the year and I am Duty Secretary, but as I’ve no key (Idwal having promised to come in early, but hasn’t) I’m not working awfully hard as everything is locked up! Did you get the parcel, by the way – It should have reached you by now, and also a letter written a bit earlier on, which I sent by someone [General Montgomery] travelling home by air … – I’ve thought quite a bit about what I should do if the war suddenly ended (I don’t think it will yet – but still!). If I get the chance of staying on in the WRNS I certainly would, as if I wasn’t married, I’d far rather be in the service than in a civilian job. I always did hate offices anyway – and as a Wren I’d have a fairly good chance of seeing the world. However, it’s really too far ahead to speculate what we’ll all do! … On Friday I went to Ula’s birthday party, which was held at a new place between Giza and Mena called Auberge des Pyramides – a very good band, quite large floor too, but rotten food. It’s all in the open, and with a bright full moon above, it was really rather fun – but without the moon I don’t know what it would be like – as there were very few lights. The following evening, Saturday, I went out to dinner with Bruce to the Mena House Hotel (I sent you a snap of it). It was just perfect, dining and dancing in the moonlight by the side of a swimming pool, all very gay – at about midnight we decided to walk up the hill and see the Pyramids – it was rather glorious – you walk out of the hotel garden and up a hill which slopes round to the foot of the Big Pyramid that I climbed – and all in the bright moonlight – beautifully cool. Yesterday I was frightfully tired tho’ after all this gaiety, but this afternoon Idwal and I are both working early and if there is not much work to do, we are going to leave at about six and go for a sail – It’s really not awfully hot yet, tho’ last year at this time it was boiling, and we were just preparing for the flap! I told you I made it up with John, didn’t I, and that I am now in possession of the ring once more? Robin writes from Iraq that he may be on a short course in these parts fairly soon – in the meantime I have to set about buying him a new signals side cap, and a pair of sunglasses – I should like to see him again very much. Mails from UK have been generally very bad. Well here comes Idwal so it’s work for me now. He’s just had his hair cut and looks quite different – it was curling round his cap at lunchtime! Heaps of love, Sheila.
The following letter was written the day after Admiral Ramsay sailed from Malta on the headquarters ship, Antwerp, to witness the convergence of the convoys of big ships from both Europe and the Middle East, and landing craft from Sfax (Tunisia), Tripoli and Malta as they headed for landfall on the south-east coast of Sicily on 10 July, when Syracuse fell to British forces. On 19 July after the success of the Sicily landings, Admiral Ramsay’s appointment came to an end and he returned to England, where he became pivotal in planning the D-Day landings. Mussolini was to fall only a few days later on 25 July.
As for the campaign itself, it was led by the two most able Allied commanders – General Patten of the Seventh Army and General Montgomery in charge of the Eighth. It is remembered as a shining example of the value of sea and air power working together, something that had been rather lacking in the previous North African campaigns, mainly due to Italian and German dominance of the Mediterranean. It was, from a naval perspective, the greatest assembly of ships ever massed at one time, and it took the Italians completely by surprise.
It was not all plain sailing, however. The weather deteriorated very suddenly just before the primary assault and there was much debate around postponing the attack. In the event it was decided to continue, a decision that was vindicated despite the atrocious conditions suffered by the landing forces, often waist- and shoulder-deep in treacherous, choppy water. The success was due in no small part to the meticulous planning of the assault, mainly carried out by Admiral Ramsay and his team, including Second Officer Mills, in a dingy house in Cairo.
With Ramsay’s departure, Sheila’s role in Husky is over – she is still not able to talk about it – and she finds herself back in Alexandria, and it’s rather an anticlimax:
C in C Levant 10/7
My dear Ma – I wonder if you got my EFM saying I had changed my address once more, and am now back in Alex again. I knew I should have to leave Cairo fairly soon, but I did hope very much I wouldn’t have to return to Alex. However, here I am, back in C in C’s Cypher Office, this time as a duty Cypher Officer with a watch of my own – and again I am living in a convent. Not Notre Dame de Sion, but Sacré Coeur, which is nearly on the sea front and quite a long way away from the town and shops. I am thankful not to be at the Rue Rassafah – 50 Wren officers is too much for me, and we are only 7 here! I have just discovered that my promotion dates back from 29 April, and that it is a permanent one, unlike so many 2/O’s out here. There has been mass promotion on account of a new order saying that all heads of watches are to be 2/O’s but mine came through before that and for an entirely different reason – which will be divulged later …
On my return from Cairo I was promised some leave, but just as I had decided to go to Beirut and had been vaccinated, a phone call from the fleet signal office bade me go on duty at 1300 that day! And I’ve been working ever since. However, the secretary has been most kind and has promised I may go off exactly when I like for 10 days. I think he was rather terrified I should fall by the wayside after my strenuous time in Cairo, but I seem to have survived so far. I’m afraid I find this rather slow and would like to be out of it – but one mustn’t grumble I suppose.
Bruce came down to see me this week – we didn’t have time to do much as he had to be away again quickly. I haven’t seen John for a month or 6 weeks – I’m afraid he’ll never be quite normal. I’ve had a couple of letters from him but on the same old lines – his sister Maureen whom I knew at Rosyth is terribly ill with high blood pressure and may not recover. It really is awfully sad. She is very young and awfully attractive.
… I am hoping to go on leave in 10 day’s time – to Beirut. Unfortunately nobody can come with me as it’s rather difficult to arrange and I don’t want to let it slide too long.
With heaps of love,
Sheila
Sheila did manage to go on leave, but unaccompanied. As she writes elliptically to her mother in a series of letters written on 13, 14 and 27 July:
Of course, I’ve never even told you where I am going, and why. Well, it is quite a long story, but it all evolves from the fact that I have been working very hard in Cairo on the staff of Admiral Ramsay, which should convey quite a lot to you, and now I have been given four days’ leave in return for my labours … I am very thrilled at the idea of going to another country – I shall really see two, because Beirut is in Syria and I have to go through Palestine to get there. It is extremely beautiful up there – high mountains and hills, and I hope very much to be able to go into the Lebanon to see the cedars.
She set off from Alexandria towards the end of July, following the same route as when they were evacuated during The Flap, enjoying a plate of egg and chips in Sidi Gabr en route. The journey involved going by train to Port Said and thence to Palestine. She had interesting travelling companions: first a gunner officer, who had been at Sfax, in Tunisia, and the scene of heavy fighting, who had interesting things to tell:
Apparently there are quite a lot of French people who had olive farms there before the war where they used to spend the odd weekend over from France. When things got a bit hot in France, they decided to go and live in Tunisia and there they have been ever since. They are terribly snobbish, funny as it may seem and hate the Jews more than the enemy, in fact, they attribute all the trouble in France to the Jews. They have very few clothes, their shoes are rough ones made by the natives, but funnily enough, they had quite a bit of makeup. I can’t think where they got it from, though. Contrary to my imaginations, it is hot desert up there, and the most beautiful flowers grow there in Spring time, two and three feet high and they smell marvellous.
Then there was Miss Roberts, an ancient missionary who ‘seemed far too old to hold such a job, but she was very alert and alive … just wouldn’t stop talking!’ And, finally, a nursing sister, who had been working in a mobile unit in the forward areas, ‘even as far as Tunisia – so thrilling it sounded, I was quite jealous’.
Train travel was not luxurious, and Sheila ended up sleeping on the floor ‘lying on half my rug and with my shoes, handbag and towel as an assortment of pillows’. The ‘cloakroom’ was ‘a frightful place ... but I had a quick wash, and returned to the compartment cleaner, but a little sick inside’.
On arriving in Lydda, she disembarks:
… to have a cup of tea at the NAAFI buffet across the line – This was a very primitive place, but we managed to buy some tea which we drank from cut down beer bottles and bought the morning paper. I was most annoyed to see that they’d left out Admiral Ramsay from among the pictures of the force commanders who have been taking part in the invasion of Sicily. I was glad, though, to read that all has been going so well, particularly in our sector.
Sheila would have been relieved that the naval losses were small compared to the army’s, with under 1,000 dead and wounded respectively from the US and British navies. The Seventh Army took 12,000 casualties, and the Eighth 9,000, out of a total of over 250,000 men. The navy, in particular, performed superbly – several types of new landing craft were used for the first time – and deployed vessels on dummy runs to divert the enemy’s attention to the real battle plan. Tactics such as a decoy dead body with top-secret papers were used to mislead the enemy further, with the result that the attack on Sicily was an outstanding success. Although the Italians did not surrender immediately – the Germans would not allow them – they did finally surrender the fleet on 10 September, the sight that Sheila describes in her letter of 18 September, below.
From Lydda to Haifa via the Sinai desert but, approaching Haifa:
… now the countryside was completely different, there were hills in the distance, the immediate surroundings were undulating, and there were groves and groves of orange trees, all a delightfully vivid green, with shiny glossy leaves. The ground was covered in grass, rather parched, and thick green weeds, and now and again we passed a village, on a hill, or in a valley, but looking far cleaner and less dusty than any Arab settlement in Egypt – where they really are the lowest, filthiest dwellings you ever could find. It was delightful – such a change from the Delta, which is as flat as the Fens and very dull … And so to Haifa, it very much reminded me of Cape Town – with hills in the background, an enormous bay, and behind that, in the mist, more hills.
After a late breakfast in the Officers’ Club, she managed to get a lift in a courier’s car to Beirut, where her great friends Esmé Cameron (who had escaped from the sinking Medway) and Kay Way, stationed there, had not received her telegram and were not expecting her. No matter – she was soon installed in WRNS officers’ mess.
Nevertheless she had a high old time seeing her old friends from Scotland days: ‘lunch and tea with Bert, bathed again when most unfortunately my bathing dress collapsed and Bert had to come to the rescue in public, with no towels!’; moonlight barbeques; swimming in mountain streams; canoeing; dinner up the mountain in Aley, ‘good hotel and excellent food. The fruit was so heavenly, cherries, plums, peaches, pears. The hills by moonlight were really magnificent and it was so cool up there.’ It was ‘topped by a visit to the Patisserie Suisse for a chocolate mud (a glorious cream - ice and chocolate affair) … the next day I came back to Alex. Short but it was a grand leave and such a change.’
On her return at the end of July, she was ‘greeted with 10 letters including … one from Sicily written 3 days after the invasion – saying they were still leading the lives of gentlemen and even playing cards every evening!’ This must have been from John as she refers to it later.
The next letter refers to the jubilant return of the ships involved in ferrying Montgomery’s Eighth Army to Sicily, including John and Bruce. A select few were invited by Rear Admiral Troutbridge to celebrate aboard HMS Bulolo – under the invitation Sheila has written ‘A grand party – Bulolo had just come back from the Sicily invasion’. No wonder they were all in party mood!
C in C Levant
5/8/43
My dear Ma – …Yes I am back in Alex once more and in a way quite glad now I have settled down. I have been having a very gay week starting off with a cocktail party given in one of the ships here, as you know, we are usually not allowed in them at all out here – but this time the Superintendent let us all go (and went myself as well!) It was so absolutely grand for me as I knew nearly everyone there – because most of them had worked with me in Cairo. Oh it was marvellous to see them all again and what a lot we had to talk about. It was a real peacetime affair. On one of the starboard upper decks, bunting and coloured fairy lamps hanging everywhere and plenty to drink and eat, music playing softly over the amplifier – everything just marvellous! I had to be just dragged away to catch the boat ashore, there was so much to see and hear about. The following day I went out to tea and dinner with the Vegdi’s and we bathed from their hut at Cleopatra, after which we ate the most enormous dinner of chicken and then I returned to my convent, for night duty. Sunday, the following day, was most eventful. To begin with, previously I’d been to visit the SPCA with Ivan [the Barbers’ Hungarian friend, who lived with them], for his dog had been poisoned and wanted to choose another – there I saw an adorable wee scrap of a white dog, very miserable and decided to have it. Lenna Hardy who is in charge of these Quarters was away leaving me in charge so I took the plunge. Well, they sent him on the wrong day and he arrived just as I was going to bed. When I examined him I discovered he was one mass of fleas and ticks, and even tho’ I bathed him and smothered him in everything under the sun, I couldn’t get rid of the beastly clinging creatures, so in the end I had to return him for further cleaning, poor wee fellow. (I have him now, and has bucked up no end – calls himself James). Well, after this there was no time for bed, so I dressed and met Audrey and Idwal Humphrey and we went to the Yacht Club for lunch to be joined by one ‘Guns’ a really delightful person, who is a great dear … The next day, Tuesday, Barbara and Marion and I went out to the Carlton cabaret with Idwal and Guns (one man short unfortunately) where we wined, dined and danced. They are both so nice we did enjoy it so, and yesterday the three of us had lunch with Capt. McCrum, Warren Tute [a rather well-known writer], and Idwal at the Beau Rivage. They are the proud possessors of 2 Jeeps, in which we roared up and down the Corniche at umpteen miles an hour – hats flying, hair blowing. It’s all so friendly, we meet at Unica’s for coffee in the morning, then do a bit of shopping – a drink in Maxim’s bar maybe, and then lunch at the Yacht Club, all whizzing around in Jeeps – 8 of us yesterday, of course we work in between times but it’s such a rest cure after Cairo …
Tons of love, S
The next letter contains the first specific mention of ‘the assault’ in any of the letters. As it was in the Illustrated London News – no doubt hailed as a great victory – Sheila would be more at liberty to mention it. Despite enjoying Alexandria, she is hoping to rejoin her naval colleagues back in Cairo:
C in C Levant
13/8/43
My dear Ma –
I haven’t had any mail from you this week – and I’ve certainly had very little time for writing letters, but now all our friends have gone away again. So I can get down to it. Oh every possible occasion we’ve been down on the beach bathing – Captain McCrum, Warren Tute and Idwal used to call for us in the jeep, and away we’d fly along the Corniche at breakneck speed – On Sunday we drove out to Aboukir – or just beyond – we were tearing along at about 60 mph when there was a howl from Captain McCrum who’d lost a pound note from his pocket in the wind. Eventually we pulled up and backed to where it had fallen in the middle of a canal! Out they all jumped and threw sticks in to the water to try and rescue it but alas it sank – much to Capt. McCrum’s chagrin, and everyone got awfully dirty and muddy. Warren nearly fell in and it is very dangerous to do that in muddy water as you can catch a dreadful disease called ‘bilharzia’.
The following day, Monday, Barbara, Marion and I gave a cocktail party for remaining members of our Cairo staff left in Alex – this we held on a large balcony overlooking the sea and the setting sun – about 20 people came including the C in C’s secretary. When it eventually got dark, we decided to go on to dinner and dance at the Carlton, and ten of us piled into one jeep and away we flew. It was so crowded I had to stand up and when we got there I don’t think I’ve ever been so hot in my life. I was just in a bath of sweat! But my goodness, it was fun. The following day, Capt. McCrum, Warren and Guns all departed to Cairo – leaving Idwal here. We’ve bathed with him a lot and 2 nights ago Marion, + he + I and I all went to see the ‘The Young Mr Pitt’ but now he’s gone, so we are on our own again. It has been just grand having them all here. It’s so difficult to explain, but they are all real people, friendly, amusing in the extreme and just grand fun to have about the place. A great tragedy of my life was that James, my dog, disappeared and no one could find him anywhere, even after ringing up the municipality, seeing the local police, etc. I gave up hope – only to be rung up by Lenna 2 days ago to say he had been found and was being looked after by a civilian cyphering at Ras el Din, about 10 miles from here and he was returned to us this morning, terribly pleased to see us again and looking much fitter. Apparently the women had given him 3 baths in 4 days!
‘A fruitless quest – by Warren Tute and Idwal – for Captain McCrum’s £1 note, lost from a jeep.’
… Tonight I am having supper with Eve and Clement – a terrible thing has happened. Ivan’s beautiful mare, Belle Aurore, has died. As his dog has just died of poisoning, I feel sure there must be foul play somewhere, but will hear all about it tonight.
I am hoping to get a draft from C in C’s to join all my Cairo people again. So if you get a cable with a new address, don’t be surprised. It is very difficult to work these changes, and it’s quite on the cards it won’t come off, but we are doing all we can. I have had a long descriptive letter of life in Sicily from John, and also (but not so recent) some from Bruce in the same lines. Most interesting it is to get first hand knowledge from the army and then to talk to the Navy who have actually been there at the assault and see all their photos. Please could you either tell me the date or forward me a copy of the Sphere or Illustrated London news which tells of the assault? Heaps of love S.
C in C Levant 18/8/43
My dear Mummy – …Well, we are still pretty busy here and life is good here. Yesterday I went on a picnic with Eve and Ivan, another Wren officer and 2 Poles. We drove past Aboukir in Ivan’s caravan and then stopped by the side of the road for lunch under the shade of a palm. Scores of small Arab children came up, and watched with solemn eyes. Eventually, we encouraged Eve to speak to them in Arabic, she didn’t want to encourage them too much and they are very charming. When asked, they said that Eve was 12 years old, Diana 10 and me 8! They guessed in the right order anyway. We asked one of them if she would like to come home with us, and she said no, she didn’t want to be a slave. When told she wouldn’t be she said well, her mother would beat her if she went! This particular child looked very European, with longish fair plaits, and a face of great character. She said she wanted a gold watch and some nail varnish like Diana’s! After we’d had lunch, Ivan, I and the 2 Poles went in for a bathe – the sea was very rough and we had a strenuous time jumping the enormous rollers. When eventually we had to go home, there was a great send off from them all! Although only about 10 or 12 on average these Arab children are terribly grownup for their age and their philosophy most sound. They told Eve that if she wanted to take one of them away, she must take a baby because they’d all formed their minds and were settled. But why, they said, didn’t she take one of the nice gentlemen with her for a husband and then she could have children of her own! Apparently when Ivan was washing up, they asked him which was his wife and when he said he wasn’t married they wouldn’t believe him until he said ‘Do you think I’d be doing the washing up myself if I had a wife?’ To which they all said ‘that is true’. In the evening Captain McCrum and Warren Tute who had come down from Cairo, came to take Lenna and Barbara out (I was Duty Officer so couldn’t go!) it was grand to see them again we met them again this morning at Unica’s for iced coffee and now they are jeeping their way to Palestine for a quick call. I’m so jealous! This morning I was at the dressmakers and am having my beautiful flame coloured Damascus brocade made into an evening frock. It is a wonderful colour, shot with gold, and small birds and flowers all over it.
‘On the beach near Aboukir: Eve Barber, Diana Stokes and Edward something, a Polish captain. With Arab children.’
I went to a shop and bought you a length of blue green woollen material for a winter frock which I want you to make up. I think you will like the colour and I’m sure it will suit you, now please don’t give it away to Rosemary. It is for you. It is lying on the end of my bed now, together with a large carton of French Fern powder, Velouty, 2 lbs of icing sugar, and a large wad of wire wool which I’m told is very hard to get. All these will be sent off as soon as I can find a suitable box to put them in and they are ALL for you. The last parcel I sent you was taken home by one of our staff, together with all our planning orders for the invasion of Sicily, rather funny. Capt. McCrum did up special bags marked most secret, etc. and sent them as official mail. Old Moore, the secretary, disapproved and sent his by the hand of the officer, and his were the only ones seized by customs! How we laughed. It’s a great shame really. The letter I wrote to you on June 7th (I think) was taken by General Montgomery himself, as he worked in close cooperation with our staff, and was flying home to London for a conference or something. I saw him once in our buildings – small and unprepossessing, but with an iron look, the whole show has gone so wonderfully well, it makes one wonder what next? With very much love. Sheila.
Robin Chater seems to be making a late run on the outside in the race to win Sheila’s affections. Of all three men, she has known him the longest as they came out on the ship together, but he is also the youngest. Sheila, meanwhile, is bored with the downgraded job in Alexandria, despite having a ‘plum’ role and is champing at the bit to get a transfer. She never lost this characteristic of always feeling that she was missing out on something better, and that the grass is always greener elsewhere. I think it emanates from her deep insecurity as a child:
C in C Med Levant!!
28/8
My dear Ma – No home mail this week. Life is quiet again here, but quite pleasant … 2 days ago Ivan drove Clement, Eve and I, plus James out to Amriya – this is fairly far west, the most I had ever been and not far from the battlefields. James and I sat in the dicky and nearly fell out the road was so bumpy. Eventually we turned down by the edge of the salt lake, crossed a rocky ridge, and then ran parallel to the sea along a road bordered with fig plantations. We turned right through an Army Camp and over an incredibly sandy road, until we could go no further. Ivan, Eve and I then walked the last 100 yards to the sea. What a lovely sight it was – the sand all white, the sky deep violet, and the sea a glorious transluscent turquoise shade, deepening towards the horizon. Eve and I didn’t bathe as we hadn’t our costumes, but Ivan went in in his pants! Eventually we drove back to Mex where we had a magnificent fish lunch at about 3 o’clock! My arms were terribly tanned after it all and I considered myself pretty brown before that! … I have just received the most lovely bracelet from Robin as my birthday present. It is Persian – minute pictures painted on bone squares with rounded tops which are set in frames of silver. All is done by hand, and the pictures themselves aren’t more than an inch square – all country scenes, men riding horses, bathing, threshing, hunting, milking cows etc. I love it. It arrived beautifully packed in a rose wooden box, sealed in black and wrapped in a piece of khaki turban! He hopes to get a move from Iraq, the staff college hasn’t materialised, but I think it is a good thing really, as he is far too young to sit on the staff in Cairo or elsewhere boring. Bruce and John wrote a lot from Sicily – the former enjoys life terrifically. He is a very cheerful, jolly type and never lets anything get him down. I’ve never met anyone so patient and kind. For I used to keep him waiting hours some evenings in Cairo when we were going out, and then when I was ready, often I was too tired to go out dancing or do what we had arranged and never once did he grumble. John, as ever, is still a wee bit difficult. I don’t think he’d ever be different. He says he will still wait for me to marry me, but I haven’t held out any hope for him at all, as he really is so childish, and fiendishly jealous. There is a terrific buzz at the moment that we will all be home by the time our 2 years is up. I personally don’t see how they can possibly work this – what I feel as regards myself is, that I’d hate to return to a Methil kind of job, as a 2/O and a D.C.O. [Deputy Cypher Officer]. I’d probably be sent to Greenock or Liverpool as head of a watch, but I’d hate that. Naturally I would like to stay in combined ops but it might be difficult to get in. Alternatively, I could return home, have leave and then agitate for further service abroad, India or somewhere. I can’t bear vegetating. C in C Levant Cypher Office is an appalling place to be stuck in – as a D.C.O. it is imagined and quite rightly so, the plum of cyphering jobs on the station – but if I could get out to a more interesting job elsewhere, I’d go like a shot. I saw the C in C’s secretary last week and he has promised to put me first on the list of officers transferring to India. There may not ever arise the opportunity but if it does turn up, I wouldn’t hesitate to go. I have had my hair cut again and look far better. It was so thick before. This afternoon, Barbara and I are bound for the beach. Some friends of hers are picking us up at four. We do night watch tonight. I rarely find them tiring these days. It’s far quieter doing watch than working days like we did in Cairo. A very self centred letter. I’m sorry!
Lots of love,
Sheila
They are completely up to date with news of the Italy landings, which is hardly surprising; as a Cypher Officer, Sheila would see all the messages that were going through and of course be involved in co-ordinating the landings themselves. She kept the original cable dated 11 June, marking the first success in the Sicily campaign, from the Italian Admiral Pareas, ‘Beg to surrender through lack of water’ and the reply from the British, ‘Surrender of Lampedusa accepted from second-in-command who fully agreed with terms. Governor not yet contacted, soldiers landed’:
C in C Levant 3/9
My dear Ma and Pa –
… This morning we went to a service at Ras el Jin (HMS Nile Naval Base and HQ of Rear Admiral Alex). It was to celebrate – if you can say such a thing – 4 years anniversary of the outbreak of war, and was held in the open. Lots of Wrens were there, naval ratings, marines, Navy and Army officers. Unfortunately the man who played the piano played all the wrong tunes so we all got in a dreadful muddle … Today we have heard that the Eighth Army have landed in Italy – good old Monty and well done the Eighth Army. That will be all the people we know in Cairo once more, Bruce and John I expect … No, I have not had the parcel yet, Ma. I do hope you did it up well as they get terribly buffeted about. I packed most carefully and sent to Robin a pair of Polaroid glasses he asked me to get him and he now writes and says they arrived almost falling to bits and that if I hadn’t wrapped them in cotton wool they would have broken to bits and that only to Persia! …
Lots of love to you both
Sheila
Italy surrendered on 8 September; Mussolini had been deposed and the new government had made peace with the Allies, although the Nazis were still entrenched despite Hitler ordering Rommel to concentrate on defending northern France. Nevertheless Germany’s defensive positions, the weather and the mountainous terrain proved too difficult for the Allies to overcome, and it was not until the Battles for Monte Cassino between January and May, 1944, that the Allies began to make headway further north.
In Alexandria, the vanquished Italian fleet arrived from Malta, accompanied by the British warships HMS Warspite, HMS Valiant, HMS Faulkner, HMS Fury, HMS Echo, HMS Intrepid, HMS Raider and the Greek naval vessel RHNS Vassilisa Olga [Queen Olga], the French FLN Le Terrible, all commanded by Admiral Cunningham. ‘Surrendered Italian Fleet Arrives at Alexandria – One Year After Alamein’ screams the Egyptian Mail headline, faithfully recorded in the scrapbook:
C in C Levt 18/9/43
My dear Mama –
… Oh isn’t the news marvellous? I had just come in in the evening when a Wren rushed out to say that Italy had surrendered and we dashed upstairs and immediately there were drinks all round to celebrate the occasion. We have been frantically busy and as you can guess it’s all been most terribly interesting. I’ve done so many extra watches it’s almost been like Cairo again. Perhaps the most exciting event of the week has been the Italian warships which arrived here 3 or 4 days ago.
Barbara and I decided we just had to go and see them come in – so although we had been on watch till one, we got up early and took the Wrens transport down to Ras el Jin where Rear Admiral Alex has his offices. Barbara used to be a coder there, so we went to the coding office which is right on the edge of the sea and climbed onto the flat roof. It really was a most wonderful sight, on the horizon slowly drawing nearer seemed to be a toy fleet, headed by 2 of our biggest battleships one ahead of the other, the first one dark and the second camouflaged pale gray and blue – destroyers followed and then in the rear the Italian ships. I counted 15 ships in the horizon at one point and it seemed so funny that Alex which has been so denuded of the fleet ever since we’ve been here, should be graced with the pride of both the British and Italian Navies at the same time. These were the ships that we had been receiving photo recce reports about for months. Taranto! Cavour! Littorio etc. I just couldn’t believe my eyes to see them all spread out in front of me. It was a perfect day too, not too hot, the sea calm and a cloudless sky and as we stood on the roof watching, our planes circled round over the convoy. Some of the other girls stayed in bed but I wouldn’t have missed that sight for anything – it was history. We have now gone into 3 watches which means we don’t do extra watches but are on more, if you can see! Yesterday we moved into our new officer quarters. I have the most lovely room on the top floor with a balcony overlooking the sea. Unfortunately it wasn’t finished and so we had no lights but had to creep about with candles and this morning there has been a frightful rumpus because some people found bugs in their beds, so we have all had to move out again till it is fumigated. Personally I think it’s silly to make such a fuss, Egypt is alive with bugs. I am so used to them and so blasé about them you would be shocked! Anyhow, I am still lucky as my bed is on a balcony on the sea side of the house and gets the fresh air. I have heard no more of my move east and fear I won’t be allowed to go as we are now so busy. Absolutely no news of Bruce and John. They must be in Italy. I hope nothing has happened to them …
Heaps of love to you all.
Sheila
PS the sun has just set and I have seen the green flash!
It is hard to know from this distance whether Sheila’s mother’s snub in failing to acknowledge her daughter’s role in the war was deliberate or not. Sheila is justifiably nettled and, as ever, gets her own back by belittling her older sister’s morality. It is rather priceless that she is allowed to date as many men as she likes, but Rosemary is not: the crucial difference was that Rosemary tended to go for ‘sergeants’ i.e. other ranks, and not officers. Rosemary continued in the WAAF after the war, where she never married but seemed to have a number of affairs. She finally married a widower, after her retirement, at the ripe old age of 60:
C in C Levant
23/9
My dear Mama –
… I am enclosing some snaps which were taken on leave in Beirut from which you will get an idea of what the country looks like. It is really very beautiful. Also enclosed are some taken from George Buildings Cairo, where I was working and you can now see what aspects I viewed all the time we were planning Sicily. I am rather amused because you have made no comment on that show at all. For myself, I was, and still am, just bursting with pride and having a hand in the show, and working with such wonderful people as Admiral Ramsay and also have the feeling that I have just a wee, wee spoke in the success of the show for all the hard work which I, and all the others, put in in those 4 months in Cairo. If I never do another thing in this war, that will be behind me. It’s funny, because coupled with the marvellous job, I had the most tremendous fun in Cairo, far better than any I’ve ever had out here before or since, except perhaps last August when they all came back from Malta. I am still rampant to get back to them, but fear it’s no good, as we are terribly short of old hands and are even now in 3 watches to try and keep the work under. Not that I think I’m a cut above the rest, but experience is bound to tell and so many of the people are new and do the most incredibly silly things.
All my boyfriends have deserted me – even James my puppy has disappeared!! Mails have been shocking lately, none from Sicily for a month, nor from Robin in Iraq and yours from home have been pretty elusive. I had an airmail letter card from Rosemary yesterday who seems keen on a New Zealander this time. Well, I hope it comes off, tho’ I must say to add yet another Bert to the family seems deplorable. Maybe he could change it (is it Albert, Bertram or what?) Soon I shall be the only unattached female in the family! That’ll never do!
The news re coming home at the moment is that we have to do 2 1/2 years abroad, so I shall definitely try for a change, if not now, in a few months time. No more Levant for me, thank you.
Our new quarters which we have moved into on Friday had to be hastily evacuated on the Saturday as they were found to be full of bugs! Personally, I was neither bitten, nor ever even aware of one, but judging by the fuss everyone made – there couldn’t have been less than a million! I now sleep open to the sky and sea, on a balcony, which is very pleasant, back in our Sacré Coeur Convent …
Well no more, my 5th and last letter for this morning!
With heaps of love
Sheila xx
I am sending this by sea, let me know how long it takes. S.
C in C Levant 29/9
My dear Ma, Thank you for 85, 86 which arrived within 2 days of each other. How I envy you blackberrying. I miss the country and everything pertaining to it terribly - when I see pictures of fields, trees, woods, and mountains, I can’t imagine what they are really like. I’m sure I shall go mad with excitement when I actually do see these things again – everything is so barren out here. Well, as regards my coming home in the New Year, I’m afraid it’s no go, because we have just signed a paper to say whether we want to go home after 2 1/2 years out here and then only if the service can permit. Of course I said yes, however, since signing, I hear from the secretary that he thinks he will be able to send me to India – and he is seeing the Superintendent about it. I am really very pleased about this because I don’t think I should like to spend another year in the Levant. I have worked in the most exciting office (with exception of S/M’s maybe) and any other place like Suez or Port Said would be rather deadly. Of course this is all taking work as the primary factor, maybe I would do better to think of the social side for a change, but I don’t think I could. I also think it might possibly mean coming home even sooner than from here – but that of course is pure guesswork. Anyway, if I do go it will mean being with all my old friends which I shall like. At the moment we are in 3 watches and I am really ashamed of the girls on my watch for the way they grumble. I don’t like it much either, but it’s the least one can do to carry on without a perpetual moan. It’s funny, but it seems just to be the people who were commissioned out here who are so trying. Those who were officers at home have far more guts … – I am still all packed up as we haven’t moved into our new house yet. The grumblings then will be even worse as no one wants to go in. These are times when I HATE these women (or girls!) who are my fellow Wren officers – they are so spoilt and selfish. I’m certainly not looking forward to living with them. The ones at home were so different. Oh – there is no chance of bringing James home with me, because I now have lost him for over a week and fear there is no chance of his returning now. Poor wee thing – still I am quite confident he is perfectly OK as he is so terribly independent. I am not really in a very good mood to be writing letters, I feel too scratchy with the outside world to be pleasant. There are times when it is no asset to be conscientious, one gets so terribly disheartened at the behaviour of others – to go to India would be a blessed relief. Still no news from Sicily or Italy, but a long long and very funny letter from Robin this week – it really did cheer me up quite a bit. We are in the middle of the mango season, they really are marvellous things, but I never fail to get into an awful mess – they have huge stones in the middle and I always end up with the stone in both hands – gnawing away! Dates have begun too, but I ate so many last year, I can scarcely entertain the idea of one this year! I must now get up properly and go to the laundry. Then have an early lunch and go to work. Sorry for this moan.
Lots of Love
Sheila
Sheila finds herself back in Cairo ‘three weeks only this time’ as she notes in her scrapbook, changing roles. There is definitely a sense of the theatre of war having moved on, and those left are scrabbling around to find interesting jobs to do. Hence her great angst about trying to get a challenging new role. I think she must have dreaded the inevitable posting back to Britain, as the war at this stage was far from over, and her love life was still in a muddle:
RNGHQ MEF
10/10
My dear Mummy –
… As you already know, I am in Cairo again. This time working for Admiral Waller who has come to Cairo as Director of Combined Operations in place of Admiral Maund. This time I have switched to secretarial work and am secretary to his Chief of Staff who actually hasn’t arrived yet, but we expect him minutely. Admiral Waller is a dear old boy but rather terrifying in that he’s so vague and never knows where he puts anything or what he has seen, etc. His secretary went down to Alex the other day and I was left to cope with the Admiral, I love it but it nearly sent me grey! However, we went out to lunch together to Shepheards and became good friends …
All the boyfriends are well, and Bruce is now a Major! He seems to be having a marvellous time in Italy, even John is cheery. He sent me £4 for my birthday. I felt quite embarrassed! I’ve also heard from Idwal Humphrey on the way to India – not since he arrived – I think my chances of going there are about nil now – but I still hope!
… The first few days we were here I nearly passed out with the heat – never known anything like it – thank heavens it is quite cool now, hardly anyone I knew in Cairo before is up here now. One of the first people I met was an ex Commodore from Methil who has been pressing me to go out with him ever since. I’m not a bit keen, for when I said I’d have to work he said did I know any other Wren officers etc. I said no. What cheek these men have! I wonder what he thinks we are? I hope you are all well and enjoying life. We are still in whites whereas I expect you’re all in wool and wearing stockings (what a problem the latter are – even here!)
No more now,
Heaps of love,
Sheila
c/o Fleet Mail Office Alexandria
17/10/43
My dear Ma – I was delighted yesterday to have 3 letters from you 87/89 (wrongly numbered for I have had 87) since I have been in Cairo my mail has been held up. I don’t think I shall be here very much longer alas and alack, as the man I was to work for has gone home – so I shall be in the drafting pool once more. I shall do everything I possibly can to avoid going back to C in C Levant as far as I can see, there is no job on this station for me – a confirmed 2/O unless they check out and demote one of the ailing 2/O’s and so, as I always say, it is no advantage being promoted as you always get stuck. However, this time, if I possibly can, I am going to hang out for India, if not with my old people. I know they will want lots of Cypher people in Delhi. The only alternative to India is, as far as I can see, to go to Suez as a P.C.O. [Principal Cypher Officer] – they will need a Wren one in due course – I wouldn’t mind going there at all actually. The work of course wouldn’t be very thrilling, except that everything through the canal goes there and there is quite a good traffic these days and also you have a very gay time there. But to be in charge of a whole Cypher office is not up my tree, I hate doling out bottles (of which there are always thousands) and I dislike being in charge of Wrens. I really want a job more on my own. However, I am lying low to see how much longer they will let me stay here undetected, for I have already written a letter to Idwal in Delhi to say if he can use me to send a signal now. I do so hope I shall be allowed to go. I really don’t want to have to stay in the Levant. We have a new C in C and new secretary, so that may help.
… I am glad R will be going to her Octu [Officer Cadet Training Unit] at last. I hate the sound of all those people she mixes with. There are 2 WAAF officers in my room here, both of whom are extremely nice. There are a lot of them out here, but very few O.R.s. [other ranks]. What has happened to this N.Z. bloke she was so keen on? I have been having a very quiet but most enjoyable time here … But it is such a marvellous change to be away from all the Alex crowd. I have grown extremely unsociable – dislike more people than I like – and hate communal life. What shakes me is that several of my old friends turned me down flat on my promotion – which shows that they couldn’t have been very true friends, could they? One of them is reputed to have said I was too high and mighty to have anything to do with her, but as I immediately rang her up on my return to Alex, was certainly not met half way. NOR was I ever told how nice it was for me to be promoted. I rather gathered jealousy had crept in. So I washed my hands of all of them save those I knew were true friends, and consequently there was a lot of discussion – But I feel sure I did right – why be hypocritical and pretend to be friendly with people when you aren’t especially when they say rather horrid things behind one’s back. So you can guess to return to Alex and to turn an acting 2/O out of her job would be a bad thing!
Yes, all are well in Italy, and Robin in Persia. Idwal wrote last from Bombay and said that as he was jobless he didn’t think he could fix me up. Do you know that Warren Tute wangled a jeep for his personal use out of GHQ here, took it to Malta, plus its driver, L/Cpl Askew and they have taken them both on to India without any reference to GHQ. I think it is a scream – Warren is the person who had tea with me at the Goldie’s, he used to be in Alex … He is very arty, writes plays, is terribly witty and amusing, knows all the stage and screen stars and really rather a dear. Anyway he did his damnedest to get me to India – I think I will write to him and see if he can pull a string or 2 to get me there in another capacity! Apparently he disliked the 2/O in charge at Gib, wrote to Admiralty and said so, and she was removed! And he’s only a Pay Lieut. R.N.! … With much love, Sheila,
Your Xmas present is on its way – I have one just like it. From John.
Please address me to the above for the time being. Exactly 3 years ago today that I went to Dundee!
Sadly all her plans come to naught and she finds herself back in Alexandria again, but is undeterred in her efforts to move elsewhere, as we shall see over the next few months:
C in C Levant 23/10
My dear Ma – as you can see I am back in Alex once more – and in my old job as DCO [Duty Cypher Officer] in the Cypher Office! And you can guess how annoyed I was – so much so that I went straight to the secretary, who is new and awfully nice, and poured out my tale of woe – he was really very funny and agreed that I had been tossed about a bit in the last six months … The next day I had an enormous letter from Idwal in Delhi to say he’d not done an honest day’s work since he left Malta 3/4 months ago, so I know now that there’s no chance of going there at all!
… I am getting very involved with ‘les hommes’. Safety in numbers they say, but I’m not so sure – Bruce nearly had a fit when he heard I was in Cairo, and Robin in Turkey – no Iran – is going to try and do a course in this direction and come and see me. John, of course, is always John. I, having been bitten once or twice already, am much reserved, but the boot seems to be on the other leg, this time! Oh dear. Bruce says he is sending me some silk stockings from Italy – apparently they make them very well there and my latest shopping down here is to buy Robin a Signals side cap – which should be arriving today. We spend our time sending postal orders and cheques to each other asking for different purchases – and so life goes on!
… Yesterday I went to the Anglo-Swiss hospital and visited the merchant seamen, officers and men who are ill. They are very much neglected here and Audrey and I went with an old English governess and did enjoy it. We felt so sorry for them and they were all so cheery. I am going to take my canteen cigarette ration to them each week. Then I went to Eve’s for dinner and an N.O. was also there, played the piano. Today I am having my 1st singing lesson, visiting the dressmaker, and riding this afternoon, a jump I hope. Oh, Bruce’s stockings have arrived and are too short in the leg so I will send them to you. Tons of love, Sheila.
C in C Levant 5/11/43
My dear Daddy – One birthday letter deserves another – and I feel very guilty at not writing you a letter of your own before – I’ve calculated this should reach you on about the 16th – Many happy returns of the day! How is the garden – and the Jeep? When I come back home you must teach me to drive it – Riding I’ve learnt out here, but not driving.
As you know I am back in Alex and still working for C in C Levant. Our shadow is diminishing instead of increasing. Soon I feel we will fade out altogether and then what? It is awfully disappointing to see our fame lessening, operations moving further away and not even a Jerry on the door step! I hope to move on – somewhere – to a more operational job soon. I did hope very much to go to India to join my Cairo people, but I’m afraid there’s no hope of that now. Maybe we will all go to Italy, we shall see. Meanwhile, it is getting colder and colder here and last night I wore blues for the first time – we go into them finally on Sunday. It has been pouring with rain and yesterday I went into town only to find that my shoes leaked terribly! As they are the only white pair I have left, I was forced into blues for the night watch!
… John Pritty, whom I have known ever since I came out here, has just returned from Italy with the rest of his regiment. They are in Cairo, which would be the case just as I am transferred here. I am longing to hear all about Italy as from all the letters I have had it really sounds rather fun, though of course they tell us the dreadful things like typhoid disease which is raging in Sicily. I believe all the towns are out of bounds, I hear. I feel awfully disappointed at being stuck here, as having had a hand in perhaps the biggest allied invasion of the war to date, I simply long to follow up the good work and in amongst the people I have worked with before. Still, if I do nothing else in the war, I shall have had one very worth while job. I am terrified of being sent to a non operation base. As for coming home, it is difficult to say when that will be. After 2 1/2 years, they say, but then that’s dependent on relief and you know what that means. I long to see more of the world before finally returning to UK, but maybe, if I am a Wren after the war as I want to be, I’ll have plenty of chances for that! In month or so I hope to take a long weekend and go down to Luxor with Diana Booth, for we both want to see Tutankhamun’s tomb and all the ancient remains down there – and if I have more leave I really want to go to Jerusalem – It would be criminal not to go to such places when they are so comparably near. We are meant to have 7 days every six months, but I don’t know how it will work out. Very much love, Sheila.
To her mother she is more frank about her affairs of the heart:
C in C Levant 9/11
My dear Ma – … I really am pleased R has gone to OCTU, perhaps she will forget all these queer sounding friends she seems to have made! … Life goes on the same out here – John and all his crowd are back again and he wants me to go up to Cairo this weekend to see him as he is not allowed to come to Alex. I want to see him and hear all about what has been happening but I am not a little nervous as to what he will be like. If he is still persistent and difficult I shall have to put an end to courting as it will do neither of us any good. Another surprise yesterday: a letter from Robin to say he is going to do a mountain warfare course in Syria and has been given 2 weeks’ leave in Egypt. So he is coming down here at the end of the month! It only needs Bruce to fix a liaison visit to M.E. to make the picture complete (and complex!) It will be rather fun to see him again as although I knew him very well on the way out these boat friendships are very difficult on dry land! So far I have been to the Anglo-Swiss hospital with Miss Decks to visit the merchant seamen. They are so nice, afterwards I went back with her for tea. She is a governess in one of the richest families in Alex – Syrian millionaires and live in a magnificent house in Rue Fouad. The daughter of the house sings with Elizabeth and that is how I met them. She is 20 and is seldom allowed out by herself. She is sent out of the room when others wish to talk of things she is not allowed to hear, and her brother has been given a special villa in which to entertain his friends, as some of them aren’t considered suitable for May to meet. Did you realise such feudalism could possibly exist today? I didn’t. I have had, for the past six weeks, ringworm on my arm! Yes, you will be horrified (as I was!) but you can catch anything out here. To make matters worse I dosed it with extra strong iodine and produced the most frightful burn on top of it! It hurt like hell, but I really believe both ailments are better now. The Superintendent and dear Admiral Alex are inspecting quarters tomorrow. I think I shall pin a notice with ‘sleeping’ on the door and hope for the best. Otherwise it means tidying up and as I’ve no room for anything it’ll be a hard job. I’m so sorry this is rather dull. I’m not wearing my ‘writing pants’.
With lots of love
Sheila
C in C Levant 15/11/43
My dear Ma –
… I have just come back from a very hurried weekend in Cairo. John was up there, and as he isn’t allowed to spend his leave in Alex, he asked me if I’d go up there. So in fear and trembling, I went. I must say he was awfully nice – no awful rows (that was what I was afraid of) and we both enjoyed it very much … John met me at the station, and I immediately went back, bathed and changed, we had lunch in a quiet restaurant off Kasr el Nil, and then rushed off to Gezira for the races. It was quite a lucky day for me – I backed a place every time except once and so kept fairly square. John didn’t do so well, and as he backed fairly heavily must have lost quite a bit. We then went off to Groppis for tea – I had to have my usual ice cream there, a Maytime – they are marvellous. In the evening we dressed up – me in my new flame brocade – and went out to Mena House for dinner. The hotel is being closed as GHQ are taking it over. I think it is a great shame as it must be one of the most famous hotels in the M.E. and certainly the favourite honeymoon haunt. It was warm and there was a moon, so of course we visited the Pyramids – they really are very beautiful at night and never fail to give me a thrill, they are so enormous – I had to leave at 12:30 on Sunday, so we drove up to the Citadel because I love standing so high up and looking at the whole of Cairo lying at one’s feet – you can see both groups of Pyramids – the Dead City, and the whole dishevelled mass which is Cairo, higgledy piggledy below – swarming with civilisation and strange noises. It fascinates me. John was awfully disappointed at returning here. He loved Italy, and I must say it does sound rather marvellous. He really has entirely changed. I like him far better … I am so glad R. has at last gone to OCTU. Maybe her sergeant friends will fade a bit now.
With heaps of love, Sheila.
C in C Levant 25/11
No 84
My dear Ma –
… Last week I sent you two parcels – one with 2lb icing sugar, and the other with 4 yards of rather nice thick woollen material which I think should make a very pretty winter dress. I loved the colour. Did you ever get the parcel full of odds and ends I sent off at the end of September and also a food parcel posted at the beginning of the same month – I do hope so.
I am rather disappointed because Robin, who was coming down here this week on leave has just written to say that the course he was going on has been cancelled and that anyway he has moved further away than ever. We are both rather cross about this as it would have been rather fun to meet again after over a year. Other news is rather scarce. I’ve not heard from John since I was up there for the weekend and think he must have moved. I am so pleased to have got that straight at last – Bruce is still in Italy, but I have been rather naughty in not writing lately – I just haven’t felt like it.
… I am touched that granddad thinks I am winning the war. I suppose I am in a way, but so is everyone else, wherever they may be – I really must write to him again. I have the periodical fit of writing to out-of-the-way people and granddad is usually included in the round – Oh yes – I was on watch the other evening when the phone rang and a voice said ‘is that you Sheila’ and it was Idwal Humphrey ringing up from Cairo. He hadn’t been doing any work at all in Delhi and old Pongo Moore, Admiral Ramsay’s secretary, sent a signal asking for his immediate return to UK. So he went back by air priority A! ... Heaps of love to you and Pa.
Sheila
C in C Levant
6.12.43
No. 96
My dear Ma, Sorry this is being typed, but I can’t find my pen anywhere. I’m doing it on my knee with Esmé’s portable, so don’t mind any mistakes. Your Christmas parcel with the lovely handkerchiefs arrived after only one month, which I think was rather good going – they really are marvellous and I am so short of handkerchiefs – the dhobies [laundry] are frightful here. The Almanack has been read through, but we’ve come to the conclusion we were all born on the wrong day, as nothing seems to work out all right! And the calendar reminds me of Cromer, and the Christmas card of being in Scotland, so you can see I have been thrilled with the whole thing … I had a real field day on Saturday, and felt awful after having spent so much money when you at home aren’t able to do so! I collected my beautiful nightie I have had made in pale gray blue crepe de chine with natural coloured lace trimming it (it really is so lovely I don’t think I shall ever dare wear it!) Then Mollie Rendell and I did a grand tour of the shops, when I fell for some very dark gray flannel to have a skirt made, and two lengths of Chinese silk in scarlet and a bright purple-gentian blue for blouses. Somehow, if you are clever, you can buy almost anything you want in the shops here, and I simply love pottering about the quaint little streets. Some of the shops are really tiny, just little square holes in the wall, with shelves and shelves packed with bales and bales of materials. If you are clever, you can bargain for your stuff, but it takes time and endless patience, as well as plenty of good temper and humour. The shopkeeper will like you if you laugh and joke, but won’t move an inch if you get cross. I have just had your newspapers and picture posts – thank you very much for sending them. I had, actually, seen the one with the article on Admiral Ramsay in it, but hadn’t a copy of my own, which naturally I wanted. Having worked for him, and also knowing him socially in a small way, I think the writer’s criticism of him is very hard. He is said to be a bad mixer; well, as mere Third Officer, and the lowest of the low, I found him simply charming. He never failed to forget a name once he had been introduced to a person, and always gave one the impression he really was interested in you. For instance, once he invited me to his flat for lunch, together with several other members of our staff. I was the only girl there (and, in fact, the only women they had ever had to a meal in their flat), and there was no talking of shop with the other members of the staff, everything was brought down to my level, even to the point that I was the centre of all conversation. When he talks to you, he really looks straight at you, his eyes seeming to pass straight through you, and he gives you the impression that you are the only person that really matters. When my promotion came through, I remember we were all working feverishly in one of the halls, with pages of operation orders in piles all round the room, and I was sitting at a table pushing the orders complete into huge envelopes. The Admiral came through the hall with flags, and seeing me, came straight up to me and congratulated me on being promoted, and asked me why I hadn’t got my stripe up. I really do think that if I found him like this, the criticism of him as a bad mixer is wrong. One is given the impression that he is hard on his staff, who dislikes him, but that he gets the results from them the same. I think this is wrong, too, for everyone on our staff had not only extreme respect for the man, but great liking for him, and most of the staff officers had worked for him planning the North African campaign. When I met Commodore Douglas-Pennant on his return from Malta at a cocktail party on one of the ships, I congratulated him on an apparent ‘leg-up’ in the Naval world. But he told me he was lost without Admiral Ramsay, as he had worked with him so long a Chief Staff Officer. And I could well believe it. I will admit that he doesn’t suffer fools gladly, but then who but a fool himself would, and anyway, it doesn’t win the war to be weak in that respect. Having read this criticism, I really feel justly proud for having worked for him, and for being personally thanked by the Admiral in Cairo railway station just before everyone left for Malta, via Alex. And I felt such a fool too, for being thanked for what after all, was only my job, which I felt I’d scraped through anyhow because there’d been so much work to do I couldn’t possibly make it as efficient as I’d have liked. I’d give anything to work for him again. I am having a week’s leave in January, and plan to go to Jerusalem – have I told you this before? Our watches are very favourable for Christmas and New Year, but at the moment the prospects seem very dull, as everyone is away, and it’s so much more fun to spend Christmas with your friends. Oh dear, this seems to be all – a very happy Christmas to you, and a wonderful New Year. Heaps of love, Sheila.
This is the article to which I think she was referring; it was stuck in her scrapbook and is of an English newsprint quality.
C in C Levant
16/12/43
No. 86
My dear Ma – Thank you very much indeed for your Xmas present to me – I always feel rather awful when you send me things as I am so well off – I now make £19 – and all found – so do please think twice before sending me things. You will make me very self indulgent if you keep telling me not to send you things … John is up in Palestine instructing at the M.E. OCTU – he likes it rather – for which I am glad, as he hates a staff job. Bruce wrote to me yesterday (or at least I got the letter yesterday) and says he is sending me a tin of chestnuts. I am very thrilled at the idea of this, as we don’t get them here. I have sent both him and Robin Chater a parcel of Turkish Delight and crystallised fruit, but don’t know what to send John as he is able to get these things …
Last night I went to a dance given by the Australian forces for the Greek Red Cross – who were very good to them whilst in Greece. Prince Paul of Greece was there, tall and very distinguished, with a monocle, in Naval uniform. I’m afraid when I got there I wished I hadn’t gone, as I was the only Wren officer there, with quite a lot of ratings and there was a frightful crowd of people there. Luckily I wasn’t in uniform. However, one mustn’t be snobbish. Today is the first day of Winter – terrific winds, huge seas. I nearly lost my hat when I was in town this morning and it has been pouring with rain – oh thank you for your letter enclosing granddad’s Xmas present, it was very sweet of him – and I must write to him. With all good wishes, and lots of love to you all. Sheila.
Have you had any of my parcels?
C in C Levant
25/12/43
Dear all of you – It’s Christmas Day, so I must just stop a minute and wish you all a happy one! It’s just 1105 and I expect you are all in church singing the first carol – as for myself, I have been unromantic enough to have to pay a visit to the laundry and have just returned laden with shirts and collars. I went to church at 0800 and as we go on watch at 1300 and have to have an enormous dinner before we go, haven’t been able to go to Matins. The weather is just perfect and I am sitting on the balcony with the dark blue sea all round, bright blue sky and clumps of heavy white clouds making deeper blue patches on the sea. It’s breezy and sunny, but warm. It seems very funny to think that you probably have snow at home – when we went on watch last evening our driver told me he had spoken to someone who was in England 5 days ago, when everything was white. We’ve all been hopefully singing and wishing for a white Christmas, but nothing’s happened so far. It’s hard to work up a Christmas spirit out here – but we decorated the house with red pepper branches, beautiful roses and chrysanthemums, and we even have a Christmas tree all lit up in the little niche in the front hall – and of course we are having a huge Xmas dinner at 12 before we go on watch. I started my Christmas on Thursday when I went to a party at Eve’s. She had a Russian tenor there who was one of the ‘Chauve Souris’ people – and he nearly sang the roof off. I really do think that if he hadn’t have had laryngitis, the ceiling would have cracked. There was much drinking and merriment, and at 1030 we proceeded to Pastrondis, a nearby restaurant, for dinner, sherry, wine, whisky, it all flowed like water – and so did our conversation, as you can guess!
… Next day I was up at the crack of dawn and into town for I wanted to buy flowers for several people, we went to the shop where I had ordered them, and were told that they were 5/- a dozen when I had been told 3/-. This amazed me considerably and I was arguing strongly when in came 2 American Sergeants who at once said we must buy the girls some roses and immediately clapped down 15/- and 3 dozen roses were mine. Great remonstrations from me as I wanted to give them to Elizabeth and naturally intended to buy them myself. However, they would hear nothing of it, they were pickled as coots, a bottle in each hand, and a beautiful blue and white pre-frill round each of their necks. How we laughed! Eventually we went to the Vedgis for lunch, and then they drove me back here. I washed and dyed my hair in 1 1/2 hours and then we went on watch. Well! If we hadn’t got the Christmas spirit, others certainly had! Even at 1830 the S.D.O. [Sub Duty Officer] and marine messengers were well away – in fact one of them had to be sent home early as he was rather incapable! They were so funny – coming into ask questions and not able to talk properly, and then, having got what they wanted, weaving a tortuous path out of the office, missing the door by inches! Work came in, and we worked steadily. I drew a Christmas card for Alex, Cypher office, and sent it down to them with the rest of the signals – and midnight came – suddenly we heard strains of Good King Wenceslas – Hooray we cried – carol singers at last! However, as the sounds came nearer, we realised it was tinged with gin and whisky – and the complete W/T [wireless/telegraphy] watch arrived to take over – merry as kings. Then before you could say knife, a long straggling line of sailors appeared all wearing paper hats, singing happy Xmas to you, and brandishing bottles of brandy. The first one rushed up to me with a tin mug and open bottle and insisted I drank some – and then we all shook hands in turn. They completely settled themselves down staggering all round the office – drinking, laughing, and smoking enormous cigars. To crown it all, the little marine messenger who was so pickled stuck his head through a window connecting his office and ours, and started lassoing his pals with a long rope – laugh – I nearly collapsed! All this time one of my watch was being rung up by her boyfriend from Mursa Matrouh and she couldn’t hear a word – in the end she had to give it up as a bad job. Then to wind it all up, the youngest of all the W/T crowd rushed up to me and said ‘Merry Christmas old bean – I’ll say it now because I daren’t say it in the morning!’ and shook me wildly by the hand. This was the end! I was nearly speechless with laughter by that time. Then of course, I didn’t know how to get rid of them, there they were, packed all over my office, and nothing would budge them, and of course I didn’t want to tell them to go. However, their leading hand, who is a good sort, came in and shepherded them out, and the last I saw of him was with his arm entwined round a very drunk sparker’s waist, staggering on uncertain course into his office! After that you can be sure we had the right spirit too – I just dread to think what might happen if anything emergency had cropped up – I shouldn’t think there was more than one sparker capable of taking down a message correctly – but I must say their P.O. [Petty Officer] seemed O.K. The whole affair was priceless and I wouldn’t mind betting that in every part and establishment in the British Fleet – exactly the same thing was going on!
Bruce’s Christmas card from Italy .
We are going on watch this afternoon armed with Christmas cake. I rather dread to think what the W/T will be like – there will be some very sore heads, I know! …
So now it’s 1145 and I must rush down for a drink before lunch. I can’t tell you what a lovely smell I can smell – this balcony is over the galley!
With tons of love to you all
Sheila,
P.S. Am now on watch after an enormous dinner – the pudding came in aflame! It’s now 1320 and we are listening to carols. The poor W/T people look the worst for wear, but are bearing up! S.
‘Christmas 1943 – we had the “Afternoon” – but after a huge Christmas dinner – who cares?’ Sheila top of steps, left.