Some Anecdotes From Eileen Toll

Recalling her life in wartime Chiswick

My father was in the Auxilliary Fire Service, Stamford Brook or Hammersmith, not sure what the official title was. He got together several of ‘the boys’ and formed Sid Batson and His Harmonica Rascals and he was Master of Ceremonies. They used to entertain firemen and their families when possible and helped to keep morale high. One night when there was a fireman’s dance I was dancing with the smallest of the firemen when the alarm bells shattered the pleasure and my dance partner shook from head to toe. He was petrified initially but managed to compose himself and rushed off to do his duty. I have seen my father sobbing after a particularly harrowing night. They were such brave men and had some horrific sights to deal with.

Here is a photo of my father at a children’s party at Newton & Bennetts getting them to sing together. Some of your readers might even recognize themselves as children in the picture.

I used to sleep on a mattress in the cupboard under the stairs as we didn’t have an air-raid shelter although we often laughed after the war that we had a Morrison shelter put up in our living room as late as October 1944 – just in time for my fourteenth birthday party and right at the end of the war!

There have been a couple of news items recently that have fed my nostalgic memories one of which relates to the 500th anniversary of Hampton Court. I was in my 4th year at Acton Central School and on 4th June 1946 the school had “Victory Celebrations. An Educational Visit to Hampton Court”. I still have the questionnaire we were given to complete: two sheets of fullscap paper roneo’d type. I think it would be vastly different from a similar event today in this age of incredible technology.

The second current affair that caught my eye was the news that the ticket office in Turnham Green Station was to be closed. In 1947 I used to travel on the District Line to Charing Cross Station when I first started work, later District Line to Hammersmith where I would change on to the Inner Circle or Piccadilly line to get to Piccadilly Circus and from 1950 to 1952 Turnham Green to Tower Hill in London. Many many times some of us would be a late having to rush up the stairs and I still remember the railwayman on duty holding back his green flag to give us those extra seconds to get on the train. What service! A flower vendor used to have a stall outside the station and just next door to the station entrance was a quality greengrocers shop so it was so easy to collect flowers, fruit or vegetables on the way home.

My hobbies were playing Badminton in the hall of Gunnersbury Congregational Church where we took part in amateur dramatics and various concerts (I have programmes of several events), also ice-skating at Richmond Ice Rink which was enormous fun with many friends.

I remember going with mother to Goodbans in Chiswick High Road to buy fine leather gloves, her elbow resting on the counter whilst the shop assistant stretched/stroked each finger down smoothly or used a wooden ‘stretcher’ when necessary if the shop didn’t have the right size in stock.

When sweets were on ration mum and I went shopping up Turnham Green Terrace, across Chiswick High Road to a sweet shop on the corner of Glebe Street where mum spent our coupons on a large quantity of Pontefract cakes. I say a large quantity but I don’t remember exactly how much the ration was, but by the time we had walked back home most of them had been eaten, rather like the cheese ration we bought on another occasion and nibbled at all the way down Woodstock Road.

April 11, 2015