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Notes by Nicholas Hutchings: My aunt Alice Hutchings (1909-2003) wrote this poem in June 1942.

"Wartime Pier"

Where are the people who sat on the pier
Watching the steamers come in ?
June to September they used to be here -
Father and Mother came every year -
Buckets and shrimping-nets, winkles and beer -
Alfie and Maudie and Win.

Where can the man with the telescope be
(“Twopence to look at the stars”) ?
Where are the bathers who splashed in the sea ?
What can have emptied the pub on the quay ?
Surely the cafés were crowded at tea ?
Where are the cycles and cars ?

Where is the band that played popular airs,
Uniforms black and maroon ?
What has become of the hundreds of chairs ?
Where are the paddleboats crowded with fares ?
What of the lovers who wandered in pairs
Under the light of the Moon ?

Some are in khaki and some are in blue
Some are in sweaters and slacks,
Gunners and signallers, pilots and crew,
Armament workers in factories, too,
All of them doing a job that is new -
Gasmasks and rifles and packs.

Out in the fighting line, back at the rear,
England has work to be done,
Courage and sacrifice, hardship and fear -
Just for the purpose of making it clear
We’ll be the people to sit on the pier
After the battle is won.

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