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Chapter 3 Coming ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½

Finally the time came when families began to prepare for the return home and a fresh start back in Guernsey where homes and businesses needed to be rebuilt. But things had changed significantly and the time spent on the mainland had changed many young lives. They had been in so many cases come to a completely new way of life in a big country no more enclosed in a small community, steeped in it’s old ways. The re-adjustment was going to be difficult if not impossible. A great deal of love and understanding would have to take place. A little lipstick and a powdered nose was the norm in their new lives, which to ‘dear old Guernsey’ was “you can’t do that here. A great deal of bridges would have to be crossed in the re-settled lives of those who went and those who stayed.

To my wife and young daughter it was not to be for another seven months, it was October 15th 1945 before we set foot back on Guernsey soil. To my dear wife it was the greatest day of her life, as she was back with her own people and family. She had been brought up in a very loving and sheltered life with mother, two brothers and a sister. As her father died when she was two years of age. Her whole life was to a great degree wrapped up in her family. My daughter was now eight years old and the island meant nothing to her. As far as she was concerned Peterborough was her home, the city and trains, Double Decker buses was the life that she knew. The hustle and bustle of life, she would have loved to go back ‘home’. She had lost all her friends and was a stranger in a strange land, but the love of her grandma played an important part in her settling into her new surroundings. She in turn loved her grandma and went to sleep there at weekends. In time she settled down both at school and made new friends.

Personally when I came back to the island it meant very little to me. I had no binding ties; my preference would have been to go to Canada to start a new life where I could have got work as a semi-skilled engineer. However it was not to be, my wife’s mother was taken ill with cancer so it was the decision of both of us that we could not leave her, my wife being so devoted to her mother.

It was now six years since my wife had had a home of her own. She now had her own kitchen and could use her cooking skills as she was an excellent cook — she made the best ever Gauche Malee. Our daughter was now settled although she at times still yearned for England and it’s ways. My wife’s mother lived with us in our home during the last two years of her life and was very happy living with her daughter until she passed away from this life into the next.

Now as husband, father, breadwinner and head of the household what of the future? We had no home; we rented the house we lived in previous to the war. We had left it fully furnished and brand new, as we had only been married for six years. Almost all of our belongings had been stolen during the war so it was a matter of starting again from scratch. To a certain extent we were at a disadvantage as the Government decided to give value to the German Mark in the aftermath of the liberation. Those that had stayed therefore had currency whilst we did not have a penny to our name. After the evacuation we had left a mature crop of tomatoes in 800ft of glass, having picked just one 12lb tray of ripe fruit, which meant of course having to pay the debts incurred for the year 1940.

There was also a lot of resentment directed at those men who returned after having evacuated. Though we were not seen as deserters many felt strongly that we had failed to stay and defend our island; for this we were not given any quarter in anything. For my part however I do not regret keeping my family together for the experiences that we had in England one little bit. Though those times were tough they formed memories that hold great value to me.

My first job was repairing houses with my brother that had been neglected during the war. Then an offer came for me to rent 1400ft of cold glass for a three-year period at £120 per year. The trouble was that they flooded more or less every winter. On examination I had thought of a plan to stop the flooding, which of course I kept to myself. I went for an interview with my bank manager still owing money from 1940 — although only the Princely sum of £50. I had no money of my own to start with and after much shaking of his head and wagging of his finger and tapping of his pen he offered me £120 to pay the rent, but no money to live on until the crop started to yield.

I had nothing to lose as I had nothing so I felt that to win was the only objective. I worked with my brother during the day and got the soil ready by working at least half the night. Initially I sowed a crop of radishes that had a quick turn around so as to make money. This turned out to be a good idea as it was a food crop and it was shipped to the Mainland. Money came in once a week and with my wife to help looking after the home and helping with the packing we turned the corner. My first year in business was a good start, although the soil was very poor. In the meantime we rented a house but after our first year the owner told us he was going to sell it.

He knew we had had a good year financially, as he was the transporter of our produce. The house was in a very poor state both inside and out with electricity in only one room and the toilet at the top of the garden. Woes betide you if you had to go in the middle of the night! The trouble was we had nowhere else to go at that time there were so very few houses available. He offered us his price — take it or leave it. Of course we had to take it. So here we were, all our profit gone and more, but at least we had a home of our own again and business was good as England could take everything that we produced.

Actually the house we bought Les Cottes was a very interesting building. It comprised of two dwellings; one a cottage built of blue granite and the other one so old that there were no records of when it was built. I have been told by someone with knowledge of medieval buildings that the structure of the walls dated it to 1300AD. The chimneys were built with dressed granite and the front door in the corner that entered into the main room, or kitchen with a massive fireplace. The mantle piece comprised of a huge blue granite stone held in position by two dressed stones protruding from the walls with the Furze oven on the left hand side. This oven was heated by Furze to the right temperature, then the Furze was raked out and the food placed in the brick lined oven. The food cooked in this was absolutely delicious.

A small stone-floored hall led from the kitchen to the bedroom with a large loft above that could be made into three attic rooms. It was said that the house was built by a Huguenot family who had fled from France at the time of the persecution of the Huguenots. If this was so then the house had quite a history.

These years in rented cold glass helped me to get into business, but I lost them after five years as the owner then sold them. I rented again another 1500ft batch of hot glass. This means glass houses that were heated with a boiler situated outside and four inch pipes in six rows through the 30ft wide glass house. Older houses may have been up to 36ft wide. The pipes were filled with water and one could grow much earlier crops in these heated houses, especially tomatoes that then became one of the islands main crops. Our house and furnishings improved with time, home comforts such as a bathroom inside the house.

At last my wife and daughter now had a home they could be proud to call their own. I can well recall one day Jean jumping up and down on the settee and saying to her mother:

“Look mum I can jump on this settee because it’s mine isn’t it?�

Just to see the joy on her young face was fantastic.

At the age of fourteen she asked if she could go back for a holiday to one of her friends in Peterborough, which in her young mind was still her first home. We agreed and duly asked a friend who lived in London to see her from Heathrow to Kings Cross Station. Off she went but on arrival nobody was there to meet her. We found out later that he had forgotten. Of course she was used to travelling on trains and took a taxi to Kings Cross and took the train to Peterborough where she was met by her friend, to her this was no problem. When her poor mother heard of her exploits she was furious, however I was very proud of what she had done, she had the guts and she just did it.

On 4th June 1950 our son Derek Sydney was born only to leave us again a very short time later. This was a great loss to us and my wife had quite a breakdown as a result. However two years later on September 4th Sandra was born, god had taken away our son and given us a daughter. This was a great boost to the family and gave my wife new life and happiness.

As the years went by business was good. Eventually I bought a field and started building greenhouses of my own, and finished renting as it was only a stopgap until I could set up by myself. The money spent on renting glass was ongoing whereas a bank loan, once repaid the property was yours. Our business progressed with its ups and downs and we speculated very much on flowers, Iris mainly and the Freesias became big business. Apart from my growing business I also took on an agency for a renowned Dutch firm selling bulbs and seeds for a number of years.

We were now able to afford to take two weeks holiday each year and indulged in buying several cars as our bank balance improved. As the years went by the traumas of the war seemed to fade somewhat, but it will never be forgotten. We shall never forget those brave men and women in the flower of their youth and all the young and old that gave their lives so that we could enjoy the freedom to choose for ourselves our way of life.

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