Eye Witness Account
Bournemouth between the Wars
Eye Witness Account
One of the witnesses to how the Second World War hit Bournemouth was the young Ann Parker. Her family were 'bombed out' from Southampton and came to Bournemouth, living first at 1034 Wimborne Road, Moordown and then at 10 Grenfell Road, Moordown, where they lived until emigrating to Australia in 1956.
One of the incidents that made a big impression on her was the bombing of the Metropole.
' . . . the bomb hit a hotel full of servicemen mainly Americans at 1.00pm on a Sunday. This hotel was on the corner of Lansdowne Square, opposite where the Bournemouth College was and Bath Road.'
Ann also remembers 'that Hurn Airport was used by the Americans with their bombers that went to Germany on night raids. I lived in Moordown, just off Wimborne Road, and we often used to hear these bombers returning to Hurn. Many times that they only just made it home, flying often on one engine.
'One crashed into a block of flats on Wimborne Road almost demolishing them. Debris was scattered over a wide area, wheels and fuselage strewn in the roads nearby, it was lucky that not more houses were hit. I can't tell you if anyone died in the flats. I also was pulled by a resident of the flats one day on my way home from school and worried the pants off my mother, because she didn't know where I was.
'There was also an incident of a plane crashing on either Bournemouth Pier or Boscombe Pier, I think the first, and the Pier was left damaged for a long time after the war.
'We had an indoor air-raid shelter in our lounge, and I can remember often hitting our heads on it when we moved around. We would frequently see the German planes flying overhead making for the coast after bombing in-land cities, with spitfires hard on their tails.
'My mother was a member of the W.V.S. and worked for a brief period in a boot factory where they repaired army boots; she told me that they often pulled out feet and toes. The factory was in the same street as the Winton and Moordown High School, which I attended. We had three airmen billeted with us for quite a time, and my Mother kept up a correspondence with them until we left for Australia.'
Ted Green, who is now in his 70s, lived with his parents at 393 Charminster Road during the war years. He read some of the war-time memories and said:
‘After 41 years in New Zealand and Australia, [my wife and I] will be in the Bournemouth area [for a holiday]. I came across your Witness Accounts articles [and] memories of my childhood are flooding back. My education was with ‘Charminster Road School’ and then later with ‘Porchester Road School For Boys’. [I remember] being in the choir in a church in Charminster Road and scouts and sea cadets also.
‘My father worked at the Majestic Garage, which was a munitions factory. It was during a bombing raid by German dive-bombers on a Sunday afternoon when ‘Bobbies’ in the Square was hit, that my father and a few workmates had to take evasive action against a wall in Post Office Road off Richmond Hill as bombs fell around them. It was believed that some hit the Post Office but nobody stayed around to find out. For years after, we always went out of our way to touch the wall and say a little prayer.
‘The article referring to the Metropole Hotel being hit brings back stark memories as my grandmother was housekeeper to flats in Landsdowne Road. I used to attend the Odeon cinema on Saturday mornings for the kids’ film club and we all used to shout for our heroes.
‘One time we were on the top deck of a trolley bus which had stopped during an air raid outside the cemetery at Wimbourne and Charminster Roads while bombs were exploding in the cemetery.
‘Living as we did at Five Ways, at times we cycled for picnics to the aerodrome which, I believe, is now Hurn airport. We used to watch bombers coming home from bombing raids (and some only making it back with one engine) and fire engines and ambulances help injured flyers from their planes.
‘Queen’s Park was a favourite haunt for us school kids. {American soldiers] were there with their tanks and equipment. They were always very friendly and treated us all with chewing gum. Then one day they were no longer there, they had moved out during the night; [we] hadn't even heard them.
‘The photo on the front of your ‘Visit Bournemouth’ publication reminds me of D-Day and standing on the cliffs, right there, watching hundreds of planes and gliders making their way to France.’
Bournemouth between the wars
One of the buildings recently given protection as one of Bournemouth's Locally Listed Buildings is Saint Katharine's Home, which was built as a home for girls in 1918, as the Great War was drawing to a close. Across the country, the end of the war presented the establishment with the challenge of re-establishing the status quo. One of the demands of the ordinary folk was for better housing, this demand was met, in Bournemouth by, amongst other schemes, the 'Homes for Heroes' in Muscliff Lane - now a conservation area - and by Saint Katharine's Home.
One of the first girls to be taken into the home was Vera Louisa Ada Freeman, born 30th March 1917, in the district of Kensington. Vera now lives in Australia and has recently celebrated her 60th wedding anniversary; her son-in-law Eric Claus has passed on some of her memories about life in the home.
Vera remembers that the home was run using three staff members, a matron, a sister, and a nurse. Between them these women took care of a total of 33 girls, whose ages ranged from 3 years up to 16 years. The staff at the home had their own quarters, whilst the girls were in dormitories, the girls also had their own dinning room, playroom, bath, toilets etc.
At the age of 16, the girls were placed into 'service'; although they remained under the care of Saint Katharine's Home until they were 18 years old. Service meant taking employment as a servant, either in a business as a shop girl, or as a maid in a private home. Service was considered to be a step up in the world from the various menial jobs in industry that were often the alternative. Being 'in service' allowed girls to earn a decent wage and learn an assortment of skills, slowly rising through the complicated ranks of servants, as the 'bettered themselves'.
After the Great War, the terrible loss of life - over 1 million British deaths - shook up society to the extent that there were no longer the young people around to return to service, prompting the familiar complaint 'you can't get the staff these days'. As the century progressed the mechanisation of many household chores meant that serving work became virtually obsolete. The era of the 'housewife' with her vacuum cleaner, electric fires and washing machine saw servants becoming almost extinct, although there has been something of a revival of the role as the housewife transformed into the working woman.
Within Saint Katharine's Home, Vera worked in the laundry, and all the cleaning for the home was performed by the girls themselves. This would have been good training for going into service, as a laundry maid was vital to society before the washing machine and laundrette became ubiquitous.
School for the girls of the home was conducted at a Church School, and other children from out side the home were also taught there. The home was linked to the nearby church of the same name. At the start of the 20th century, before the establishment of the welfare state, it was common for churches to play an important role in providing for the needy of society. The great and good of the town would frequently be involved in charity work through their local churches. The Bishop of Winchester, Theodore Woods, confirmed Vera when she was 13, at St Katharine's Church.
An old street directory for 1926 shows that the matron of the home 'for Girls & Waifs & Strays' was Miss May. Just around the corner in Admiralty Road was Saint Katharine's Church of England mixed school, which had been established before the home. The headmistress there was Miss Harwood. The school has now moved to new buildings in Rolls Drive, but the present headmaster Mr. A. Booth, still has copies of the original admissions register for the school, which records the names of some of the girls from the home.
Exactly how Saint Katharine's church, school and home were set up and co-operated with each other has now been lost in the mists of time, but information would be welcomed from anyone who has memories of these institutions. If you would like to submit some of your own recollections for inclusion on the web-page, please contact Michael Stead at 'Planning Services, Town Hall Annexe, Saint Stephen's Road, Bournemouth, BH2 6EA' or by e-mail michael.stead@bournemouth.gov.uk all submissions will be very welcome.
For further information about the Bournemouth Local List, click here.
June 2003
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