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BESSIE WEBB - HER STORY
CHAPTER FIVE - REUNITED
1) Stability at home while WW2 rages
2) War memories
3) Leaving the laundry
4) New generations
1) Stability at home
while WW2 rages
Alice and Mary were now attending school at my old school; seven
years had gone by and they did not know their daddy, only by the letters he sent them. I wrote and told him what
I had done and what I hoped to do and begged him to try and come to us. A short while after I received a telegram
saying he was sailing on the next boat from India that was a three weeks journey. At last the day came for us to
go to meet him. The girls were very quiet but I wanted to laugh and cry at the same time. It was a very emotional
meeting. On arriving home I introduced Steve to my father. He just walked away, I decided not to notice and left
Alice and Mary to get to know Steve. I got busy preparing a meal.
Later that day I shewed Steve the laundry premises and explained
what I had done and what I wanted to do. He told me afterwards that he could only stay for 18 months as he was
under contract to take another show back to India but when he had done that he would come home for good and help
me. I had a very trying time with my father, he would not speak to Steve, but since I had been running the house
and cooking meals he had greatly improved in health.
After three months I became pregnant and in due course I had
another daughter Bessie born on February 24 1937. The months went by and the day came when Steve had to leave us,
but he promised that he would return as soon as he had settled affairs with the company. So, once more I was on
my own but I was determined to build the business up. I was still having to put up with a lot of trouble from my
father but I was determined to stand up to him and not let him treat me as he did my mother. He had now got a clean
house and was having good food and no expenses to meet so I did not think he had anything to complain about. The
following year I heard that Steve was on his
way home, now I would be able to shew him how the business
had improved. After he had been home a few days I asked him if I should shew him what the work was in the washing
room and he was quite keen and said he would be able to do that work. Sad to say life did not run very smoothly as my father tried to interfere
and pick quarrels with Steve and would have struck him if I had not forcibly stopped him. I think he was jealous
of seeing Steve, I and the children happy together and the fact that the business was doing well. I now had three
excellent ironers including my sister-in-law who had helped me such a lot.
2) War memories
The world was now facing a terrible war and we were given our
Air Raid shelter where we went when the sirens started and stayed until the 'all clear'.
At the laundry I used to run between the alerts to get the
washing in.
In 1942 at last I had a son. Steve was overjoyed and insisted
he be called Albert. The war was getting worse; bombs were being dropped all around us and a land mine was dropped
very close to us. Several bombs were dropped damaging our building leaving us with hardly any roof. Fortunately
it was on a weekend and most of the work was done. There was only parcels which people called for. The school children
were being evacuated to places in the country.
Mary: How much do you remember about the war?
Nana: How much do I remember? Quite a bit, we had our house, we used to have to go in the air raid shelter every
time you heard the siren go. You couldn't get the things you wanted, you couldn't get, they wasn't made or they
wasn't on sale.
Mary: You mean food?
Nana: Food? A bit scarce. Yes, And the things, you know, that were the necessities, you couldn't get those. And
you didn't like to be out late, you always had to be in bed early.
Mary: Because of the blackout?
Nana: Yes. Oh yes, got to have the black out.
Me: Were you still running the laundry?
Nana: We still had the laundry, oh yes, but it worked under great difficulty. You know, we had a van, we used to
go and collect and deliver.
Mary: A barrow, it was, a push barrow
Nana: Yes, but we did have, hired a van.
Me: Who drove the van?
Nana: Oh, the boss that owned it.
Mary: Oh it was a taxi! You mean Cissy's husband, who had a taxi, he used to do it, when he wasn't working.
Nana: That's right, yes.
Me: So how did you get hold of large amounts of soap powder and
things like that for your laundry, they were scarce, weren't they?
Nana: Well we got from the wholesalers, we had a standing order and they used to save us the soap powders. He used
to go and collect it, with the barrow. I can't think of his name.
Mary: Ronnie, your brother Ronnie.
Nana: Yes. Oh, it was a trial. Still…
Me: So did you have more business in the war, or less business in the war?
Nana: Oh, it varied, all depended how the people worked. Sometimes they didn't bother to come to work at all, they
were too scared. But we managed all right. They were very good.
Me: And were there any air raids nearby?
Nana: Oh yes, we had the air raids all right.
Me: But nothing hit your house?
Nana: Touch wood!
Mary: What about that flying bomb that hit the Lang's house, that took the roof off the laundry?
Nana: Oh yes! We had that.
Mary: Our house was there and theirs there, we were in the Anderson shelter there, so it was like next door, but
there were houses in between.
Nana: We were lucky to come out of that.
Me: So you were there at the time, you weren't evacuated?
Mary: Oh no, we were evacuated when nothing happened, we were back in time for the blitz! Bessie wasn't evacuated,
Alice and I were evacuated to Brighton, and after we'd been there for about seven months, they decided that right,
it wasn't a safe place to be, and because it was on the sea front and the Germans might invade. So they put all
these coils of barbed wire all along the beach. So they decided that either we could be re-evacuated, I think they
went to Guildford, or you could go back home.
Nana: Yes, we were very lucky to come away out of that. A near
miss.
Mark: What kind of shelter was it? A big communal one?
Mary: No, it was an Anderson shelter at the top of our garden.
Me: Like on the 1940's house!
Mary: Yes, exactly like that.
Mark: From what she said it didn't sound like that, it sounded like there were a lot of people in it.
Mary: Well, there was her, my father, Bessie, me, Alice, my grandfather didn't sleep in it, he had what was called
a Morrison shelter, which was under a table in the living room, reinforced, he slept under there.
Me: Where was your father?
Mary: He was back by then, he came back from India while I was in Brighton.. So when I returned he was there.
Me: So he was there during the blitz?
Mary: Yes.
Mark: Were Anderson shelters all the same size then? They seemed pretty small.
Mary: Yes, they were awful. I hated it. You had bunks, but it was a nightmare to sleep in them, cause it was always
damp.
Nana: People used to go and shelter in the church. There was a church at the bottom of the road.
Mary: Some roads with houses that didn't have gardens had brick shelters, not Andersons, built in the streets,
where people used to gather. I don't know how safe they were, I mean ours, I don't think ours was very safe, cause
I don't think they built it very well. I mean the one on the programme, you seemed to go down into it. I don't
remember having to go down much into ours, maybe one step.
Me: Who built yours?
Mary: I presume it was my father and my grandfather.
Mark: What did you do then, did you just go along and buy one?
Mary: I think you had to pay 8 quid, and I think they brought it round and then you had to put it together. I don't
know whether the people next door helped, or what. It certainly wasn't very very deep, but it had got soil on it,
they grew potatoes on the top of it. But when the bomb hit the house on the corner, the Anderson shelter that we
were in lifted itself. And the soil all fell in. so we just stood in the garden. You couldn't see anything cause
it was just thick black dust and dirt flying about. I think the father and the son were killed, because they were
in the house, but the mother and the two girls were in an Anderson shelter with some friends, so they survived,
but it was a bit dire. It was macabre in a way because you could just hear them digging them out, the search parties.
They were quite quick at getting them out.
3) Leaving the laundry
One Sunday I was in the kitchen preparing the dinner when I heard
my father talking to a Mr Huddle and I heard my name mentioned. Mr Huddle said 'if anything happens to you does
your daughter have the laundry?' and my father said, 'No, it is for my son Ronald and he can turn her and her lot
out.'
I was so shocked and on recovering was furious. I made a decision there and then. I did not tell Steve of what
I had heard as I knew he would go to my father and there would have been a fight and I could not have stood that.
I knew the landlord of our house and I knew he had several other houses, so the next day I went to see him and
explained the situation to him. He said there were two empty houses at Herne Hill and he gave me the keys so I
could go and look at them. It was only a short bus ride away. I looked them over and decided on no. 20 Hurst Street.
On arriving back I went to my father and said I had heard what he told Mr Huddle and if Ronald was to have the
business he could have it as I had found it when I had taken over. I knew he would not last long as he didn't like
hard work but I was not going to let Steve work or myself for his benefit. He had left off working for me a long
time ago and my father had been supplying him with money.
I told Steve we were moving as we could not carry on until
the roof and other repairs had been done. I hired a van and the next day we moved into no 20 Hurst Street.
That evening I told Steve the real reason for moving. He wanted to go back to my father but I begged him not to.
The house was quite a large one, three bedrooms, two large rooms on the next floor and 2 rooms and scullery in
the basement. We slowly got it furnished and had a bath put in the scullery. There was a nice piece of garden so
we set about to make a comfortable home. Steve had to find work to do and he picked a job in the building trade.
4) New generations
At last the war came to an end. Alice and Mary had returned home,
they had passed their examinations very well so were sent to Streatham High School.
The years went by. Bessie and Albert were now at school and
we were a happy family.
The years have gone by and it is 1952. I have been very worried as Steve has not been at all well but he says he
just feels tired.
Alice and Mary are both away from home training to be teachers. When Mary came home during the summer holidays
she said she was engaged to be married. This took place on the following Dec. 1952, her fiancé lived in
Sheffield so he bought a house there, the next Dec. I was given my first grandchild named Katie.
The year 1953 was a very sad one. Steve became very ill and the doctor sent him to hospital where I was told they
could not 
do anything
for him. He died on June 3rd. We had been very happy together and he had seen his children grow up. Albert was
now 11 years and had taken his examination and had been accepted to go to Alleyn's Boys School.
Bessie was still at school but she said she wanted to leave to get a job so she could help me. I had a little money
saved but I knew that would not last very long. A friend whom I had known for many years suggested I took overseas
students so I applied and was sent one. During the next few years I had more.
In 1957 Bessie got married and three years hence she had 2 sons. Mary had now got another daughter. Alice was still
at home but I was not very surprised when one day she told me she had become engaged and the April next year she
was married. After 2 years she had a daughter but sad to say she only lived 2 years. Eventually in the years to
come she had two more daughters and a son. Mary and Alice lived quite near so I found I could make myself useful
by baby-sitting so I gave up the students.
Albert was doing well at Alleyn's and he said he wanted to train to be a chartered accountant so when he left he
applied to a firm in the City and was taken on which offered very good prospects for his future. But I was to be
disappointed in him as some time later he said he was interested in politics and wanted to leave his job and become
a Labour Party Agent and this he did.
In 1964 at the age of 22 years he got married. He suggested I let him have the upstairs rooms as a flat for them
as I was now on my own. I said yes, they said three years.
Some of the houses in Hurst Street including the one I was in were up for demolition. After living in one house
for 25 years I did not want to be put in a one room flat. A few months later Albert said he was buying a house
not very far away and I could have an upstairs flat in their house. I thought about it and agreed to accept although
it meant getting rid of most of my home.
We eventually settled down. In 1968 Brenda gave birth to a little girl and 18 months later another little girl.
I used to go to visit Alice and look after the children whilst she was teaching in a school close by. Mary and
her family had come back to London. She and Alan were buying a house in Dulwich, they used to come and fetch me
on Sundays to go and have dinner with them. I did not see so much of Bessie as they were living in Hampstead but
I used to go to see them. Years later they moved to Uckfield in Sussex.
Alice's husband Jim was offered a very good job in Lancashire
so they moved to Southport.
A few years on and one day Albert came to me and said how would I like to live in the West Country. I said 'no',
I didn't want another upheaval; it appeared he had been offered the agent's job in Exeter.
I spoke to Mary about it and in the end I said yes. Albert bought a double front place. One side had been a shop,
he said, and that side could be made into a self contained flat but it would take a while. Mary suggested I go
and live with them until it was ready and that was nearly 12 months.
I arrived and after being there a few weeks I had my doubts about staying but I thought I must try. The flat consists
of a sitting room, bedroom, kitchen and bathroom. I also have my own bit of garden which Albert dug for me. Although
it is a long journey for my daughters to come they usually manage to come at least once a year and I have gone
to visit them. We keep in touch by telephone nearly every week. 
I have now reached the age of 83 years and can say I am never bored. I cook, clean and shop for myself, do lots
of knitting and make dolls and dolls' clothes besides socks and gloves. All these I do for Albert's Christmas fairs.
I also like reading and watching a good play, film or discussion on television.
I thank all my children for their kindnesses during the past years, my sons-in-law and daughter-in-law have also
been very good to me. I am very fond of my grandchildren and wish them every success in all they do.
End of written account.
Bessie died, aged 99, in June 2001. She is greatly missed.
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