‘I can’t go, Joan,’ she said, standing stock-still in the street.
‘What do you mean?’ asked Joan, who was keen to get out of the house and enjoy the company of other young people their age.
‘I just can’t do it. I’m too nervous.’
‘Don’t be silly, Sheila. Of course you can. We know lots of people there.’
Sheila felt sick at the idea of walking in as a newcomer. ‘I can’t do it right now,’ she said. ‘Another night. But not now.’
Joan sighed and reluctantly started to walk back home with her sister. They had only gone a little way when Joan decided to have one more attempt at persuasion. ‘You know, if you don’t go now, then you won’t go at all,’ she said. ‘You’ll just find an excuse to put it off each time.’
Sheila thought about this for a few moments and then stopped in her tracks once more.
‘OK,’ she said. ‘Come on. Let’s do it.’
They turned and made their way to the club, arm in arm. To their delight, some of the Eddicott girls were there, and so too was Joan’s good friend from before the war, Lena Sullivan, who rushed over to Joan and embraced her warmly. For the first time, it really felt like coming home.
Sheila was pleased she had done it. Settling back in to life in Bermondsey and their old community was now firmly underway, and she now had the confidence to find herself a job as a machinist in Beak Street, in the West End.
As the rest of the girls all settled in during the first three weeks of their return, Mary was on tenterhooks. She was awaiting the date of her passage to Canada to be reunited with Frank. And Pierce was dreading the day that would happen. His daughters had stuck together through peace and war, they’d always understood the importance of family and how lucky they were to have each other, and he couldn’t bear the thought of any of them leaving. Losing Mary would be a huge blow. He tried to take his mind off the thought as much as he could by focusing on the pressing concern of moving out of his sisters’ house and into a home of their own.
‘Is there anything available in Thorburn Square?’ Pierce asked the housing officer during another visit to the council offices. He recalled Annie saying how much she had admired the big houses there. It was situated between Southwark Park Road – The Blue – and Rolls Road, and Annie had always slowed down to look at the homes there whenever they’d been passing.
The officer adjusted his spectacles and peered at the papers held together in a large cardboard file. ‘Not in the Square itself but we do have some houses in that area,’ he replied. ‘There’s one, two, three … six houses we could show you.’
Pierce smiled. He felt Annie looking down, urging him to do her proud. ‘Don’t let them fob you off,’ he could hear her saying. He was determined to get the best possible home for his daughters. After all they’d been through, without fuss and without complaint, he felt they more than deserved it.
An appointment was made to view the available houses, and he immediately felt a surge of optimism and comfort that at long last they could start living together properly as a family, albeit without Annie. He felt that he couldn’t make the decision of choosing a house without his daughters’ help, though, and so all of them – including six-year-old Anne – accompanied him and the housing officer as they visited six properties in the area surrounding Thorburn Square.
There was less bomb damage there than in Abbey Street and the buildings were largely intact. It was almost as if the war hadn’t happened. Mary smiled to herself as they trooped from house to house, recalling how, when they were small, Annie would take them shopping down The Blue. She often used to make them take the long route home, walking through Thorburn Square and along neighbouring Lynton Road, simply so that she could admire the smart, red-brick Victorian houses. So, when they viewed an attractive-looking two-storey house in Lynton Road, which had three bedrooms, a sitting room, dining room, kitchen and small garden, Mary, Joan and Sheila all urged their father to choose it.
A few days later, Pierce and the girls packed their meagre belongings to start a new life together – no longer in Abbey Street or Battle Road but in Lynton Road. Each one of them knew how happy it would have made their mother that they were all safely back together, living in a house that she would have approved of. So long as they kept it clean!
Epilogue
The Jarman sisters, 1995 (from left to right) Joan, Anne, Kath, Sheila, Mary and Pat.
AFTER VICTORY IN Europe, the people of Britain returned to a peaceful life. The conflict that was ongoing in the Far East came to a drastic and devastating end when the world’s first atomic bomb was dropped on the Japanese city of Hiroshima on 6 August 1945, followed by another on Nagasaki three days later. These terrifying weapons led to the surrender of Japan on 14 August, bringing the Second World War to an end.
Peace might have been restored, however, the hardship felt, particularly by struggling working-class families such as the Jarmans, continued as rationing went on for another decade.
The Jarmans’ strong bond, strengthened during their evacuation years, continued to thrive in Lynton Road as they lived together and shared their experiences – romance, tragedy, hardship and good times – until, one by one, they moved away.
Kath left school at the age of fourteen and got a job as a dressmaker in the West End’s Cavendish Square, and Shelia left her machinist job to work in the Peek Frean biscuit factory in Bermondsey. With Anne joining Pat at St Joseph’s, Joan continued in her housewife role, but missed the countryside of Hailsham and working at Greens. Then, one day she surprised everyone by announcing that she had got herself a job as personnel assistant at a local fur and leather manufacturing company, named Alaska. She enjoyed going out to earn money for herself, despite still doing most of the housework at home.
Mary, who so longed to join Frank in Canada, finally got her notice to sail aboard the RMS Queen Mary in June 1946. As she prepared to make the long journey with sixteen-month-old Chris, never in her wildest dreams could she have imagined what lay in store for her.
Acknowledgements
To the Jarman sisters, whose stories of their childhood evacuation have been passed down the family over the generations. Thanks for answering my many questions and for the use of photographs, the supplying of tea and for coping admirably with lights, camera, action.
Mary’s memoirs, compiled by her eldest daughter Anne, helped inspire this book and proved to be invaluable. The family genealogy that my cousin Richard (Anne, the youngest Jarman sister’s, eldest son) drew up some years ago was an excellent source of reference.
Thank you to my agent, Diane Banks, who took an interest in my writing; to Robyn Drury for her great support and considerable help in shaping the book; to Andrea Henry at Transworld for her enthusiasm and editorial skill; and to Becky White for her remarkable attention to detail.
A big thank you to my wife, who helped me with just about everything. And to Pierce and Annie for giving birth to six girls.
About the Author
Kath pictured with her son, J. M. (James) Maloney, in the garden at Lynton Road.
J. M. MALONEY is a former national newspaper showbiz editor and has worked in senior roles in consumer magazines. He is now a freelance showbusiness journalist, who writes for various publications in the UK, Australia and New Zealand. He has written books on the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, as well as a review examining the stories behind 100 historic newspaper headlines.
As the son of one of the Jarman sisters, he is perfectly placed to tell the story of the experiences of his mother and aunts during the Second World War.
Jim Maloney can be contacted via Twitter @JM_Maloney.
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First published in Great Britain in 2017 by Corgi Books
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Copyright © J. M. Maloney 2017
Cover design Stephen Mulcahey
Front Image: Magnum photos.
Background images: Alamy, Getty & Johnny Ring.
J. M. Maloney has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 to be identified as the author of this work.
This book is a work of non-fiction based on the life, experiences and recollections of the author’s family. The author has stated to the publishers that the contents of this book are true.
Every effort has been made to obtain the necessary permissions with reference to copyright material, both illustrative and quoted. We apologize for any omissions in this respect and will be pleased to make the appropriate acknowledgements in any future edition.
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