by Rosie Harris
‘I thought you said that you weren’t going to get involved with any of the men you worked with ever again after what happened last time,’ Lorna said in a disapproving voice.
‘Your mam’s right,’ Lloyd agreed. ‘After what happened with that Stefan Vaughan we’d hoped you’d learned your lesson. That other chap, Gwyn Roberts, wasn’t much better either. This may be 1927, and you younger women seem to think you can do as you like now that you’ve got the vote, but I would have thought that it would have made you more responsible for your actions,’ he said sternly.
‘Look, I know I made some bad mistakes in the past, but Owen Phillips is quite different from either of them,’ Sarah said defiantly.
‘That’s what you said the last time,’ her father reminded her. ‘I grant you I was taken in by that Stefan fellow as much as you were, he seemed to be a very intelligent sort of chap, but look what a rogue he turned out to be.’
Sarah didn’t bother arguing with him because she knew there was no point in doing so. She did wish, though, that she hadn’t asked Owen to come to tea on Sunday but it was far too late to back out now.
Her mother made a great fuss about it all, claiming that she liked plenty of warning when she was expected to entertain people so that she could plan ahead.
‘The very last thing I want you to do is start making any special arrangements,’ Sarah told her quickly. ‘Owen would hate to think he had inconvenienced you in any way so don’t go making a fuss or doing anything special.’
She knew it was pointless saying this and wasn’t at all surprised when her mother busied herself making a Victoria Sponge cake and worrying about whether there was enough cold ham left to make sandwiches.
As she changed into one of her prettiest dresses ready to greet her visitor Sarah herself began to have qualms about what she was doing and wondered if she was on the verge of ruining a friendship she valued very much.
Owen arrived promptly at four o’clock and as he presented her mother with a bouquet of flowers she saw the look of pleasure on her mother’s face and smiled to herself that at least he’d found favour in her eyes.
When she introduced him to her father she noticed that as they shook hands the two men studied each other carefully, as though they were two sparring partners weighing each other up.
Lorna had laid the table with her best china all carefully arranged on a lace tablecloth. As they took their places and she brought in the teapot, Sarah took a deep breath, determined to make the best of what looked as though it was going to be a disastrous occasion.
At first the conversation was very stilted. Owen was polite but withdrawn, and her mother nervous and on edge. She kept fussing over whether they wanted more to eat or their cups refilled instead of enjoying the meal herself.
Sarah realised that her parents were both concerned about meeting him because of all that had happened in the past but she found herself wishing it was all over and wondering how soon she could suggest that she and Owen went for a walk without her parents looking affronted.
They were drinking their second cup of tea when Owen seemed to be aware that things weren’t going well at all. He made a special effort to talk to Sarah’s father, asking him about his job.
Slowly, very slowly indeed, Lloyd started to relax. By the time the meal ended and Sarah started to clear the table they’d moved away into more comfortable chairs, still deep in conversation.
‘He seems a nice solid sort of chap,’ her mother commented as they did the washing-up together.
‘He’s certainly been a very good friend to me,’ Sarah said quietly, ‘both at work and outside.’
He mother looked at her sharply. ‘You are sure you know what you’re doing by getting involved again?’
‘I’m not getting involved, Mam. I simply asked Owen to come to tea because I wanted you both to meet him; there’s nothing more to it than that.’
‘Are you quite certain about that?’ her mother pressed. ‘It doesn’t look like mere friendship to me. I suppose it could be worse,’ she added with a sigh. ‘He’s a fine-looking chap and he has a responsible job, but then so did that Stefan Vaughan.’
‘He’s nothing at all like Stefan, Mam. Stefan was all out for a good time. At work he was head of a department and highly respected but when he was out enjoying himself he was quite wild. Owen is nothing at all like that. He is always very quiet and reserved.’
‘Well, he and your dad seem to have plenty to say to each other,’ she agreed.
Although Lloyd acknowledged that Owen was a quiet, industrious sort of chap, he did rather hold it against him that he wouldn’t discuss trade unions or say whether or not he was a supporter of them.
‘Do you or do you not agree that they are justified in holding the bosses to ransom in order to be paid the sort of wages they think they’re entitled to receive?’ Lloyd probed.
‘It’s a question that never arises at Morgan’s even though we have a large number of men working there, because we make certain that they are all quite happy with their terms of employment,’ Owen explained to Lloyd with a bland smile.
‘I’m not very interested in politics,’ Sarah told her father when he mentioned the matter later that evening.
‘Then you should be. With the education you’ve had you could make your opinion heard. I shouldn’t have to keep reminding you that women have the vote,’ he told her frowning, ‘and therefore it is their duty to interest themselves in such matters.’
‘It’s part of Morgan’s policy that as a company they don’t support or even recognise trade unions,’ Sarah told him. ‘If any new employee belongs to a union, they prefer him to keep his views to himself and not try to persuade his fellow workers to join.’
Although Lloyd seemed to approve of this he was curious as to what Owen thought about such matters.
‘Owen may advise them because that’s what he’s expected to do but I have no idea what his personal views are,’ she told her father.
‘From the way he spoke when we were discussing the miners’ strike he sides with his boss over such matters. He blames the miners for striking instead of negotiating and says that the root cause of the depression we’re entering into now is the result of their disruption.’
‘Well, then, as General Manager and as Mr Morgan’s right-hand man, it’s no wonder he doesn’t want to have anything to do with trade unions,’ Sarah pointed out.
‘Yet he agreed with me that many of the improvements that have been made in the workplace or in the wages people are paid has come about through union intervention,’ her father argued. ‘As someone who knows the law as well as you do you should also be aware of that.’
From then on Sarah avoided talking about Owen or getting involved in any conversation with her father that touched on trade unions or political matters of any kind. She noticed her mother had said nothing when they were talking about it and she wondered whether her mother was disinterested or whether she knew from experience that it was one of her father’s hobby-horses.
Her mother certainly seemed to have been impressed by Owen and seemed to have taken to him. She was constantly saying what a nice chap he was and frequently asked her how he was and seemed to be interested in anything she cared to tell her.
It was only a few months later when Lloyd came home from work, ashen-faced and shaking so much that they both thought he had been taken ill.
Lorna made him a cup of tea and insisted he sat down in front of the fire, but he pushed her aside.
‘Tea won’t solve my problem,’ he told her harshly. ‘In future we may not even be able to afford to drink tea,’ he added gloomily.
‘What on earth are you on about? Don’t tell me that there’s going to be another General Strike; we’re only just recovering and getting back on our feet from the last one.’
‘It’s worse than that. I’ve been given the sack.’
They stared at him in disbelief. He’d never worked anywhere else except the few years when he’d been in t
he army. The moment he’d been demobbed he’d gone straight back there. His work record was exemplary; he was never late and never took a day off.
‘Thirty years of loyal service and they give me my cards without a word of warning,’ he said bitterly.
‘There must be a reason,’ Lorna protested.
‘They’re cutting back. They said the older men in top jobs were too expensive to keep on. They got rid of three of us older ones and kept on the young lads we’ve trained up, who only earn half of what we do.’
‘Didn’t any of the others have anything to say about it?’ Lorna asked.
‘Plenty, but it did no good. We were all told that if someone had to go then this was the best way. Our families were all grown up so we weren’t still struggling to make ends meet.’
‘Surely the younger men stood a better chance of getting taken on somewhere else, though?’ Sarah frowned.
‘Watching their own backs, aren’t they?’ her father said bitterly. ‘Make too much of a fuss about us being sacked and their own jobs might be on the line. All these years I’ve done my best, ever since I joined the company, and this is how they treat me.’
‘So what are you going to do now?’ Lorna asked in a bewildered voice. ‘You’re not yet fifty, Lloyd, so you can’t simply sit back and do nothing. You’re far too young to retire so you’ll have to try and find another job.’
‘I’ll certainly do my best but the chances of finding one at my age is going to be difficult. I don’t suppose for one minute I’ll get another one as a manager. To think I kept everything in shipshape order all these years and now some half-trained youngster is stepping into my shoes. Give him three months and without my guidance everything will be in utter chaos. It takes years of experience to run things there as efficiently as I did,’ he said morosely.
‘Well, if you can’t get a managerial position then you’ll have to compromise and be prepared to take something else, I suppose,’ Lorna sympathised.
‘All because of the damned miners coming out on strike,’ Lloyd muttered gloomily.
‘If they’d treated them right in the first place, paid them a living wage and provided them with decent homes, then none of this would have happened,’ Sarah opined.
‘Maybe with your education it would have been better if you’d put up for Parliament and helped to run the country instead of working where you are,’ her father told her sourly.
Sarah felt stung by his words and was about to start arguing with him but her mother gave her a warning look.
Afterwards, Lorna said gently, ‘Don’t start riling him, Sarah. He’s depressed enough as it is. He’s never been out of work in his life before and this is a terrible blow for him having to go on the dole. It’s going to take a lot of persuading to get him to go and sign on because he’ll feel it is such a disgrace having to do so.’
‘There’s no disgrace at all about it. He’s been paying in for it ever since he started work so it’s his due.’
‘You know that and so do I but to him it seems like a handout, a form of charity, and it will go against the grain for him to have to queue up to sign on each week, I can tell you.’
As the weeks passed and Lloyd had still not managed to find work, he grew more and more depressed. Even though she was handing over almost all of her wages Sarah knew that her mother was having a hard time keeping things going on these and her father’s dole money.
At the end of twenty-six weeks they all knew that even this would stop and then things would be more difficult than ever. For a start they would be means tested and the very thought of that sent shudders through all of them.
‘We may as well not bother because they’ll tell us that we have a daughter living at home who is working and, what’s more, they’ll tell us that we have plenty of furniture and other stuff that we can sell,’ her father pointed out.
It made him all the more determined to find work. He’d long since given up looking for anything managerial, having faced so many rejections because of his age. By now he was ready to do almost anything rather than have to submit himself and his family to suffering the indignity of the Means Test.
From the very first he’d asked Sarah not to mention his dilemma to Owen because he felt so ashamed of their plight. Now, however, she was so worried that Owen sensed something was wrong.
When he asked her a direct question about why she was so quiet and evasive she had no alternative but to tell him the truth.
‘I’m sorry to hear that,’ he said shaking his head in dismay. ‘As a matter of fact, I wondered if you were having trouble at home because of me. The fact that I’ve never been invited back again made me think that perhaps your parents disapproved of me.’
‘No, nothing at all like that. My mam thought you were lovely, in fact.’ She smiled.
‘Well, that’s good to hear.’ He grinned. ‘What about your dad, does he think the same?’
She shrugged. ‘I have made a point of not mentioning your name lately because he is so indignant that he is out of work and blames the miners’ strike for the fact that he is on the dole.’
‘How long has he been looking for work? You’ve never said a word and I thought we were friends,’ he commented reprovingly.
‘His twenty-six weeks are almost up and that means the Means Test, if he is to get any more money and he and my mam are absolutely sick with worry at the thought of that.’
‘I’m sure they are,’ Owen agreed quietly. ‘It must be terrible for a proud hard-working man like your father who has had a highly responsible job to be subjected to that sort of thing.’
Two days later, Owen handed her a form.
‘What’s this?’ Sarah asked, her voice tinged with alarm. ‘You’re not giving me the sack I hope,’ she added with a weak smile.
‘No, it’s an application form for your father to fill out. I’m sure we can find him some sort of work here.’
‘Thank you.’ Sarah bit her lip, not knowing quite what else to say because she wasn’t at all sure how her father would react.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Sarah took the application form that Owen had given her home but she gave it to her mother, not her father.
‘I’m not at all sure how your dad will react over this, cariad,’ Lorna said uneasily. ‘The mood he’s in these days he might think you’re interfering.’
‘That’s utter rubbish. Surely he can’t afford to turn down any help he gets.’
Her mother read the form through again, running her finger down the page to make sure she missed nothing out as she did so.
‘Who would he have to see if he completed this application form?’ she asked frowning.
‘The general manager, of course,’ Sarah told her.
‘Isn’t that what that Owen Phillips is?’ her mother asked in a puzzled voice.
‘Yes, Owen is the general manager.’
‘I don’t think your dad would feel comfortable about having to do that at all. What’s more to the point, he might regard it as charity if he was actually offered a job at Morgan’s, and he would hate that,’ her mother said worriedly.
‘Believe me, it wouldn’t be charity; he’d have to have the necessary qualifications,’ Sarah told her quickly. ‘It was Owen’s idea that he should fill in an application form.’
‘What on earth were you thinking of, telling Owen about our problems?’ her mother exclaimed.
‘I hadn’t told him about Dad losing his job, not until today,’ Sarah defended herself.
‘Why tell him at all?’ Lorna said indignantly.
‘I wouldn’t have done so but he questioned me because he said I seemed to be troubled and he thought it might be because you two disapproved of me going out with him.’
‘What utter nonsense! I thought he was an extremely nice chap. You must invite him to come again soon; that is, once your dad is fixed up in a job,’ she added hurriedly.
‘Well, what are we going to do about this application form? Are we going to give it to Dad
to fill in or not?’ Sarah challenged.
Neither of them was at all sure about what his reaction would be so they decided it might be best to leave it for another couple of days and see what developed. Lloyd was in a grim mood as it was and was constantly carping about the injustice of it all.
‘The miners have already taken pay cuts so why couldn’t the bosses be satisfied with that? The men have to live, they have to feed their kids, and a chunk of their money goes back to the pit owners in the form of rent anyway.’
‘It’s no good blaming the miners for the fact that you’ve lost your job,’ Lorna told him. ‘It’s the company you worked for that’s to blame. Mind you, most firms are penny pinching these days.’
‘Yes, so that the bosses can line their own pockets,’ Lloyd retorted bitterly.
He constantly nagged Sarah that she should take these matters more seriously and that with her legal training she ought to be trying to do something about it.
‘If I start getting involved in politics then I might lose my job and that would mean we were both out of work and on the dole,’ she pointed out. ‘Furthermore, as a woman with no dependants I probably wouldn’t get any dole and even if I applied I would be told that I didn’t have enough stamps on my card to be entitled to any.’
‘You’ve got an answer for everything,’ he told her. ‘Wait until you’re given your cards for no reason at all and see how you feel about things then.’
Sarah was on the point of telling him about the application form but her mother shook her head, warning her to say nothing.
They probably wouldn’t have told him about it at all except that a couple of days later he came home from the dole office after going to sign on to say that they had told him that his dole money would cease forthwith.
‘The next step is that I have to appear before a tribunal and be means tested,’ Lloyd told them bitterly. ‘I suppose you know all about that,’ he added sourly.
‘I should do, you’ve told us often enough,’ Lorna sighed. ‘They will want to know all your personal details, like how much rent we pay and what our outgoings are and so on, I suppose,’ she added worriedly.