GUTTERS CLEANED AND REPAIRED • FASCIAS • SOFFITS • GUTTERING • ROOF CLEANING • CONSERVATORIES • ROOFS • GUTTER REPAIRS 9th January 2025 • The HERALD • Page 27 v INDEPENDENT, LOCAL AND PROUD v ABOUT US Our roofers are the best in the business and are ready to give your roof a full and completely FREE inspection Your Local Professional Electrician • Complete Rewires • Periodic Inspection Reports • Fault Finding & Repair • New Consumer Units • New Circuits • Central Heating Wiring • Extra Sockets/Lights • PAT Testing • No Job Too Small • Part P Registered • Fast & Efficient Service • Free Estimates Telephone Gary on 07788 865081 forestelectrical@gmail.com Memories of the Waterside in Wartime, Part 2 by Robin Somes, Fawley and Blackfield Memories Previously, we saw my mother Phyllis’s account of working at the British Powerboat Co. during World War 2. Among her hobbies was Amateur Dramatics, as she wrote in a letter to an Australian cousin: “… for the last 2½ years I’ve been with a Variety show. We started in the factory & did a few shows in the canteen at lunchtimes, then when there were so many troops encamped in the area we started giving shows at the gunsites. We became tremendously popular; now we still go out twice a week. I’ve given nearly three hundred performances at practically every garrison theatre, camp, gunsite & hospital in Southern England. These are all for the Forces and absolutely free, it is very hard on our clothes, tho’, and we get no replacements, it’s also very tiring, but we love it. Imagine leaving home at 7 in the morning, working until 6.30, then straight from work to do a show, sometimes at Portsmouth, Bournemouth, Petersfield, Amesbury or Basingstoke, often 60 or 70 miles by car, sometimes two performances a night, then home again to bed at two, & up again at six for that 5-mile cycle ride! Our expenses now are paid for us by the Army, but at first we gave some public shows to raise sufficient Nissen huts & under canvas & in huge garrison theatres, sometimes all our clothes soaked with rain or simply frozen in thin evening frocks while the audience sat wrapped up in their greatcoats & blankets, or baked in a heatwave with every possible light on, on the stage & not a door or window to let in a breath of air. Trips over icebound roads in a blizzard (with the driver drunk!), thunderstorms & rain and fog. I must say that our little band, nine of us, must be pretty tough, because not once have we had to cancel a show through ill health or bad weather! We always get a tremendous reception, so I suppose the programme must be quite good. We have a pianist & a violinist, a tap dancer, a soprano, a girl whistler, two comedians – one does a sort of dame turn, the tap dancer teams up with her sister for a banjo act & we have a burlesque ballet by the two comedians & several very funny sketches which I just act in. I feel rather badly about that, all the others are so versatile, & I only act!” A certificate for services to entertainment during wartime, awarded in 1945 money to give the troops a show or two. I could tell you the most hair-raising adventures in our battered old car in any weather, at camps so isolated that ENSA parties (professionals) refused to play at, in Digging Deeper on Sale in The Herald Office Published in December, ‘Digging deeper: more Waterside stories’ is the follow-up to Robin Somes’ 2023 book, ‘Digging up the past: A collection of Waterside stories’, featuring articles rst published in e Herald. is volume comprises 30 tales, published in 2023 and 2024, of historical events, family connections, and personal recollections of life around Fawley and the Waterside villages. e book is on sale for £6 (cash only) from the Herald o ce or via Robin’s online shop: shop.robinsomes.co.uk VETERANS BREAKFAST CLUB Hythe Armed Forces & Veterans Breakfast Club takes place on the second Saturday of every month at Hythe & District Social Club, Pylewell Road, Hythe. Go along on Saturday 12th January to enjoy the social interaction and banter with fellow veterans which will help improve your mental health and is good for PTSD. For more details text Graham on 07526 507053 or nd them on Facebook (Hythe Armed Forces & Veterans Breakfast Club).
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