# Yesterdays Child .........Chapter 6



## Maywalk (Jan 17, 2022)

CHAPTER SIX

THE TRIBUNAL
While living in the cottage my mother had got a job at the main Post Office and John had started work at Herbert Morris the big engineering firm.
A dis-used chapel was set aside for the London evacuees in King Street that was to house about 250 children and three teachers one of who was nearly blind.
She had been brought out of retirement to teach the infants. This she could manage with the help of two senior girls.
To say that it was crowded would be an understatement but we managed and I even passed my 11+ to go to Rawlins Grammar School but my parents had neither the money or the coupons for the uniform.
The Londoners were looked upon as foreigners because we had come from another part of the country.
We were blamed for T.B. nits, scabies and anything else that was going round.
It took some time for the barriers to come down between the Southerners and the Midlanders.
Once they got to know each other some firm friendships were formed as well as marriages.
It was 1942 and my mother had not received any money from my father to keep us because Mount Pleasant Post Office had been bombed heavily and it looked as though my mothers housekeeping money had gone out in a blaze of glory.
I must add here that though my parents fought like cat and dog from when I can first remember after finally going home to live with them, my father had NEVER kept my mother short on her housekeeping money. It used to come regularly to her all the time we were away from my father.
My mother knew that a special place was set aside for the evacuees in dire straits where they could go if they needed help in an emergency.
I went with my mother to this austere looking building. We were taken to a room where a bald headed man was sitting behind a huge oak desk, on which stood two inkwells, one with red ink and one with black.
He demanded to know what we were there for and my mother said that she had not had any money come through and would like to know if she could borrow some out of the evacuee kitty to see us through until she heard from her husband.
He started ranting at us and scrabbling in the small safe and threw on the desk 3s/6d this is equal to 32 and a halfpence in today’s currency.
Even I as a 12yr old knew that the amount would be no good to keep us until we heard from Dad. Our rent was 5 shillings ( 25p ) a week before buying the rations.
Just as all this happened another woman came in. She was another victim of having no housekeeping money to live on through the same circumstances.
Meanwhile the bald headed man said as he threw the money on the desk, "You all want to get back where you came from instead of taking money and wanting handouts."
OH DEAR! OH DEAR!
He had said the wrong thing to the wrong person.
I can see my mother now with that look of anger on her face as she picked up both inkwells on the tray that they sat on and just threw the lot all over him. She was saying at the same time "You cheeky git you! Don't you dare talk to me like that. I have lost two homes and my family is split up and you say things like that to me. I will brain you, you bald headed git."
The bloke was spluttering with ink running all down his face shouting out for help. All this was going off while my mother in her anger got hold of the heavy oak desk and just lifted it bodily and tipped it over on him. He luckily saw it coming and moved pretty quickly. I was trying to pull my mother away from the desk where it lay on its side and before she did anything else in her anger. Someone had sent for the bobby and he came in and told my mother she had to accompany him down to the police station.
We went there and my mother had to make a statement why she had gone berserk. She had to report back in a few weeks time because it was going before a tribunal.
I was too young at that time to take it all in and I had NO idea what a tribunal was.
When we finally came out of the police station I can remember my mother saying, "Well, after all that I am still no better off money wise but I know what I will do"
We were on our way home by this time. Our walk home took us past Johnny Marrs the pawnbrokers. My mother made a beeline for his door and when we got in she wrenched an 18 carat gold keeper ring off her finger that had been her mother's.
She got £3 for it and it had to be redeemed at the end of a month.
The rent got paid and we got our meagre rations out of that £3 but unfortunately the ring was never redeemed.
After a few weeks my mother had to go before this tribunal.
She got off with it because the one in charge said that she had been provoked.
They even hoped that if ever it happened again she would be spoken to correctly.
I believe the other evacuee lady who saw it and heard it went to the police to tell them that my mother was provoked. OR, thinking back over it, the one who said that she was free with no blame could have been one of those she had sung for.
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Please remember that it is now well over 78 years now since this took place because I was around 12 years old then and things were vastly different then to the present day system.
Photo of my mother below taken just as the war started.
After she had her golden locks cut off to pay for her finger to be stitched back on her hair went a lot darker.
Here to is a list of what rations we got each week which were very often cut if things got too bad.
WW2 Food Rations.
This is the ration for one adult per week.
BACON and HAM ……… 4ozs ( 100g )
MEAT …………………… to the value of 1s.2d ( 6p today ). Sausages were not rationed but difficult to obtain : offal was originally unrationed but sometimes formed part of the meat ration.
BUTTER ………………… 2ozs ( 50g )
CHEESE ………………… 2ozs ( 50g ) sometimes it rose to 4ozs ( 100g ) and even up to 8ozs ( 225g )
MARGARINE ……………… 4ozs ( 100g )
COOKING FAT …………… 4ozs ( 100g ) often dropping to 2ozs ( 50g )
MILK …………………… 3 pints ( 1800ml ) sometimes dropping to 2 pints ( 1200ml ). Household ( skimmed, dried ) milk was available. This was I packet each 4 weeks.
SUGAR …………………… 8ozs ( 225g )
PRESERVES ……………… 1lb ( 450g ) every 2 months
TEA ……………………… 2ozs ( 50g )
EGGS …………………… 1 shell egg a week if available but at times dropping to 1 every two weeks. Dried eggs ----- 1 packet each 4 weeks.
SWEETS …………………… 12 ozs ( 350g ) each 4 weeks.
In addition, there was a monthly points system.
As an example of how these could be spent, with the 16 points that you were allocated you were allowed to buy one can of fish or meat or 2lb ( 900g ) of dried fruit or 8lb ( 3.6kg ) of split peas.
Babies and younger children, expectant and nursing mothers had concentrated orange juice and cod liver oil from Welfare Clinics together with priority milk.
This milk was also available to invalids.
School meals were started in the war because mothers were working extremely long hours to help the war effort.


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## Lewkat (Jan 18, 2022)

You know, Maywalk, it's a wonder anyone in Europe survived WWII.  It came so soon after WWI and you folks hardly had time for a breather.


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## mellowyellow (Jan 18, 2022)

So many dialects in the UK, had to laugh at your mother getting upset with the butcher and would have been extremely proud of her when she threw the ink over the git who said "You all want to get back where you came from instead of taking money and wanting handouts."  So far, I like your mother very much.


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## hollydolly (Jan 18, 2022)

Lewkat said:


> You know, Maywalk, it's a wonder anyone in Europe survived WWII.  It came so soon after WWI and you folks hardly had time for a breather.


Every Brits has said this at some time or another.. how our grandparents  managed to have the inner strength to not only endure this but to emerge the victors so soon after the first world war,is just beyond comprehension... ,,and hardly anyone spoke of it afterwards either...


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## palides2021 (Jan 18, 2022)

Well written and very useful historical reading! Your mother was a feisty woman, but she had to be, to survive. Thanks for sharing this with us, and I loved her photo! Keep them coming!


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## Lewkat (Jan 18, 2022)

I am a WWII scholar, but really knew precious little about WWI until recently when I began delving into that one.  Comparing the 2 ideologically is impossible for there seemed no reason whatsoever for either of those wars other than the squabbles the Europeans were involved in.  But, the depraved behavior of the aggressors is basically identical.  Makes one wonder.


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## Maywalk (Jan 20, 2022)

Many thanks for getting back to me folks. 
Just going to put Chapter 7 up and looking back I very often wonder why my mother was not locked up when putting the world to rights in her own way.


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## RFW (Feb 10, 2022)

I believe your mother could singlehandedly win the war if her words were bullets. I, for one, wouldn't want to be on the receiving end of that.


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