((The original text isn't dated, but suggests the event described happened over an extended period.))
But I must not conclude without mentioning the service done to the community by a retired sea-captain.
He managed to obtain some packets of tea that had been sent in by the Red Cross and by collecting twigs from the hillside he was able to boil water to make tea. Every afternoon without fail, at 4 o'clock we would her a stentorian shout "come and get it!", and there would be a rush of people from all over the camp carrying any sort of containers they could find in which to carry the precious tea.
I think this service was appreciated as much as any: it helped to break into the otherwise monotonous routine of the internees.
((Who was the tea-boiling sea-captain?
I asked Barbara Anslow, but she doesn't recognise the description, writing:
I didn't know Phyllis Ayrton, but see from Greg Leck's camp list that she was in her fifties in 1945. I have never heard about this distribution of tea by a sea captain, I think it must have been in a different part of the camp than where I lived, as I would surely have been in the queue if I'd known about it!
Geoffrey Emerson makes a good case:
My guess is that it's the famous Gingles, former Navy cook not captain. Somewhere I read he used to shout "Come and get it" and he certainly made people happy with his cooking, so why not his tea?
))
