E. C. Oates died of typhus.
Invasion of Europe started.
Barbara Anslow's diary: View pages
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((Date is approximate. I don't like to identify Mr A and Mrs B here, as some of the family may still be alive.))
I got to a tribunal (held in a little room in the Married Quarters which was the office of the British Community Council) to settle differences between neighbours Mr. A and Mrs B, the latter having alleged that Mr A had threatened 'to knock her block off'.
Mr. Evans ((not sure which one)) presided. (This was over a clothes line which Mrs B had tied up in a communal area & on which she had hung wet garments. Mr A objected because of the drips and in her absence pulled the line down. When Mrs B found her much-prized sharkskin suit on the floor she was furious, and wanted to put the clothes line and the clothes back. Mr. A. said why couldn't she put her wet clothes on the clothes lines in the courtyard, like every one else? - I guess Mrs B preferred to keep an eye on her much-prized garment. When Mr A threatened to 'knock her block off' more acrimony followed.)
During the proceedings Mrs B's daughter aged 20 butted in once, unable to contain herself, and Mrs B had to be restrained by her husband when her indignation threatened to run away with her. Mr A for a long time refused to take back his words, though Mr Evans pointed out that he had threatened physical violence, and apparently still intended this on his own telling. It ended with both parties agreeing not to disturb each other, provided the other behaved.
There was quite a lot of garden produce stealing at this time.
Mr M Flaherty died of Hodgkin's disease. Much fuss over his coffin, apparently made from a questionable source (all furniture now being strictly communal - there was a Tribunal case over it, against L. Nielson). Mrs Flaherty Chinese, she spent some time in gaol but is out now.
No births during June.
Still rehearsing 'Peter Pan'.
C. H. Goodwin (HK Police) died.
A typed Red Cross message dated 18th March 1943 arrived from Aunt Lily in Gillingham, Kent, stamped la Croix Rouge, Geneve, with a Japanese chop on it, saying
'Hope you and girl are well... Having lovely spring weather. All well. Love'.
((At some unrecorded time, another, plain typed postcard dated 28.1.44 and stamped by British Censor arrived, saying:
'All well, Home and Rhodesia. Hope you and girls are too. Having mild winter, bulbs up, trees sprouting. All send our love, Lilian.'
The reference to Rhodesia is re Aunt Bess and family, and Aunt Hilda and family, who lived there.))
Rosaleen Frances McDermott born, the second child born to that family in Stanley.
Mum in hospital with acute gastro-entiritis.
Olive sold her engagement ring.
Mr A. L. Shields died; his wife had been repatriated with the Canadians.
((Peter Pan was performed at St Stephens during Aug. 1944. Eric MacNider mentions its performance in his diary entries for August 11th & 12th.))
Sheila Haynes, Jacquie Anderson and myself produced this play. Norah Witchell also helped. Eileen Grant put the show's songs to music. Pauline Beck played piano accompaniments to the dances which were arranged by Peggy Barton and my sister Mabel.
The cast:
PETER - Mavis Thirlwell (13)
WENDY - Ruth Sewell (aged 11)
JOHN - Malcolm Kerr (11)
MICHAEL - Gloria Mejia (7) alternating with Anne de Broekert (7 - Dutch)
NANA - Ingeborg Warild (14 - Norwegian)
MRS DARLING - Anneke Offenberg (15 - Dutch) & Kristine Thoresen (14 - Norwegian)
MR DARLING - George Cullen (18)
TINKERBELL - Eileen Hill (10)
TIGER LILY - Dawn Rose (12 - her mother died in camp, leaving Dawn and younger brother Gerald on their own, as their father was a POW in Kowloon camp. Mrs. H. Aitken thereafter looked after Dawn and Gerald until the end of the war.)
CAPTAIN HOOK - Georges de Vleeschouwer (13 - Belgian)
CROCODILE - Pauline Hill (13)
LOST BOYS:-
SLIGHTLY - Pauline Pemble (12)
TWIN 1 - Dolores Bonner (11)
TWIN 2 - Delia Mejia (12)
CURLY - Moira Cameron (11 - whose mother died in camp)
NIBS - Joan Eager (9);
TOOTLES - Tinneke Offenberg (11 - Dutch).
PIRATES -
Brian Clark (11 - Australian)
Pat Corrigan (12)
Billy Bethell (15)
Eddie Aitken (13) ((Eddie Aitken is the son of Mrs Aitken who mothered the Rose children))
plus some others.
REDSKINS -
Billy Seraphina (11)
Denis Roe (9)
and others.
FAIRIES -
Jacqueline Barton (10)
Rosemary Barton (9)
Sally Leighton (5)
Mavis Hamson (8)
Cynthia Eager (8)
Terry Simpson (6)
Rose Twidale (7)
Daisy Cullen (8)
Flossie James (7)
Matilda Hardoon (8).
The production assistants:-
R. E. Butler (lighting; an engineer who did the lights for most Stanley shows)
Richard Cloake (Dick); T. A. Concannon.
Harold Bidwell, Clifton Large, George Anderson, Quentin MacFayden. (These trained the Redskins and the Pirates.)
The biggest hit of Peter Pan was the crocodile (Pauline Hill) who slithered across the stage in an amazingly realistic garment made by one Teddy Harris.
((I was so pleased to meet up with Ruth Sewell (Wendy), Pauline Pemble, Flossie James and Tinneke Offenberg (all 3 Lost Boys) at Stanley Reunion in UK in 1997; Eddie Aitken has visited me several times in recent years.. I have also met up with Dawn Rose (Tiger Lily), and Rosemary Barton, one of the fairies. At VJ Celebration in London 2015 quite by chance I bumped into another fairy, Daisy Cullen – now known as Barbara – who remembered dancing in 'Peter Pan', we had a wonderful chat.
Another fairy was Mavis Hamson, whose daughter Allana Corbin has written a most interesting and forthright book about life in Stanley of her mother, uncle, grandparents, great-grandmother and aunt – 'Prisoners of the East', ISBN 0 7329 1110 9, published by Pan Macmillan Australia Pty Limited.))
((Date is approximate))
Sudden news that we were going to get Canadian parcels.
We all had to give up our private little gardens on the ex-football pitch to become communal gardens as food getting shorter, so our sweet potatoes which were coming on so well had to be hurriedly dug up.
Electricity went off for good (we were told).
Diet Kitchen had to close down.
D.C. Edmonston died. A bank official, he was imprisoned in the gaol; his wife and daughter Mary (in camp) were notified that he was dying and were allowed to go and see him, but he didn't know them, and died. ((Mrs. Edmonston had in January bought Olive's gold manicure set for Mary's birthday. The Japanese allowed Mr Edmonston's body to be buried in the camp cemetry.))
Mabel's 21st birthday. She and I locked the door and ate a plateful each of fried sweet potatoes and rice bread with some paste I'd saved. We were real gluttons.
