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BBC Homepage Home At war in Bangor Last updated: 05 February 2007 Graham Vine from Bordon, Hampshire, got in touch to share his mixed feelings about life for an English boy in Bangor more from this section during World War II. Student life BBC Local History North West Wales Thanks to Herr Adolf Hitler I was compelled to live in Bangor In pictures Outdoors & activities Things to do to be near my father's workplace in until World War II was over and we were all allowed to return to our Isle Hall of fame People & Places Multi-cultural life of Wight homes. Nature & Outdoors Vaynol Estate Ask a local History What started as a bit of a nightmare for a seven-year-old I love Bangor Religion & Ethics English boy surrounded by fervent Welsh Nationalists, ended Weird tales Train information Arts & Culture in a state of awful confusion when I had to leave the place I Music came to love, full of so many friends, to return to a home living in bangor TV & Radio that had also grown away from me whilst I was away. Local public services Local BBC Sites Useful links News All the Saunders-Roe workforce and their families arrived one Have your say Sport dark night after an all-day journey that began before dawn - Local healthcare explained Weather it was supposed to be hush-hush stuff. We were ushered Travel through a gateway in a high wall to be confronted with a Weather for Bangor spell-binding view, the and the entire coastline Neighbouring Sites Sunday Monday Mid Wales as far as the , bathed in moonlight. max 16°C max 13°C North East Wales min 7°C min 6°C We were told this was to be our new home, the Bishop's Related BBC Sites Palace at Glyn Garth, and we all lived there communally until, Wales one by one, each family found its own accommodation round interact Cymru about. Tell us about a web page Gogledd Orllewin Found a web page we should know about? Send us the details. I celebrated my seventh birthday and my first Welsh Christmas there before we moved to lodgings at Burn Bank in Email A Friend Margaret Street, Beaumaris. I had a very unhappy time at Menai Bridge County Primary School, where I was frequently set-upon for no better reason than I was English and my related bbc.co.uk links form teacher was a fervent Welsh Nationalist who did more to encourage the bullying than to stop it. History: BBC in Bangor History: Wartime memories My parents dug deep into their pockets to send me to a related www links private boarding school, which could hardly have been more different - St Gerard's Convent School in Bangor. Saunders-Roe Apprentices

The cost of fees forced my mother to go out to work, so we more from North West moved from Beaumaris to lodgings in Craig-y-Don Road, Wales Upper Bangor, right next door to the bowling green, and my association with Bangor began. Food & Drink Full of flavour By now the war effort was demanding everyone's attention. Is your favourite local produce or recipe in our Both my parents were working long hours - father servicing guide? Catalina flying boats at Friars and mother working at the office where the Royal Army Service Corps coastal patrol Traffic and Travel boats were administered. So I was unable to live at home Getting around and remained as a boarder with the nuns. Take the train, boat or plane, or hit the region's roads. That was until I was lucky enough to get through the Common Entrance Exam and the ensuing scholarship exam Arts and was given a place at Friars Grammar School to start my Be inspired secondary education. Release your creativity with a look at local art and artists. After the safety of St Gerard's, this meant exposure, once more, to the nasty side of nationalism, the aspect that we see far too much of to this day, the side which believes the cause justifies almost any cruelty.

I was very lucky that I built up my own special relationships Tai Hanesyddol with a few elderly Welsh ladies who made sure my incessant O blastai crand i ffermydd gwledig, camwch dros queries were properly answered so that I learned why our drothwy rhai o dai mwyaf wretched Government had been the cause of Welsh hanesyddol yr ardal disaffection.

I would like to thank them by name as they surely deserve a place in heaven: Mrs Jones of 14 College Road and Mrs Reece of 14 Menai View Terrace, both successive landladies of ours, and especially, Mary Silwyn Roberts, who was Cavan O'Connor's landlady at his wartime theatrical digs, a few doors further along College Road.

Bangor in the war years was a hotbed of culture and politics, stimulated by the university college, where even for someone as young as I was, there was so much to be learned.

The entire BBC variety department was housed in the town for the duration of the war. For a time we even shared lodgings with Children's Hour's Aunty Nan, to whom I looked up with great respect befitting a person involved with that Monday to Friday, prime-time slot. Our landlady there was Mrs Jones and after the war her younger son, Meurig, became an announcer and disc jockey for BBC Wales.

In Bangor we also made friends with the ap Rhys family who lived in Garth Road, backing onto the sea. Prof Thomas ap Rhys was not only on the staff at the university, he was blind and was one of the early pioneers who assessed various breeds of dog for their suitability as guide dogs. These were the foundation years of the Guide Dogs for the Blind charity. I well remember playing with his dogs as he kept so many of the 'failures' as family pets.

I joined the 3rd City of Bangor Sea Scout troop, who met in an old warehouse at Port Penrhyn, where I also made the acquaintance of the Penrhyn Quarry Railway. I later joined the Menai Bridge Silver Band, playing tenor horn.

But I was cruelly torn away from my new friends at their practice room on Menai Bridge pier, by the inconsiderate termination of the war and my rapid repatriation to the Isle of Wight.

Graham Vine your comments

Patricia Duffy (Nee Owen) Gina (Pugh) USA, I was at St Gerards Convent at the same time as you and your sisters.I lived at the Harp Inn, High Street, Bangor. Many times, the sisters would knock the door so that I could walk the short distance to church with you.I have been trying to contact anyone that might have attended the convent around the same time I did. After many years of travelling with my late husband, both in the UK and abroad, I sadly lost photos in transit, along with my treasured school photos taken 1952/1953 and I think 1954. I wrote to Sister Mary Emmanuel many years ago and she told me that there were no records of the photographs, nor any copies at the convent. If you can help or know someone who you think could, it would make me very happy. Mon Jul 20 11:26:31 2009

Marie Caponi (nee Smith) I remember the Pugh girls (above). I was at St Gerard's from 1947-1950. I was friends with Sheila Steven Jones from Africa, living in Aber. I also remember Georgina Dorton (can't rememeber the spelling) whose family owned a hotel in Betws y Coed. Tue Apr 14 10:22:15 2009

Graham Vine from Bordon, Hampshire Yes, the school crocodile wending its way down the lane and through the town early each evening for Benediction at Bangor's Catholic Church is also a vivid memory as, for a weekly boarder, like myself, I would often see people I knew and could wave to them as we all filed past! No doubt that crocodile would be well known to many Bangor citizens as it was a daily routine, almost as dependable as the Irish Mail. It was one of those childhood privileges to be on the platform at Bangor as the Irish Mail shrieked and thundered through.

I had a very mixed religious life in Bangor which was - with hindsight - of enormous benefit to me for I was a virtual Roman Catholic all the weekdays at St Gerard's and, at weekends, I would either be attending the C of E Church or the newly formed Quaker Meeting and, whenever I was especially lucky, I would accompany Mrs Jones to the Baptist Chapel where the service was always in Welsh - of which I understood very little but was soon singing hymns as well as any native and earning much approval from my Welsh hosts. So I had found a way to convince them that not ALL English were bad news ! I suppose I must have been quite good at singing because, at St Gerard's, I was always asked to sing at the nuns' birthday parties. Tue Apr 22 10:38:26 2008

Graham Vine from Bordon, Hampshire It's been some time since I looked at my entry in the history pages so it was quite a surprise to find the added comments. Starting with Jim Menlove. Jim and I must have often passed one another if we didn't actually talk as I was often on the Menai Strait shore, especialy between the old sea-bathing pool and the youth hostel, where my mates and I beachcombed or I walked dogs for my old ladies, if on my own.

I too have seen Bangor City play, accompanying my Dad on his Saturdays off and have wandered over Bangor Mountain many times, sometimes on my own, with friends or, occasionally when 3rd City of Bangor were engaged in BP's Wide Games as he called them. But, likely as not, we would be on the Roman Camp which was much nearer home. Besides Cavan O'Connor's son, Gary, being a playmate of mine another playmate was John King, whom I discovered, much later in life, was the father of the very well-known BBC wildlife presenter, Simon King. Living in the top flat at 14 Menai View Terrace one did get a grandstand view of the Strait and all the flying boat movements on it and, of course, HMS Conway, swinging at her moorings as the tide changed. One holiday time when all the cadets had gone home, my friends and I were given a tour of the old warship because one of us boys, Alastair Woods, had a father who was one of the officers on board. It was a shattering experience leaving Bangor Pier in Conway's launch with a creww made up of many of her domestic staff, who were - would you believe - all "retired" Chinese pirates captured by the Royal Navy and serving their sentences as Cadet ship domestic staff. There was little doubt of their background as all of them were hideously mutilated from much cutlass fighting, with divers missing bits - ears were commonly missing as were nose tips cut back to the bone and, of course fingers galore, AWOL. After that mere scars seemed quite trivial! Yes,Gina, I do remember Sister Mary Aquinas, Sister Theresa, Sister Mary of Mercy - the intrepid footballer - and Sister Mary Agnes, a very old nun who was the boy's "mother", who made sure we were all kept clean! Mon Apr 21 10:54:22 2008

Chris Penney, Exeter My mother comes from Bangor and she vividly remembers the RAF Coastal Command Catalina flying boats alighting on the Menai Straits for repair at the Beaumaris overhaul facility opposite. A recently published book Wings Across the Border details this aviation history of the area and having asked for it for Christmas she was then engrossed in it for the rest of festive season! Wed Apr 16 09:39:50 2008

John Davies, Boston Lincs our family moved to bangor in 1940, my father worked for the liverpool victoria approved soc who rented treborth hall for the duration of the war. we lived at gwenalt and the garden ran to the railway enbankment. steam engines numbers was our hobby. it was a very busy station and yards. i remember the yanks marching up the road from the station and i said 'any gum chum' and a guy said no but i have some candy. the horses used to come from the station in strings of about 10 on way to the horse fair at menai bridge, the ferry used to go from the end of the pi! er when the tide was low so we had to walk a long way to board it. the flying boats were moored in the straits and the conway training ship was also there but was destroyed by fire. my sister was 4 years older than me and took me to sat pictures and trips to bangor mountain, which often was on fire due to children setting the gorse alight. we returned to croydon after the war but sadly my nephew and i will in a couple of weeks make the final journey to menai bridge to scatter my sister's ashes where she and i spent many happy time togther during the war. Wed Apr 9 12:13:42 2008

Gina (Pugh) Hequembourg Dawsonville Ga USA Graham - my family was at St Gerards Convent during the war. We lived in Liverpool and were evacuated to Wales for safety. My sisters Sheila, Pamela and myself attended St Gerards convent as boarders for our entire school lives. I have lots of memories of the nuns and the dormitories and walking into town to go to church down the lane. The fields we would play in. Do you remember Sister Mary Aquinus? Wed Jan 23 08:52:25 2008

Jim Menlove I spent many months in Bangor between 1940 and 1944 living with my mother and sister in the home of my grandparents Seth and Bertha Randall. I did not experience any of the prejudice which plagued Graham but that was no doubt because,even though very English, everyone knew my Welsh family, the Randalls. I was Ada's son and I assume now that is why I had better experiences. My father Bert Menlove had come from England in 1929 to play football for Bangor City and had met my mother then. I was born in 1930 in a tiny stone house with dirt floors on 22 Waterloo St.

I remember the nois! e of the Catalinas taking off from the straits on their way for ocean patrols and the MTBs stationed nearby. Once my sister and I were given a short ride in one, no doubt totally against regulations.

I spent many hours on "the mountain" to which we climbed up a narrow path between the houses. Other times were by the sea shore gathering winkles to take home for tea. Thu Mar 15 10:04:23 2007