UPPINGHAM IN LIVING MEMORY 1 Snapshots of Uppingham in the 20 h Century Part I: Uppingham at War Uppingham Local History Study Group 16 NOT TO BE ..PVBL!BmtD TIie'-' .... .._bltlde.S-1 -----G.S. Publicatiou la·- te lte -aalcaled, eltber d1nct1J or badlNc:tlJ, te Ute•- erte 8D7..­ 388 -t laoldln& - ..-.a pealtlaa .. Jin Majeety........... HOME GUARD INSTRUCTION No. 15-1940 COMMON GERMAN MILITARY EXPRESSIONS En1lisJ, Gtnnan Hatt I Who goes there ? Halt ! Wer da ? HARLT. VAIR DAR? Hands up I HAnde boch I HENDER ·HOCH. Come cloaer I Kommt hierher I KOMM'! HEAR-HAIR Surrender. Ergebt euch AIRGAYBT OICK. J;;)o B8t moot. Nieht ~D NICKT SREESSEN. Thro\l. down your arms. Waffen h.inlegen. VAFFEN HIN-LAYGEN. Stand still. Stehen bleiben. SHTAYEN BLYBEN. Go in front of me. Vora usgeben. FOR-OWSE-GAYEN. Forward I Vorwlrul FOR-VAIRTS. ~t once I Sofort I SOFORI. Double I Marsch I Marsch I MARSH MARSH. .Faster I Sc:hneller I SHNELLAIR. Slower I Lanpaml LUNGSUM. Left I Links I LINKS. Right I Rechul WRECHTS. Stop I Halt I HARLT. C.Ome back I Kommt zurUck I KOMMT TSOORICK. Non.-The pronUDCiation given in Column 3 ia t~ nearest Enjliab equivalent to the German sounds. The exact pronunciation can only be learned from a German speaker. Pr.pared under tM direclion of ,, TIie Chu/ of .Ille Impmal Gm,r,u St11,fj. I, TD Wu 0171Clt, 2oth S.pmnbw, 1940. Prlnled under the .Aiatborl17 onto VAT!STM 8TATtOllZJtYJ'Onu:I b7 Wl1Uam Clow• 6 Solll, Ltd., London ud n-1& G. 116.-16811. (11/.0). 1101L Home Guard Instruction No. JS. (HMSO) Cover illustration: amongst the papers of the late Ernie Marlow is a photograph of the Uppingham Home Guard parading in 1941 along High Street West in front of The Red House and adjacent cottages that were once sited on the Lorne House lawn. Reproduced courtesy of John G Marlow. UPPINGHAM IN LIVING MEMORY Snapshots of Uppingham in the 20th Century Part I: Uppingham at War The Home Guard on parade in Uppingham Reproduced courtesy of David Bland. Uppingham Local History Study Group November 2005 © Uppingham Local History Study Group 2005 ISBN 0-9540076-4-6 Published by Uppingham Local History Study Group 7 Newtown Road Uppingham Rutland LE15 9TR Previous publications Uppingham in 1851: A Night in the Life of a Thriving Town, 2001 Uppingham in 1802, 2002 The Making of Uppingham, 2003 In addition to those who have written chapters of this volume, the following members of the Group have been involved in this project: Carolyn Cartwright, Caroline Crombie, Hilary Crowden, Julia Culshaw (Chairman), Patricia Damen, Brian Robertson, Fiona Stewart, Norman Tomson, Sue Westlake. Rosemary Canadine designed the publication and Centuryprint of Cavendish Courtyard, Corby, printed it. CONTENTS Acknowledgements Abbreviations INTRODUCTION Page 1: PORTRAIT OF THE TOWN 1939-45 ° 1 by Betty Howard ~ 2: EVACUATION OF THE CAMDEN SCHOOL FOR GIRLS TO UPPINGHAM 17 by Roy Stephenson f 3: KINGSWOOD SCHOOL AND UPPINGHAM METHODIST CHURCH 25 by Margaret Stacey 4: LIFE AT UPPINGHAM SCHOOL • 31 as recorded by Henry Dawe 5: RECORDS AND RECOLLECTIONS OF THE NATIONAL AND CENTRAL 37 SCHOOLS • by Helen Hutton and Henry Dawe 6: THE PARISH CHURCH IN PEACE AND WAR • 41 by Peter Lane 7: MEMORIES OF BLETCHLEY PARK 1941-5 ' 53 by Ione Roseveare CONCLUSION Sources Passing-out parade, Oakham, December 1944 Reproduced courtesy of David Bland. Acknowledgements We are very grateful to the following people who have spoken to us or written to us regarding their memories of wartime Uppingham: the late Mrs Rose Dams, Mr and Mrs Tom Dorman, Mr Walter Flitney, the late Mrs Lilian Glithero, Mrs Marie Harris, Mrs Joan Hinman, the late Mr Ted Holmes, Mrs Jean Hunt, Mrs Sheila Kerfoot, Mrs Jessie Jones, Mr Paul Liquorish, Mrs Nellie Mason, Mrs Joan Maund, Mr Ian McKinnell, Mrs Sheila Northen, Mr Derek Pace, Mrs Beaty Peasgood, Mr Edmund Preston, Mr Peter Scott, Mr Dick Smith, Mr Alan Snodin, Mr and Mrs Gordon Stones, Mrs Daphne Thomas, Mrs Nina Tilley, Mrs Joan Ward, Mr Keith Watson, Mr Dennis Wright, Mr Maurice Wright. The following deserve our thanks for their support towards this publication: Mr Harvey Barker, Mr D Brown (Kingswood School Archivist), Dr Ian Canadine, Mr Michael Culpin, Mr Ashley Dawe, Canon Stephen Evans, Dr P Forsaith (librarian/archivist of the Wesley Historical Society), Mr Geoffrey Frowde, Mr and Mrs Norman Harrington, Miss Margaret Jennings (for permission to reproduce material from As We Were: Extracts from the Log Books of Uppingham Community College), Mrs Penelope Lorena, Mr Jerry Rudman (Uppingharn School archivist), Mr Harry Spry­ Leverton, Miss Margaret Stones, Mrs Mary Sullivan (nee Davies), The Church of England Primary School.Illustrations have been obtained from and are published by kind permission of Mr David Bland, Mr Bob Feetharn (editor of the Rutland Times), Mrs Marie Harris, Mrs Jessie Jones, Mr John Marlow, Mr Tony Traylen, Greenhill Books, HMSO, Sinclair Stevenson, Spiegl Press, the editor of the Rutland and Stamford Mercury, the rector and PCC of Uppingharn. The group also wishes to acknowledge its debt of gratitude to Professor Alan Rogers, whose training and leadership over four years inspired us to produce this publication, and to Mr Robert Wills, whose generous initial donation provided the group with essential financial support. Abbreviations (other than those in common use) ABCA Army Bureau of Current Affairs AFS Auxiliary Fire Service ARP Air Raid Precaution BCP Book of Common Prayer COGAM Camden Old Girls Association Magazine FANY First Aid Nursing Yeomanry ITMA It's That Man Again LDV Local Defence Volunteers PNEU Parents' National Education Union RDC Rural District Council SPCK Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge SPG Society for the Propagation of the Gospel ULHSG Uppingharn Local History Study Group USAAF United States Auxiliary Air Force WAAF Women's Auxiliary Air Force INTRODUCTION Uppingham at War, the first part of a new local history series entitled Uppingham in Living Memory, brings together historical research into aspects of wartime Uppingham with personal recollections from residents of the town. We hope that this fully illustrated volume from the Uppingham Local History Study Group will be of great interest to Rutland residents and historians alike and will open up to a wider audience the life of this small market town during one of the most challenging periods of the twentieth century. The aim of our new series is to provide an insight into the life of the town in the twentieth century. Unlike our previous publications, which relied solely on written records, this volume is supported by recollections of local residents. Our interviews with them have either been transcribed or recorded onto cassette tape, and are stored in a filing cabinet belonging to Uppingham Local History Study Group and kept in Uppingham Library. We offer Uppingham at War, the first part of the series, in the sixtieth anniversary year of the end of the Second World War. We have by no means sought to give an exhaustive account of all elements of wartime Uppingham in the present publication. The topics chosen for study were those which appealed most to the group as well as to individual researchers, and which were felt to be of interest to a broad cross-section of the local community. Chapter 1 therefore gives us an overview of how Uppingham responded to the war over the six-year period. Chapters 2-5, whilst principally based on schools in Uppingham, shed light on wider issues of life in wartime. Changes in the life and work of the Church in Uppingham are the focus of Chapter 6. The final chapter stands alone; though not connected to the war in Uppingham itself, it is included here to give a fascinating glimpse of one current Uppingham resident' s experience of the Second World War. Uppingham in the snow, 1942 (Best, G M, Continuity and Change: A History of Kingswood School 1748-1998, 1998, p.184) lUPl'ltl~llllh} J + Robert Trump, headmasterhows the of »mmUppmgham by School,I houses tMs map and so the, buildings. location ha,e been adde~~e first day (Some roa°'.i ~!;::,. n to each boy on ~ . A copy was gave . the school year. ~ of the first term m 1: PORTRAIT OF THE TOWN 1939-45 by Betty Howard Introduction • The Central School (now the Community College). The term is not geographical. Central schools had In Chapter 1 we look in detail at how the Second World been first established in 1911 by London County War affected Uppingharn and its residents. By placing Council to provide supplementary craft and trade events taking place in the town in the context of what courses. One 'passed' to attend there. The school was happening in the world at large, it is hoped to give a had acquired new permanent buildings in June 1939; fuller picture of the way in which local communities such as ours responded to the war effort. • Uppingham School with its well-established buildings in the town. Background Uppingham station and railway were active and used locally, especially by Uppingham School pupils. The Events leading up to World War Two - among them 'Leicester Red' (Midland Red) buses to Stamford, and Germany's annexation of Czechoslovakia, its demands Glenn's Garage, provided public and private transport in for Danzig and its eventual invasion of Poland - have the area. Street lighting was much more subdued and been extensively documented. By 1938 the Committee not all the town was illuminated. There was no bye­ of Imperial Defence had issued a paper which contained pass, with traffic passing through from East to West four key recommendations in the event of war, namely along the main streets.