Those were the days

The way things used to be

A royal rally

I HAVE often felt the young of today have no idea what it was like living before and during the war on a farm without today’s “toys”!

I was 10 when the war was declared and virtually an only child with two brothers far older than me. I was reared on a huge farm which was geared to produce food.

“Dig for Victory” was the 1939 slogan and every acre was utilised to do just that, whether in animal or vegetable form.

My entertainment came from 24 Suffolk working horses, a pony and a few tame rabbits. There was the very occasional Pony Club rally in the summer holidays, and Battle of Britain gymkhanas held on a Saturday afternoon in the early 1940s on various local village greens to make a few pennies – for charity of course.

All else came from the wireless, books, or varying degrees of awful events which went with a county covered in air fields erected at speed to help win that wicked war. Blackouts, food rationing and no petrol was the order of the day, and a gas mask was one’s night and day companion.

An awful lot happened in a quiet way during that 1939–45 period. Today’s youngsters would be amazed, and that goes for my greatgrandchildren (Piggy March’s nieces), aged 10 and 12.

This photo shows the occasion when Queen Mary requested a private viewing of the West Norfolk Hunt branch of the Pony Club at Sandringham, in the last year of the war. There were about 30 riding members, and we jumped a course and played games for her. Here she is inspecting us after our performance – it was frightening but fun.