Going bananas for our bag of oranges

MY FATHER was in the army and worked in the British Military hospital in Kasauli, near Simla in the himalayas. in 1943, most of the Army in india (where i was born in 1936) was recalled to Britain in the middle of the war. My mother and father with four young children, along with other families, set off from Bombay in June 1943 on two troop ships. We couldn’t go through the Suez Canal, so had to travel round the Cape of Good hope. We sailed up the west coast of Africa, but, when we were half-way, we got a warning that there were U-boats ahead. the navy immediately sailed the ships up the Congo River to keep us safe. While there, we amused ourselves by throwing coins to the little native boys who dived into the sea to catch them. the elders brought boats alongside our ships to sell local produce. My father bought two string bags; one filled with bananas and the other with oranges. A few days later we were able to continue our journey and, after two months at sea, we arrived at Gourock, Renfrewshire, where we disembarked. We got on a train heading for lancashire, where my mother’s parents lived near Bolton. they had no idea we were coming as they didn’t have a telephone. We had to walk from the station to their house and, on the way, we were followed by lots of children who were fascinated by the bags of bananas and oranges my father was carrying. inevitably, he ended up handing out the exotic fruit as we walked along. none of the children had ever seen them before and were delighted to be able to take them home and show them to everyone. i was only seven at the time, but i remember everything very clearly.

Marlene Seedhouse (nee Payling), Chesterfield, Derbyshire.