Wartime Guildford Was Full Of Christmas Spirit

Published on: 21 Dec, 2012
Updated on: 21 Dec, 2012

I have a bulging file of “wartime Guildford” material and while selecting details for this article I came across this image, the exact wartime Christmas of which I am not sure. It was an “airgraph” Christmas card that had been drawn and sent by Cpl Cyril Westwick, RAF, to his parents of 17 Highview Road, Guildford. Cpl Westwick was sent overseas in November 1942.

Even though life on the home front during the Second World War was at best difficult, the people of Guildford do not seem to have had their Christmas spirits dampened. As DAVID ROSE reveals by looking at some of the day-to-day events in December 1941 and 1944, Guildfordians – whose wishes and hopes must have been for peace more than anything else – were extremely generous when it came to offering goodwill to others.

Here are a few snippets of what was going on…

1941:

Bellfields Youth Club, the sixth to be formed in Guildford, was inaugurated at a meeting held at Bellfields School.  The chairman of the Borough Youth Committee, Leslie Codd, presided at the ceremony, supported by Tom Pope, the borough youth organiser. Enrolment started on December 11, and an opening social event was held on December 16.

A reunion course for leaders of physical recreation was held at the Onslow Senior School. There were 32 women at the morning session for pianists, and 65 women and 15 men at the afternoon leaders’ course. Tea was provided by the Onslow Youth Club refreshment committee and local leaders stayed for folk dancing and ballroom dancing in the evening.

Local youth clubs were being asked to help knit woollen comforts for Russian soldiers and were hastening to complete them by December 31.

The Southern Railway (Guildford) section of the Home Guard attended church parade at Stoke Church on a Sunday morning just before Christmas when the Rev’d E E. J. Martin, chaplain to the unit, preached the sermon.

Arrangements were being made for ARP wardens who had been maintaining posts away from their homes, siren or no siren, to receive subsistence allowances. But they would have to keep official log books. Other wardens who manned their posts on the sounding of the siren were also included. However, many Guildford wardens watched from their own houses and were therefore not entitled to the allowance, which was 9d for four hours, and 1s 6d for eight hours (the maximum period of duty).

A notice from the wartime Railway Executive Committee regarding wartime parcels.

Hundreds of people were caught without gas masks, and experienced the discomforts of tear gas, when a test of public reaction was carried out in Guildford’s High Street and North Street. The streets were almost cleared within three minutes of the passing of 18 tear gas generators mounted on cars. “High Street looked like eight o’clock on Sunday morning,” someone said.

Cod-liver oil was distributed to Guildford children under the age of two years.

A Christmas end-of-term service was held at Stoke Schools. The headmaster, Edwin Cox, announced that in 1941 children had paid into the savings bank £378, while 277 savings certificates had been bought, £3 16s 8d donated to the Poppy fund, £4 13s 6d to Sunshine Homes for Blind Babies, and £2 12s to the Russian Red Cross, and for the provision of musical instruments for the navy.

First prize (£3 15s of savings certificates) in the competition for Guildford Warship Week was won by Mrs Wyatt, of Falcon Road, and the second prize was won by Mr E. Morgan, of Worplesdon Road. There were 126 entries.

A flag day in Guildford, jointly organised by the British Red Cross and St John Ambulance, raised £500 for Mrs Churchill’s fund to help Russia.

1944:

The Cinema in Woodbridge Road was showing Dangerous Moonlight, starring Anton Woolbrook and Sally Gray. Guildford Odeon featured Walt Disney’s Bambi.

Prisoners of war who were all in the Queen’s Regiment. One of those featured is George Collins, who is mentioned below. My usual accurate records on all the pictures I add to my collection has slipped a bit here, as I do not have a note of which one he is! Any help recognising him would be much appreciated.

The Mayor, Wykeham Price, received greetings cards from local men serving in the forces. They included cards from L/Cpl A. W. Button, Army Postal Corps; Sapper Ronal Schupke; Cpl George Collins who was a prisoner of war at Stalag 383, Germany; QMS T. W. Grigg, also a POW in Germany and who acknowledged a cigarette parcel he had received; RQMS J. Steer, Royal Berks Regiment. while Sgt T. Payne, wrote: “I am a Guildfordian. So far I have met only one Guildford fellow, but he is well known – Sgt Ronnie Rooke, the ex-Guildford City and now Fulham footballer.”

Here’s a picture of Ronnie Rooke (second from left) when playing for Arsenal (I think). He played for the Gunners from 1946-49. I have long been threatening to write a piece on Ronnie – who grew up in Guildford and played his first football by kicking a tin can along the streets off York Road.

Pupils at the Guildford County School for Girls gave their annual carol service at Holy Trinity Church (then the Cathedral church). It was attended by so many parents and friends that there weren’t enough seats. A collection was taken for the Prisoners of War Comforts Fund and for “crippled and invalid children”.

Members of St Catherine’s Women’s Institute had been knitting for the war effort. At its December meeting a letter was read out from Queen Wilhelmina’s secretary expressing gratitude for the offer of garments for the people of Holland, and another letter of thanks from Mr Tosswill will on behalf of the Guildford Education Committee, for 640 garments made by the working party for the nursery schools during the year.

The latest offering at Currys – then in Swan Lane, Guildford.

At the annual Christmas party for children and employees of the Guildford Glass & Metal Works 100 people had a real treat when Father Christmas (aka Mr J. A. Hewlett) came down a specially constructed chimney and distributed presents to the children. Many of of the gifts had been made by members of the firm.

That year, Christmas Eve fell on a Sunday, so pre-Christmas dances and such like were mostly held the day before. The Lion Hotel in the High Street held a pre-Christmas Eve (ie December 23) dance with tickets priced at five shillings. On Boxing Day at the Lion Hotel there was a tea dance from 3pm to 6pm and a supper dance from 8pm to midnight with music by Dick Keeble and His Keys of Strings.

Wykeham Price was one of three councillors who served as Guildford’s mayor during the Second World War.

More than 1,000 children and 90 old folk were entertained at the Odeon cinema’s 10th annual Christmas party. There was a concert with a mixture of stage and film shows. The children joined in the songs when Brian Wood played the accordion and clapped Richard Ede, a conjuror. The mayor, Wykeham Price, gave a speech and wished the elderly people “a happy little quiet Christmas”. And he told them that another troubled year had ended and they could look forward to better things. The mayor then presented each OAP the sum of £1, with each child receiving 1s 6d. The money came from contributions and collections at the cinema.

The Guildford War-time Choir sang Christmas music from The Messiah, and carols, before a large audience in the hall at the Technical College. It was reported that there was “no hint of conflict in Handel’s music nor in the old carols that are sung by young and old each year in peace and war”. Soloists were Emilie Strudwick (soprano), Emlyn Bebb (tenor), Winifred Dennison (contralto), and John Winter (baritone).

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