A Cockney Maori Romance

This story has been put onto the website by Pennie Hedge, a volunteer for BBC London, on behalf of Vera Wiremu. Mrs Wiremu understands the terms and conditions of the site.

I was eighteen when war broke out, and living at home with my parents and younger twin brothers. My elder brother was called up and served in Burma and my elder sister was married and living away. I was already working at British Ropes in Charlton, in the office. We had to take turns on watch at night. One night there were a lot of fibres, probably hemp, stretched out on the rope walk, which was perhaps half a mile long. An incendiary fell onto the rope, which caught light and flared up like long blonde hair. It made me feel really sad, especially as I had long blonde hair at the time.

At home we had an Anderson shelter in the garden, which my Dad made like a palace. We had carpet down, and the walls were painted to liven up the galvanised iron. It was almost cosy. Fortunately we were never hit.

Mum excelled at feeding us all even on the low rations. My father had my sugar ration, but I didn't really mind, and I've never gone back to it. But I did miss not having any sweets. I gave mine to my nieces.

One Sunday my Mum had roasted a piece of beef, not a very big piece but it was all she could get. She had it on a plate on top of the copper in the kitchen, carving it up, when the sirens went and we had to go to the shelter. During our absence my cat, Timothy, clambered onto the copper and pulled the meat down onto the floor. The all-clear went and we came up and there was the cat eating our sunday lunch. My mother threw a wobbler, which was not at all like her. She got hold of the cat by the throat and was shaking him to and fro, shouting 'if we haven't got enough we'll eat you!' I picked the meat off the floor, trimmed it up, and served up what what was left. Dad never knew.

When I was 21 I was called up. The interviewing officer said that she wouldn't send me away because I wasn't Forces material. I'm still puzzling over what she meant by that. Instead she posted me to The Admiralty in London. I was a teleprinter operator. After a while I was sent to the Washington Room. There were only four of us there, typing secret messages for the Americans which were scrambled before they were sent. We had to work a rota of a fortnight of nights, 7pm to 9am, followed by a week of days 9am to 7pm.

After VE Day I was really exhausted after all these 14 hour night shifts. And so I went to Cliftonville for a week with my friend. While we were sitting on the beach a couple of men in khaki came and sat near us. They got out large blocks of chocolate. We hadn't seen bars like that since 1066! I thought it was showing off and didn't like it. One of them came across to us and asked if we were enjoying our holiday. I said 'yes, until you came along.' It didn't put him off. They shared the chocolate with us, it was the first sweet thing I'd had since rationing started.

My friend fancied the other man, and arranged for us to see them that evening. When they turned up we were amazed to see them in officer's uniform, they were New Zealand officers. This time I liked Jim rather better. He was very gentle and I wasn't used to that. All the men kept buying us drinks and they said to me 'you're a lucky lady, he's the best officer in the battalion'. He'd just been released from four years in a Prisoner of War Camp in Germany. We arranged to meet again in London, at Charing Cross under the clock.

I came home from work on Monday morning, after my 14 hour shift, put 40 pipe cleaners into my hair, and went to bed. I'd hardly gone to sleep when my mum woke me up again, saying 'there's a man in a funny hat to see you.' I knew immediately that it was Jim, the New Zealand army hats were very different. I didn't have time to take the pipe cleaners out of my hair, but I thought 'Oh well, its me', put on my slacks and went down to see him.

He had to go to Edinburgh and would not have been able to meet me later and so came to let me know. He stayed for a cup of tea and was still there when my Dad came home at 4 o'clock. I was terrified about how my Dad would react as Jim was a Maori, and he was sitting in my Dad's chair, something none of us ever dared to do. I introduced them and said 'Jim, this is my Dad' and added sotto voce 'get out of his chair'. But my Dad said 'stay there boy' and started chatting to him. I might as well have gone to work, because neither of them talked to me any more!

Later that evening I went to Charing Cross with him to see him off. On the way home I thought to myself 'I like his voice, his manner, his face, I like him.' When I got in I put my bag down so that my hands were free and said to my parents ' Well, say what you have to say.' And my Dad said 'if you have the luck to marry him, you will be luckier than you deserve.' Two weeks after we met we became engaged, and four weeks later we were married. We had 54 wonderful years together.

© Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.