Description
Object description
British civilian in Laxton, High Wycombe and Petersfield, 1939-1945; served with Friends' Ambulance Unit in GB and France, 1945-1947; civilian involved in work with children in Austria and GB from 1947
Content description
REEL 1 Background in Radnage and High Wycombe, GB, 1928-1939: family including family home; memories of childhood including details of bodgers; details of parents including imprisonment of father as conscientious objector during First World War; siblings; move to High Wycombe; details of shop owned by parents; education including debates above family shop and memories of godfather, GK Chesterton; family holidays in Portland including scenes of British Fleet; knowledge of Spanish Civil War and other events in Europe during 1930s. Aspects of period as civilian in Laxton, GB, 1939-1942: reception on arrival at boarding school; memories of Sebastian Bullough.
REEL 2 Continues: details of education; memories of Dominican monk teachers; story of finding downed RAF plane; story of message pigeon accidentally arriving at school; story of Scout exercise search for missing POW; conscientious objection of family and self to war; freedom of education including learning to bind books. Aspects of period as civilian in High Wycombe and Petersfield, GB, 1942-1945: civilian work making furniture including globe stands made for Roosevelt and Churchill; making and testing items to be dropped from aircraft; air activity; guests at family home including memories of Jan Yoors; attitude to war; civilian work in Petersfield.
REEL 3 Continues: further details of civilian work in Petersfield including details of workshop; restrictions on movement from area including story of theft at Butser Hill radar station; rations; lighting and heating; details of furniture made during war; leisure activities including concerts at Bedales School; contact with dockyard woodworkers; story of Arctic Expedition paintings found; story of journey to Wales on D-Day; celebrations at end of war; reflections on war experiences including further memories of childhood; call-up and conscientious objector tribunals.
REEL 4 Continues: joining of Friends' Ambulance Unit. Aspects of period as civilian with Friends' Ambulance Unit in GB and France, 1945-1947: training in Worcestershire; knowledge of unit; posting to St Alphege's Hospital, Greenwich; background of patients; equipment shortages; details of dressings used; rotation in training; period in laboratory including presence at autopsy; work in operating theatre including Friends' Ambulance Unit colleagues; London smog; story of tram journey from New Cross; posting and journey to France; details of work at orphanage in Chateau de Vaureal; relationship with orphans; memories of Deryck Moore; relationship with local civilians; holiday with orphans in GB; later reunion and visit to Chateau de Vaureal; return to civilian work; background to starting work with war affected children. Aspects of period as civilian involved in work with children in Austria and GB, from 1947: details of journey to Vienna escorting Austrian children; work in Pestalozzidorf international children's home in Switzerland.
REEL 5 Continues: description of relief work with Austrian children in GB; journeys to Vienna escorting Austrian children; story of lone journey to Vienna; appearances on Austrian radio; accidental parking of bicycle in Russian barracks; setting-up of mail links to GB; details of work in Quaker children's home; memories of children and colleagues; political divide in Vienna; relationship between town and country in Austria; geographical divides in Vienna including state of Russian Zone; further details of children cared for; details of child holiday exchanges including assistance from Red Cross; assistance given by Anglo-Austrian Society to refugees from Hungary in 1956; comparison of border controls in Hungary and Czechoslovakia.
REEL 6 Continues: continuing contact with children; organisation of holidays for children in Austria with Anglo- Austrian Society; role of work; reflections on wartime childhood; roots of pacifist outlook.