With Christmas almost upon us, borough archivist Dr Jonathan Oates looks back at years gone by – and a particular local diarist who gave us a window into her life 80 years ago, in wartime Britain.
Erica Ford was a young woman who lived with her parents at 49 Park View Road in north Ealing in the 1940s and what makes her stand out is that she kept a diary of her life in Ealing from at least 1940 until1948.
Communion and the King
On Christmas Day in 1940 she went to St Peter’s Church twice. The communion service at 8.30am ‘was packed & lit by candelight when I arrived but when Rev. Pond came in the lights were all switched on & the effect was rather lovely.’
She went to a later service at the same church as well where there was ‘a splendid sermon’ and they ‘Sang carols’. Back at home they had ‘real Christmas dinner’ and listened to the wireless, which included the King’s Speech. Bedtime was 10 past midnight.
Huge dinner, unrequited love
A year later there was much the same, but despite rationing there was ‘an enormous Christmas dinner. Could hardly move after it’. In the evening her boyfriend Ralph came over and wanted to know if she would marry him and she said ‘perhaps’ and referred to him as ‘a Dear thing’. They never did wed. Christmas 1942 was restricted to one church service but food was extravagant, ‘Had huge lunch – beef this year – couldn’t get turkey, but had very good plum pudding’.
On Christmas Day in 1943 Erica was at work in the canteen of the fire station, serving bacon, tomatoes, fried bread and potatoes in the morning. She then made the mince pies. The food served was turkey, pork, mashed and roast potatoes, cabbage and parsnips, plum pudding and mice pies and custard. The officers waited on the men and washed up. Erica saw both her boyfriends, Harry and Joe, that day.
A white Christmas
The last of the wartime Christmasses was 25 December 1944. The weather was certainly seasonable. It was ‘very white. Frosty quite Christmassy’ and Erica was able to attend communion before going to work. The cooks and kitchen staff were cheered and given money; Erica received fifteen shillings. However, she felt that she couldn’t eat much. She enjoyed a polka with Harry, had a cup of tea and went home briefly before going out again. She spent time with friends and neighbours. They: ‘ate and listened to some records. Home at one in the morning.’
Dr Oates plans on holding a local history talk at Ealing Central Library in 2025 based on Erica’s wartime experiences.
