Part 8 - Burnett meets Joyce
Burnett meets Joyce
About the time I had reduced my moustache to what used to be called a "Ronald Coleman" (a film star of the year dot), Ches Sullivan and his wife invited me to the Little Aden Amateur Dramatic Society production of "Around the World in Eighty Days". To make up a foursome Ches phoned up the Hospital Matron to ask if one of the new batch of Nursing Sisters could make up a four. A Miss Joyce Stevenson was suggested, so on the evening in question I was deputed to go up to the Nurses Quarters and pick up this Miss Stevenson and bring her along to the show. The rest is history. Joyce and I spent nearly all our spare time together from then on, running around in the Topolino. On one occasion in Sheikh Othman Gardens Joyce happened to say apropos not very much that she liked and enjoyed cooking. They do say that the way to a man's heart is through his stomach, anyway I decided there and then that here was the girl for me.
Within a few weeks Joyce and I had decided to get married and that we would go home together to have the wedding in Britain. This decision was very unpopular with the Refinery Administration who would have to arrange for another nurse to be recruited and flown out from UK. But Jack Vance, who had taken over from Matty Gaul as Technical Superintendent a few months previously, told them that when two young people decide to get married there's not a lot any one can do about it.
I had by this time already booked my passage home on the Anchor Line ship SS Circassia, and I was able to book another cabin for Joyce. Of course we had to make all the arrangements and pay for the passage ourselves because the Personnel department wouldn't help. On the morning of embarkation Joyce and I were waiting at the bungalow with our cases for the car to take us to Steamer Point. It may have arrived by now but it didn't arrive by the time we had started to panic. Luckily one of the other lads who had come out with his wife and was staying on in Aden for a while, came by in his Ford Consul. He stopped and asked what all the fuss was about and hearing that we were due in Steamer in a couple of hours he offered to take us the twenty miles round the bay to the ship.
The trip home, after that panic, was very peaceful. The sail up the Red Sea was very hot and every porthole had a large scoop stuck in it to gather cooling air into the cabins. (After the ubiquitous air-conditioning in Little Aden the lack of it in the Circassia was something of a bind).
We put in at Port Sudan for a few hours and Joyce and I went for a taxi ride round the town. "See the Fuzzy-Wuzzy Village, Sahib!" Well we couldn't resist that invitation even though in retrospect there wasn't a lot of interest to see.
Our next landfall was Suez where we disembarked for a coach trip to see the Pyramids and the Cairo Museum. Shortly before we got off the ship some money changers came on and we were encouraged to change some of our Sterling pounds into the same number of Egyptian pounds, we were told that we would not be able to use our Sterling currency in Egypt. ("What a lie!") In the bazaars where the coach driver took us I saw a nice leather holdall. When I asked the price I was told "£5 Sahib" but when I offered £5 Egyptian it was waved away. "No no" I was told "15 Bounds Egyptian or 5 Bounds British!" It was a good job I had brought along some British money otherwise we would have been well and truly rooked. We also bought a small alabaster Pyramid and a little Camel made of polished horn, both of which are sitting on the wall cabinet to this day; I have no idea what we paid for them however.
The Pyramids and the Sphinx are, like most wonders of the world, slightly disappointing when you see them, in that I had assumed in my innocence that they were away out in the wastes of the desert away from all taints of civilisation. Not a bit of it! I was surprised to find that they were just on the outskirts of Cairo. What was more, they were swarming with tourists and Souvenir Wallahs. We were exhorted to get our picture taken sitting on a camel, and after to give "something for the Camel, Sahib!" (Of course anything other than money would have been scorned). We were escorted right inside the big pyramid into the King's burial Chamber. There weren't so many people there so there was some feeling of history. Though perhaps the electric light did detract slightly. We were taken to the Blue Mosque and also to see Tutankhamun's treasure at the Museum so we did get full value for our money (however much it cost!). Wherever we went we were exhorted to Buy, buy, buy! I was even, would you believe, asked if I wanted to buy "Filthy postcards, Sahib" I asked to have a look at them first. I kid you not; they were photographs of some Edwardian ladies showing off their corsets! I sometimes wish that I had haggled for them just to have them now as a Souvenir of Cairo, but my Presbyterian upbringing won out and I handed them back with a "thank you, but no thanks!" (Perhaps if they had been a bit more modern and my intended hadn't been at my side I might have invested a few of my Egyptian "Bounds").
One thing I did notice was the ability of the souvenir Wallahs to pick up and repeat my accent. I didn't think I had much of a Scottish accent but it was picked up on two occasions in Egypt. The first time I was told "You're Scottish, Ah wis five years wi’ the Black Watch masel"'. The next time it was "You're Scottish, Ah wis three years in Argyll Street, Jock!" Each time in a perfect Glasgow accent! The thing is probably all I said to each of them was something like "Beat it, I'm not interested", which does show what a keen ear for accent these lads had. I sometimes wonder how they reacted to other accents and in how many languages they could make themselves understood.
Once back on the ship at Alexandria the same moneychangers were there to buy back our unused Egyptian pounds. This time we were given rolls of ten two-shilling pieces (10x10p) for each pound note! Somebody was making a currency killing getting Sterling notes for Sterling cash! What I couldn't quite figure was where they got all the cash from, and whether they were making a fortune or just making a living. I do know that banks will change foreign notes for notes of their own country but are not interested in and in fact will not accept foreign cash. The Egyptian moneychangers were certainly managing to keep the wolf from the door anyway, however they were doing it. Still, we were getting back a pound for a pound so we couldn't complain.
Next morning we were back on the high seas. The water was still flat calm so there wasn't a hint of seasickness and that was just as well because the food on board really was first class. Each day a full British breakfast was followed mid-morning by coffee and biscuits on deck. Lunch at one o'clock was three or four courses and then in the afternoon, tea, sandwiches and cakes were brought round on to the desk where we were lounging. Dinner was about seven o'clock ship time, again four courses. I may be wrong but I have a feeling that there was a nightcap for those who wanted it. This went on for about fourteen days, so it wasn't altogether surprising that when the cruise was over my weight had ballooned from 12 stones to 13½ stones.
Our next port of call was Gibraltar where we arrived early one morning. We weren't allowed off and the ship dropped anchor some way off-shore so I don't really know why we stopped there except that several bum-boats came out to the ship selling all sorts of touristy souvenir stuff, not dissimilar to the rubbish which we were offered from similar bum-boats in Suez. I don't think they were the same people though no doubt they were related several generations previously.
The next landfall was Liverpool where we disembarked. We were among the first off and through Customs. I declared my new Ben Sayers golf clubs which I had had sent out from North Berwick. I had very carefully scuffed them on some fine wind-blown sand before packing so when I showed them to the customs officer he accepted that they weren't brand new so he didn't charge me anything. Still I felt good that I had made a customs declaration. Joyce declared the watch we had bought in Aden and some Alexandrine earrings we had got in Egypt, I can’t remember what he charged her on the earrings but as for the gold watch he asked her how much it cost. Joyce said (coming the sweet little innocent) "I don't know, it was an engagement present".
"OK" he said, "we'll say £5". And he charged her 30/-(£1.50) on it. Quite a bargain really as it had in fact cost £40 duty free in Steamer Point.
I had arranged whilst in Aden to pick up a new Ford Anglia at Liverpool and we were met on the quayside by a man from the Ford dealer who took us and our luggage to the garage where we completed the paperwork and took possession of a brand spanking new two-tone grey Anglia. We were led out of Liverpool and on to the Main A6 north and we made our way from there north to Elderslie. In those days there was only one short stretch of the M6 Motorway in operation, the Lancaster By-pass, but it did give us some idea of the future of road transport.
We arrived at Bothkenny without mishap, although in those days new engines had to be carefully run-in, so the trip from Liverpool was comparatively lengthy. Joyce was introduced to her in-laws to be, and my mum gave her a big hug and a kiss. Much to my relief and pleasure Joyce and my folks seemed to hit it off immediately. Of course Joyce had to be introduced to the whole family. My Grandparents Pender had died three and five years previously in No7 Broomlands, both in their 88th year, of cerebral thrombosis, but there were still plenty of aunts, uncles, and cousins in front of whom to be paraded. For a week or so Joyce was shown round the country, but soon she received a letter from her Mummy in Brighton with the news that Mummy had been in a car accident and had her leg encased in plaster which made it very difficult for her to get around. So we packed up the Anglia and made the long journey down to Southwick just west of Brighton, so that Joyce could take over the housework from her Mummy
The bungalow in Rectory Road had only two bedrooms so I was bedded out with friends round the corner. We had decided to get married on the 1st of October some six weeks in the future.
All I needed for the wedding was a new dark grey suit from Dunn’s & Co in Brighton so I was soon fitted, but Joyce had to be kitted out with the full regalia plus Going-away outfit, which of course I wasn't allowed to see. We had to go round to the local church of the parish of "Kingston Buci" and have a chat with the vicar, the Reverend Thomas Glaisyer. Among other things he asked what hymns we wanted it the service. This made life a bit difficult for me as I only knew the 23rd Psalm and he suggested perhaps that wouldn't be quite appropriate. However he and Joyce managed to sort something out between them to their mutual satisfaction.
We arranged to have the reception at a little pub-cum-restaurant whose name escapes me but I could, I think, take you there if necessary.
Joyce's sister Penny was her Matron of Honour and my brother Iain was my best man. Joyce's Mummy & Daddy and a fair number of Joyce's family and friends were at the wedding and from my side were my Mum & Dad and Aunt Elsie, Iain and Peggy and Judith and John Marchant.
On the morning of the great day the rain was lashing down. I went and picked Mum & Dad and Aunt Elsie from their boarding house and showed them round the Brighton area though there wasn't a lot to see through the mirk and steamed-up windscreen, still we managed to pass the time somehow till it was time to go to the church. Just before H-hour the rain stopped and the sun broke through. It stayed dry and bright through till after the wedding photos were taken outside the church, then I believe (I am not too clear on the details of that day) the rain didn't start again till we were all back in the cars on the way to the reception.
My Mum was very taken with the old vicar and the way he conducted the service and especially when he took off his stole, tied it round both our clasped right hands whilst intoning "Whom God hath Joined, let no man put asunder". My Mum thought that really dramatic.
Some time into the reception Iain drove us back to Rectory Road where we changed into our going-away clothes and then went back to the reception to "go away" properly. Somebody had poured a box-full of confetti into the air intake of the heater fan so we had a fair amount of that blowing about the car as we drove away. In fact we had bits of that confetti in the car almost up till we finally traded it in for a dark-green Cortina some five years later.
We had arranged to spend our honeymoon touring slowly up the country as we didn't at that time know where I would be working after our Aden leave was over. We spent the first night of our married life in a small hotel in Arundel just a few miles up the road.
The next morning we went down to breakfast to find that the dining room was empty, apart from the waiting staff, there was no one around. We couldn't understand where everyone was, as according to my watch it was just normal breakfast time. Anyway we had a leisurely breakfast and it was more than an hour later that the other guests started to come down to breakfast. Then it dawned on us; British Summer Time had ended that night and we innocent newly-weds had got up an hour early! On our wedding night too! Well we could hardly go back to bed so we packed up the Anglia, paid our bill and set off into the wilds of southern England. I can’t give you many details of the tour though I do know we spent the next night in Marlborough and the one after in Salisbury. I haven't many memories of those places; my mind must have been on other things at the time. We went from Salisbury right through Wales to Aberystwyth where we stayed for a couple of days at the seaside.
Then on to Llandudno where again we spent two nights. It was there we went to the pictures and saw "Psycho", a good picture for a cuddle! From there we went on through the Mersey tunnel and up to Southport where we bought ourselves a picture to celebrate having stayed together for a whole week. We saw a picture of a little donkey and said if it's no more than thirty bob (£1.50) we'd have it. We went in to the shop and asked about the picture in the window. I must have made some comment to the effect that if it wasn't more than thirty shillings we would like to buy it. The man behind the counter looked quite shocked and said "But sir, that's a genuine Wila!" Well we thought if it's a genuine Wila (whatever that was) we'd buy it for ourselves and shelled out three pounds and hang the expense!
After Southport we intended to spend some time in the Lake District but by the time we got there it was really chucking it down so we just kept going up the A6 to Elderslie.
At Bothkenny a letter was waiting for me with an invite for me to go down to Sunbury to interview with the manager of the newly formed Chemicals division there. I was asked if I would like to join the division and help design some of the pilot plant that was going to be built there. The job seemed quite interesting and I agreed to give it a go. So I went back to Bothkenny and we used up the last of our leave.
We drove down to Sunbury on the due date and the Sunbury admin people put us up in a guesthouse in Shepperton. The only thing to be said about that place was that we were given boiled ox heart three nights a week, brought in to the dining room by a little old waitress who would stand beside your chair while you were finishing your soup, saying in a very affected voice: "Ae won't take it beck 'cos it's boilin' red 'ot". It's a saying Joyce and I have used till this day!
Within a month we had moved into a flat in a large converted manor house, 203 Charlton Road. It consisted of a living room, bedroom, bathroom, with separate WC and a kitchen that was so small that you couldn't walk in if the oven door was hinged down. Still the flat did have its own front door with Yale lock so we were "alone at last" and married life had started in earnest.
