Page 123 - KBHA BULLETIN 6

small message attached to it by the sender and the older girls even put in their addresses

hoping for results.

School holidays were a great time as one attended the Red Cross lectures and rolled

hundreds of bandages to be sent off to the ships. Also one could help at the canteen, one
learned how to make a primitive sort of margarine and was the dogsbody who got the

unenviable task of buttering the bread for the sandwiches. Somehow there was always an
“uncle type” of sailor who would chat to a child, probably because they were so far from

home and their own children. This was also why Just Nuisance was so popular. He

reminded them of home and was someone on whom they could lavish their affection
without any complications. (Fig. 3.24). My mother was a great one for collecting stray

sailors and one evening she overdid it and came home with six. The maid and I nearly died

of fright when we saw her coming up the road – we hastily peeled lots more carrots and
potatoes to eke out the meal. The boys were so appreciative though – motherly love, a hot

bath, and a home-cooked meal.

There were quite a number of naval children at Star and we were very aware that we must
never divulge anything about Simon’s Town. Later in the war I became a day scholar and

we were really annoyed when our fathers were called in by the authorities and told off

because we had been leaking information about the Madagascar landings. We were so
indignant that my mother and her friend made enquiries all round and the leak was traced

to the “dockyard maties” who travelled on the train. They went to see the naval authorities
and there were apologies all round.

The nuns at Star could be very human. Two uncles came here during the war on HMS

Hecla. She was mined near Cape Agulhas and my father’s tug towed her in. There were

many dead and injured and she needed extensive repairs. She was here for six months
while the dockyard worked on her. Then it was time to leave and the ship hired

Muizenberg Pavilion for a farewell and thank-you dance. The uncles decided I had to go

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