I left Edgehill School in the summer of 1941 and in the autumn entered Dalhousie University to take a pre-medical course for two years. I stayed on to take another one to take first year medicine where I was the only girl in the class of boys, the number now escapes me. I was merely 16 years old as a freshette and apart from Pat I knew no one there. Pat was staying with the Principal of the University and his wife, Dr and Mrs Stanley in Oxford Street. I lived in the residence, Sheriff Hall for the length of time I was studying at Dalhousie. I worked hard and had an active and enjoyable social life. I had a very happy time in the Canadian university and was sorry to leave. I remained in Canada until 1944. 

Unfortunately I have few memories of my stay in Halifax so many years ago. My mother kept some of my letters and I have to rely on this for reference. I do remember one night being woken by the dreadful noise of explosives and it was quite frightening. One of the girls came running down the corridor shouting, " The Germans are here! The Germans are here!" I believe an ammunition ship had caught fire and the navy were targeting it with gunfire intending to sink the ship. Halifax had a terrible and tragic explosion in 1917 and the memories of it were still very much uppermost in the minds of the inhabitants, even in the early forties. During the First World War a French ship Mont-Blanc left to join a convoy in Bedford Basin. She was loaded with a highly explosive mixture. A Norwegian vessel, the Imo, after a series of ill-judged manoeuvres, struck the Mont-Blanc on the bow. The ship blew up and 1,630 homes were completely destroyed, many by fires which quickly spread following the explosion; 12,000 houses were damaged; 6,000 people were left without shelter. Hardly a pane of glass in Halifax and Dartmouth was left intact. The death toll was just over 1,900.

I also remember for many nights seeing smoke rising from a burning oil tanker, which had been torpedo off the Basin and the flames could be seen on the horizon for at least a week. It was a grim reminder, despite the fact that Halifax seemed so peaceful, that we were at war

Just before I returned home I recollect seeing the headlines in Barrington Street that the First World War Prime Minister, David Lloyd had died. I remembered that my late uncle, Gareth Jones had worked for him.

I spent nearly all my vacations at the home of Dr and Mrs Bell. She must have thought that I was completely undomesticated and had to teach me a great deal about house keeping. I am sure I left the wood stove in the kitchen out many times, because I did not look after it. I well remember how Dr Bell liked his bacon cooking - well done and crisp. I remember the butler’s pantry, though of course, there was no butler - it was a kind of lift, but I have no idea from where it came. The house, Drumnaha, was a chalet type with a beautiful view of the back harbour. It was quite high up and from it was a small winding path, through a small wood, which ran down to the waters edge. There, from the wharf, Richenda, I and others dived and swam. Life was very pleasant and Mrs Bell was very good and very tolerant of us.

My account of the remaining time in Nova Scotia has to be taken from a few letters that my mother kept.

******

I may take a job during the summer time with Mrs Bell’s brother-in-law, Dr Hugh Bell (I believe Dr Bell was injured at Vimy Ridge) who is a professor in Botany at Dal. I don’t exactly know what I shall have to do, but I know I shall have to gather flowers and ferns. I believe the rest is perhaps making slides, tending cultures etc.. I shall stay with a sister of Mrs Bell who is also a Mrs Bell.

Last Monday I was up in Halifax. First we drove to Dartmouth on the ferry. The Harbour was quite interesting, but I shan’t say anything about that. Of course the enemy will know though. ... We had a most interesting drive to Eastern Passage where Dr Winthrop Bell has work in connection with aircraft production. We saw aeroplanes, but these had nothing to do with the factory. We crossed the ferry again in Halifax proper and had lunch.

P.S. Mrs Bell says that Mummy isn’t to worry any more about money. … As I am quite happy and safe here you haven’t anything to worry about.

15.6 42 c/o Mrs Bell.

As you see I am again with Mrs Winthrop Bell. I had to give up my job which was extremely interesting, because there was no where for me to stay in Halifax. The lady I was going to stay with couldn’t have me. At first she put it off for week. I had to stay at the Y.W.C.A.. It was awfully expensive and I did not like it very much.

I might have to work next year, as there is not enough money. Don’t you think I could come home war or no war? Most Canadians think the war will last yet-a-while. I feel if I stopped my college course for a while I would never go back again and even if you couldn’t afford to send me to college I would much prefer to go to work at home. I don’t want to live in a boarding house. … On top of that I will have been out here three years.

I have been swimming three times in one week. We had quite a heat wave last week for to five days, but today it is just like autumn.

Every now and then we are beginning to feel a shortage, of course, of sugar, tea and coffee which are rationed voluntarily and gas (petrol) by coupons and sometimes eggs, butter and meat are scarce and are far between. I expect it is because being near the shipment port. They are most likely to be exported than food nearer in land. Rubber of course is short too.

I am quite tired today, because I was in bathing and then rowed out to some islands to look for flat stones for a path for Mrs Woodroofe. I did not find many, but it was the first time I have rowed this year, and had a really proper swim.

Richenda, the sister of Dora and Fabian is coming to stay. It is not much fun going swimming by oneself, and the weather up to now has been really nice enough for swimming. The water has been cold because of the icebergs off the coast.

Last night Mrs Bell was asked up to a celebration that the Norwegians had – Mid-Summer eve. We were given coffee and Norwegian waffles and some funny things cooked on a gridiron. They lit some bonfires on the shore. In Norway, they burn these on every hill and sometimes put a barrel of tar on top. We did not have a barrel of tar last night. [The Norwegian yacht Oswego was purported to have sailed out of Oslo with the Norwegian gold on board when Norway was invaded. It was moored in Chester and we young people had the chance to sail on it.]

Mrs Bell took an old Norwegian captain and his wife to collect lady’s slippers, a kind of orchid yesterday afternoon. It was a bit late for these flowers, but we found some. I thought they were very pretty, pink and one yellow. Mrs Bell found an awfully interesting plant, the pitcher plant. The leaves are cup shape and have liquid inside them that enables then to catch insects. The flower is very unusual too. I hardly know how to describe it - it is rather like a lantern.

I got Richenda’s bicycle out from the garage today, so I should get some exercise on that. This morning I helped Mrs Bell weed the front drive. It was quite hot work. It reminded me of the times when I had to hoe the path at 88, Lee Road. Wasn’t I thankful when you put concrete down.

Another Sunday seems to be here again and I have settled down to write my usual letter… Renée has arrived in Chester again. …Today I went down to dinner with the Woodroofes as usual. After dinner Renée and I went, hoping for a swim and a row in Mrs Woodroofe’s rowboat. Unfortunately a convalescent sailor had borrowed the rowboat and the tide was too far out to go in.

Some new Canadian stamps come out on July 1^st. I shall have to post myself a set.

I wonder how the battle in Egypt will turn out. I hate listening to the news now-a-days and only barely read the newspaper. What did you think of Churchill coming over to this side?

Dora and Fabian’s Mother spoke over the radio to them and they didn’t hear her. You’d think the children would be let know somehow or other.

Jacq. is spending her holiday in Cape Breton. (A fairly large Island) Betty and Averil will be with Miss Laurie at Oakfield and I believe are coming to Chester in a fortnight for the day in about a fortnight’s time. Both of them are going to Toronto University next term.

This afternoon Chenda and I went for a sail with an English girl and the people she is staying. She came out on the same ship as I did. It was quite rough and beyond the first lot of islands and we got quite splashed. Still I think it is far more fun when it is rough.

Yesterday the tide was high in the afternoon. We had a marvellous bathe, diving and swimming off the wharf, the water was wonderfully warm and I could have stayed in for hours. We sunbathed for a while and then came up and had tea. Mrs Bell had someone in. Talking of tea, it is to be rationed. We may either have 1oz of tea or 4oz of coffee in the future per week.

Pat arrived down last Saturday. Chenda and I went to the Woodroofes to see her and found everyone there including Renée making sandwiches for the Yacht Club tea. So we pitched in and to make a few and then to eat a few. We took the plates of sandwiches down to the clubhouse and then watched the free-for-all race come in. We popped in and had sandwiches, sugarless cookies and punch instead of tea.

Last Friday Mrs Bell took the car to Bridgewater to have the back mudguard painted. We walked around the town. … We drove back to Chester via Lunenburg and then out to the second peninsula which is situated somewhere in Mahone Bay. The Bells have some land there so we went to see if there were any apples on the apple trees. We climbed some trees and got enough to make applesauce.

Last Thursday Mrs Bell, the children, Chenda and I went to Little Gooseberry to pick raspberries. We took our lunch and spent most of the day there returning with 8 full bags of raspberries.

Mrs Bell has to go away to see some friends of hers who are sick for a day or two, so Chenda and I are going to be billeted with friends in Chester. I am going to some people called the Anguses.

On Saturday we went to fetch Dr Bell from his work. I suppose I shall have to be careful what I say here. Mrs Bell has just made Chenda rewrite hers for giving a too graphic description. I’ll just say that I went round the inside of a Douglas Bomber and saw the positions of all the crew. It is amazing how compact they are. I’d hate to be a gunner though. I’ll tell you more about it after the war. Probably it will be stale by then. …

On Monday we took Dr Bell back again. We were in the ferry so that we could see the harbour. I wonder how often each day German spies cross it.

The iniation wasn’t a success at all. Some of the girls went and wrecked the freshettes room. After they had done this they squabbled about it.

On Friday we had a terrific Chemistry Lab. We were there four hours and didn’t get half what we were set done. The experiment wasn’t hard, but it as the preparing for it that was hard, tedious and fiddly. Every time we heated the oil, but we had to wait for it to cool down before we could repeat the experiment.

I went to see Mrs Hugh Bell yesterday morning. Her son seems to have had a touch of pneumonia again.

I went to the Pi Beta Phi rushing party on Thursday. I should like to have joined, because it would have been something to remember when I go home, but it would cost too much and there would not be a branch in London.

There was quite a tragic sinking here of the ferryboat between Newfoundland and Nova Scotia. The boat was unconvoyed. There are quite a number of girls from Newfoundland here who only a few weeks ago travelled that way.

Here I am on the train to Montreal. The exams finished yesterday. I have hardly had time to settle down. I am travelling with two other girls and sharing a compartment. We have been in the train since 7.30 and it is now 10 o’clock having travelled about 60 miles. We don’t arrive until tomorrow morning. And at the rate we are going it won’t be until tomorrow afternoon.

Six letters arrived from you on Monday. I was so excited that I ran all the way back to get them … Your parcel arrived yesterday.

I am off the train now. We arrived in Montreal five hours late. You should have seen the train it was all covered with icicles. We were supposed to be Montreal at half past seven. At half past seven we had stopped and we could see light and a river. So we leaped out of bed and got quickly dressed thinking we had arrived just outside Montreal and only had a few minutes to go. We looked out of the window and found it was Quebec and that across the river was the Heights of Abraham.. We did not get into Montreal until nearly one o’clock.

I had a letter from the lady I stayed with in Montreal enclosing some snaps when we were up in the Laurentians. I will enclose one or two. The Laurentians are a range of Mountains. I believe mummy asked this question.

Last Thursday I had a quiz in Zoology on the cat bones and the muscles of the rabbit - it was quite stiff, and I have no idea how my friend and I did. Actually we got on quite well with the Professor – far better than we ever have before. He is usually quite awe-inspiring and wears a green eyeshade which he would cover his face when he leans forward. When he did it always seemed to us that he was laughing at something we said.

We had a dance the other night in the gym. Everyone was dressed up as characters from the Funny papers such as Mammy Yokum and little Abner.

This is Munro day.

Saturday afternoon I collected for the Red Cross. I wore a white overall and white cap like a maid’s afternoon one with a red cross on it. I had to stand in the vestibule of one of the theatre and after a while it was extremely cold. I didn’t stand long without a coat. Lots of people gave. It was amazing how many sailors and little children gave I am going to sell tags next Saturday. The Red Cross are putting on a campaign for the whole month.

I am going to sell gratis that is lucky dips on Munro day that is this afternoon. It is for the Aid to Russia fund. We are going to charge 10 cent and 25 cent gratis. There is an awful lot of junk jewellery among them but there are a few nice things.

The budget came in last week. Postage stamps are going up to 4 cents. I wrote a lot of letters to friends last week. I don’t relish the idea of an extra cent …

The shops are getting very empty. There are lots of things that can’t be had now. I shouldn’t be surprised if more things were rationed before the end of the summer. The shops are rationed so we are rationed indirectly. Unfortunately people are buying everything up. I tried everywhere to get some wool last week and the shops only had the most awful browns and blacks. I am afraid this ink is weak. I put about 1/3 of the bottle of water in the inkpot which was absolutely dry.

I have managed to get through to the C.P.R. to send to the permit office. I hope they will consider it.

I went to dinner with Laurie Bissett . Some of the Bissetts were going to down to Windsor to Edgehill. The little girl did not want to go. And I was asked. I hadn’t been down there for a year and a half at least so I jumped at the chance. It was rather nice driving down. Spring seems to be trying to come. Yesterday it did today it is quite cold. I dashed over to King’s house where all the English girls are as soon as I got to Edgehill. I saw Miss Briggs and Miss Marshall. They were all carefully mending. It seems that a great many girls down in the States are going home. After talking to them for a while I went upstairs to see the English girls who were having Sunday afternoon rest period. Everything was so quiet. As soon as I got up there I caused a great commotion. Everyone came rushing into the room where I was whether there were any rules or regulations or not. they though,t I had changed. They thought they were getting quite Canadian and told me new Canadian expressions which I had nearly forgotten about. It was funny to see all the younger Roedean girls who had come out with me now in the 5^th and 6^th forms.

Did I tell you about Munro Day. Well in the afternoon, had so much fun selling the gratis or lucky dips. Most of the dips were jewellery or scent. Most of the customers seemed to be boys and they had great fun wearing the junk. There was one little sergeant in the G.O.T.C. who did a great deal of canvassing. Every five minutes he would come back with some other customer. Then he tossed a coin to see who would pay for the next round of dips. I believe we got 27 dollars in all.

Please wait until I come home to decide which college to go to. I don’t exactly want to go to Royal Free.[Hospital] If am going into medicine it means I have to compete with men probably, and therefore I should know how to mix with them. I’ll try and do well in my exams so that they will have to let me into some college probably, after they have accepted everyone else. So please do not make your plans definite till I come home. I have decided everything for myself for the last few years and I should have some say in where I ma going to college After all it is I who am going into for medicine. What are daddy’s reasons for wanting me to go to the Royal Free?

It may be a shock to you when I come home, but I am not the little girl with braids that came out here three years ago. I know you must still picture me really as that because how could you picture anything else I didn’t try to grow older for my age or anything. It just came naturally. How could it be helped when I had to pretty well live on my own and yet depend on others?

Well only a few months and I shall be home.

Well, I finally got my exit permit and passport. The exit permit is valid till the middle of June sometime. I can get it extended from then. I have heard nothing abut my passage from the C.P.R., but I have just written to them to see if there was a possibility of getting a passage in April. I know nothing about such arrangements. I hope they give me warning before I leave.

Please write and tell me of anything you need and I’ll try and get it. I don’t guarantee to though, because everyone seems to be hoarding around here. The shops are quite empty. I guess there’ll be a lot of things rationed before the end of the year. The States have really gone into it whole-heartedly and have rationed many more things than Canada.

I am enclosing a passport photo which I had taken at the beginning of this term. My hair has been cut since then. You said you needed it fro Med School. Couldn’t you enter me for University College, London. I’d like to go there.

I went to see the show "In Which We Serve" with pat. It was quite good for a propaganda film. Noel Coward was in it. The States are putting out numerous such films, third rate, at that, about their navy, where the U.S. sailors always win out in the end. Impossible tales and not so true to life as "In Which We Serve".

Mrs Bell’s sister, Mrs Ralph Bell died last week. She had been ill for quite some time I believe.

Nothing much seems to happen now-a-days. We’ve come to the time where we eat, work, sleep and then begin all over again.

I read Churchill’s speech today. I didn’t realise he was quite so ill. It was certainly kept very dark. Is there such a fever for post war plans in England, as there seems to be from out here? Churchill’s speech seems to be about that and other post war plans. Some people think that the peace conference should be held in Canada, because it ahs been able to look on the war as a by-stander and yet part of the British Empire.

27/3/43 Shirreff Hall

I don’t think this will be a very long letter this week. It is only three weeks off till exams and everyone has become conscious of this.

Last Tuesday I went to lunch with Misses Constance and Norah Bell. You may have heard me mention them when I was down in Chester. I had to dash away soon after lunch because of a Zoology class at half past two. We are doing the nervous system, partly because they are so small and partly because they are so like muscles. We cut through the brachial plexus and are having a dreadful time now trying to find the nerves from it. I dissected the brain last week, but so far have not studied it. Before the end of the month I have to dissect the dogfish brain.

I told you I got my passport and my exit didn’t I. What a lot of trouble I had getting it. It is valid until the end of June. I haven’t heard anything from the C.P.R. about a passage, but I have written to them to let me know about particulars. I don’t know whether they got that release of indemnity form I sent you yet. I don’t think much of the Halifax C.P.R, office. They promised to help me get this and that and I had to do it all myself. They said they would get me a passport form and I would still be waiting for one if I hadn’t sent up for one myself.

Pat is coming till next year, because she thinks it is better to break her course after her second year. She hopes to get into 4^th year medicine when she comes home. As I said before I want to get into second year medicine. And I don’t see why I should not be able to. I’ve been at college for two years now and that should count for one year.

4.4.42 Sherriff Hall

I wrote to the C.P.R. telling them I had my exit permit and passport and all I got was three green forms. I have so many different coloured forms it isn’t even funny. I thought I had finished filling them in too. This was priority for East bound passage.

… I think I’ll have to leave the decision to you if you don’t want me to come home this spring or summer. This spring should be the safest time because the fogs and the icebergs will be off the coast.

Please write and tell me what you think I should do because if you do not want me to come home yet. I better start making some plans for the summer and next year. We over here don’t think the war will be over for a year or two. Perhaps you’d better write to Mrs Bell about it if you are worried.

I have been studying Psychology all day and I am sick of it. I have been studying memory, imagination, thought and intelligence. Yesterday I studied logic and I am supposed to know what induction is now. …

Yesterday afternoon I went to see "Commanders Strike at Dawn". You may have read the book by that name. It was very popular out here. I enjoyed the show very much Parts of it were filmed in Vancouver and the scenery was wonderful. "Random Harvest" is being shown at the Capital Theatre this week… All good shows would come round at exam time.

There is not much news to talk about. I mean local news. The news about Tunis and Bizerte is very good - enough to keep you cheerful and talking for some days.

I helped Mrs Bell clean the kitchen, sitting room and bedrooms this week. Most of it was washing woodwork.

I hope you are all well. How is Ianto? [Gareth’s dog] I am longing to see you all, but may be the war won’t be so long after all and then I can come home safely. I am planning to go back to Dal. Next year. I may get a job, as a zoology instructor and get 250 dollars. It will be jolly good experience even though it would be hard work.

******

There are no more letters to recall my time in Canada. I had entered 1^st year medicine at Dalhousie and left Canada on my birthday June 6^th,1944. It was also D. Day. The train took me to Montreal. I remember the train to New York went through Buffalo. From the station in New York a bus took me and others to the pier where we boarded the New Zealand ship, S.S. Rangitata, the sister ship to the ship, the S.S. Rangitiki that brought the ashes of Gareth home from China to his birthplace of Barry, South Wales. The journey back seemed endless. I remember we saw whales on the port side of the ship. We were in a convoy of about 50 ships, I think and arranged 50 miles across. [I could be wrong here] Destroyers were continuously circulating round the convoy and our ship was in the centre of all these ships. We thought there was some excitement during the voyage, but then it was this was only hearsay.

I arrived at Liverpool hoping to go home to London, but there was a message for me to go direct to my grandparents in Barry. I have vivid memories of being stranded on Crewe station waiting for a train and feeling rather despondent having reached Britain safely, but no one was there to greet me. But the doodlebugs had started, and London was being targeted. So I was back at last in Britain, but not at my home.

The summer was spent in Barry and in the autumn I entered St Andrews University, though I was to go to Dundee where some of the medical students started their course, and where all the medical students completed it to get their degree. We were about 60 men and women in my year and I started in the second year. St Andrews had been the only university to accommodate me and accept my previous studies in Canada. I live in the residence Airlie Hall with a number of other girls.

I suppose I suffered from cultural shock. Everything was so drab after my happy experience in Canada. Food was dull and we were on rationing. I can remember I enjoyed the Scottish dish of stovies - potatoes and onions slowly cooked in some butter and water. It was dreadfully cold in the residence in winter. We had no central heating. I think I had two bags of coal to heat my room each week and it was difficult to keep warm while one studied. I certainly missed my time in Canada and when I was there, I seemed so confident. Somehow on my return to Britain and to my home my shyness recurred.

iI remember my graduation day in St Andrews. My proud parents Dr John and Mrs Eirian Lewis came as did my grandparents Major and Mrs Edgar Jones. General Montgomery received an Honorary Degree from the University.

As I look back over those years in Canada I realise what an important influence it has had on my life. I have been most fortunate and accomplished a great deal. My life has been extremely fulfilled.

I married in 1950 six years after my return from North America and 2 years after my graduation and I have been lucky enough to have four sons. Sadly my husband died in 1973, but I have achieved much since then. I was senior partner in general practice in Bramcote, Nottingham. It was a great privilege to be party to peoples lives and to see the whole spectrum of life from birth to death. After my husband’s death I took up Scuba Diving and have logged well over 900 dives. The hobby has taken me to the four corners of the earth and I have been most fortunate to dive in pristine areas and I have seen the most marvellous sights below the surface of the sea. It introduced me to both underwater archaeology and medicine. Since retiring I have written two books about my uncle Gareth Jones which has made me delve in to history of which I knew nothing. In its own way even to master the computer and make my own website is a small achievement.

I have been most fortunate in all I have done.

I speak for all the evacuees to Canada when I say that we are eternally grateful to all Canadians for their kindness and generosity and in particular to Dr and Mrs Winthrop Bell for their kindness in opening up their home to us, the evacuee children from War time Britain.