Helena Hall - A Woman Living in the Shadow of the Second World War: Helena Halls Journal from the Home Front

A WOMAN LIVING
IN THE SHADOW
OF THE
SECOND WORLD WAR

Dedication

This book is dedicated to a wartime generation
who showed courage and stoicism
in the face of unprecedented difficulties.

In particular we should remember
the men of both Lindfield parishes
who lost their lives in the 19391945 war.

A WOMAN LIVING
IN THE SHADOW
OF THE
SECOND WORLD WAR

Helena Halls Journal
from the Home Front

Edited with an Introduction by
Linda Grace and Margaret Nicolle

Foreword by Peter Liddle

First published in Great Britain in 2015 by
PEN AND SWORD MILITARY
an imprint of
Pen and Sword Books Ltd
47 Church Street
Barnsley
South Yorkshire S70 2AS

Copyright East Sussex Record Office,
Linda Grace and Margaret Nicolle, 2015

Diaries of Helena Invicta Hall, 1940-1945
(East Sussex Record Office ACC 863/17/1-34

ISBN 978 1 47382 325 9

The right of Linda Grace and Margaret Nicolle to be identified
as the authors of this work has been asserted by them in accordance
with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

A CIP record for this book is available from the British Library
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in
any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical including photocopying,
recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without
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Printed and bound in England
by CPI Group (UK) Ltd, Croydon, CR0 4YY

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Acknowledgements

We have appreciated the assistance of the staff at East Sussex Record Office.

Dr Peter Liddles involvement has been invaluable. He recognized the unique potential of the journal and encouraged us to study it in depth.

We would like to acknowledge Richard Bryants involvement in the initial stages of this project.

With his knowledge of military history, Nicholas Grace has contributed useful comment.

Malcolm Grace and William Nicolle must be thanked for their support and advice.

We are grateful to Peter Leigh and Jim Topping for their technical support with the illustrations.

Hilary Whiteside was helpful in proofreading the initial draft.

Preface

As County Archivist I care about preserving records for future generations so that we can learn, first hand, what it was like to live in previous generations. Without those records we would suffer from collective amnesia, living only in the present and with no understanding of how our society came to be. Official records, such as those of local councils and churches, play an important role in recording the past, and central government records give us a national picture of the time. But personal records, like diaries, can often show how national events did, or did not, have an impact on the lives and attitudes of individuals, which can help the reader to identify with them and to make those events more real in our understanding. This is just what Helena Halls diaries do, taking the reader back in time to relive those wartime years in rural Sussex through the eyes of a remarkable woman.

I am delighted that Helena Halls diaries, which were deposited at East Sussex Record Office by her executors, have survived to tell the tale of Lindfield at war and that Linda Grace and Margaret Nicolle have undertaken to make them more widely available in this way. The editors are to be congratulated.

Elizabeth Hughes
Chief Archivist for East Sussex County

Foreword

July 16 (1940) Spent some time today and yesterday putting some papers and precious things into a suitcase to have ready in case of necessity. With necessity being the imminent likelihood of a German landing on the South coast of England, the immediacy of danger is captured in this diary, but with a practical reaction paralleled again and again as Helena Hall daily documents her Home Defence responsibilities, her observation of what happens in her immediate surroundings and the progress of the war as reported by the Daily Sketch, other newspapers, rumours and news bulletins.

When I first saw this diary its significance was clearly apparent, its author revealed as one of that special breed of person in many a rural, but not exclusively rural, community, providing, with others, vertebrae in that localitys backbone cultural, historical, artistic and social contributions. By natural extension such people would have an awareness of the role which a village, in this case Lindfield, would necessarily play in great events which are determining their destiny along with that of the nation. Not altogether, but by and large, the events are rendering the pursuit of self-interest out of order. A positive response is called for and of course someone like Helena will provide it and this lady, true to form, will keep a diary! How fortunate we are. The hand-written diary was subsequently wellplaced in the East Sussex County Archives, its importance discerned by Linda Grace and Margaret Nicolle, who then worked prodigiously in transcribing, editing, supporting with endnotes and promoting the journals worthiness in assisting understanding of the manner in which an individual, among those similarly or differently engaged, contributed to the work of the most minuscule cogwheels of the nation at war. They have now brought the journal to publication. A huge task and let no one underestimate it. They well deserve our thanks and congratulations.

If you were to have read so far, believe me you have hold of a Home Front gem. I liked, for example, reading that on January 26th, according to a newspaper, presumably the Daily Sketch, the Government was not discouraging holidays to France in the year ahead. I suggest that Helena was frequently matter of fact but this was not invariably the case, even though she attends an ARP lecture on Panic and Fear and makes no further comment. She expands on the newspaper comment on Lindfield resident, Marquis of Tavistock, as an ardent pacifist. Hesmuch worse than that. During the last 8 years he has been active in Communism, Pacifism, Social Credit, Fascism and National Socialism. He is pro-Nazi and accuses the British Government of responsibility for the war.

Emotion of a different nature is displayed at news of the French surrender. She expresses sorrow for them, dismay for us. On June 16th (1940), in a packed church, the National Anthem was sung and the Marseillaise was played on the organ. The prayers today were specially for France and her people and heartfelt prayers they were.

There should be little need to offer further encouragement to delve into this book for illuminating insight into the microcosm of the war revealed by Helenas journalistic microscope, but I cannot resist this for both topicality and the fact that war may change many things but not everything: November 23rd. Most of the ARP wardens at Brighton were on strike last night, as a protest against the recent decision to dismiss 98 full-time paid wardens. They made it clear that they will come out in an emergency, but refuse to carry out post duties except on Sundays, until the men are reinstated. Over Lindfield, Helena records four air raids during that night.