Their Story. 1946.

The sun was out for free and so too was Lou!

At last the Emperor had finally given barely a nod.

A year passed. Lou and Evelyn cuddled their daughter extra close.

Challenging dreams for a short time after Lou’s return invaded their minds then discussed and better understood. World War 2 memories embraced and new freedoms appreciated. There was much for them to learn about between each other including the existing family business. The family well supported.  The summer of 1946 echoed the beginning of family life. August gave them their first of two children! 

                                                                                   ~

The loyal soldier, absent almost without trace, since his fleeting marriage in 1942 and voyage to Singapore, made the most of his homeward trip in 1945. This journey took him through the continents of Australia and  Canada and then home to England. Members of the public in these areas showed generosity. 

These men then went through medical tests with Dad needing to travel up to London, where he obviously enjoyed staying with his mother in the family home. A psychologist encourage Lou to keep talking about his experiences. His wife Evelyn must have felt both a sense of relief and frustration waiting in the wings down country. Gaps partly closed with their letters and phone conversations.

“At least he can be absorbed back home into my family and business, never mind the complications. Evelyn confided to a close friend. On the other hand, my French sister in law can be a tad feisty!”

Lou coped albeit differently. He must have been oh so hungry to finally own the roles of husband and father and lead a normal life. A positive driving force no doubt, during his jungle confines, with hunger and death at every shoeless corner. 

The birth of Evelyn’s daughter apparently dragged on a bit. Her family rallied round. The small local hospital within walking distance. The receipt for several days stay was kept and filed away. Chickens roamed freely in the bathroom, much to mothers amazement.  Nurses learned that the Witt ancestors had inhabited Hampshire for well over five hundred years, farming and milling and eventually building a bake-house and shop inside a residential home quite close to the railway station, about a mile from the main town area. Evelyn’s father taught himself to be a Master Baker. Her daughter eventually named after her northern grandmother : Sarah Witt, nee Dun from Lincoln, who had ventured down to look after the local home of the local doctor who home visited in those days. 

Music played quite a big part of family life. Evelyn would play and we all sang together over time. The adults sometimes ringing out light opera rythms from Gilbert and Sullivan, local melodies and cowboys songs, you name it. Lou had sung to his over worked starved fellows as a ‘prisoner of war’ together as they worked on building railways and bridges, sometimes cutting through rock to do so. One recurring ditty was the ‘Smugglers Song’ an old Cornish favourite. His rich baritone voice which captured emotion must have been helpful in difficult times. The words went something like:

If you wake at midnight,  and hear the sound of feet.

Don’t go drawing back the blinds and looking in the street.

Them that ask no questions isn’t told no lie.

So watch the wall my darlings as the gentlemen go by.

Other verses followed.

                                                                         ~

Where did this couple meet?

Lou and Evelyn first locked eye at the local Saturday night dance in June 1941.  Lights dimmed as the last number softly played out across the solid oaken floor space. Moonlight sported through the high arched windows, illuminating the quirky musicians with ease who loved playing the old time numbers. The training soldier enjoying his sparse leisure period spotted the fairest lass in the room and interrupted the last dance.

Romance followed as time and distance permitted and mainly on the page as it happened. They elected to meet up at a farm gate halfway between their residences for a few months until Lou was posted elsewhere. An insert from one of Evelyn’s early notes to Lou:

‘My Darling, I’ve just been for a walk hoping to reach the gate, where you sang the little French song to me. Remember? It grew duskier as I reached it and I didn’t fancy walking the country lanes alone in shadowy places. I enjoyed the walk of course and you were with me every step of the way.’

Lou, subsequently made a broach in the shape of the gate. Its highly likely that he chose to propose at this special symbolic entrance way. They married the following day in St. Mary’s church built in 1150, near the River Avon in Fordingbridge with family and friends present. Their honeymoon of a week was spent in a small hotel on the edge of the New Forest, shadowed by ponies. 

Then away to another training camp, and then snatched  far away to Singapore. From there he was to disappear for several years, swallowed up in the Thai jungle, working on the infamous railway of two hundred and fifty miles; the fastest railway ever built. When it was finished a small number of men were shipped to Japan to a car battery factory. There was also a bauxite  mine sustaining a lot more workers. This period of captivity saw the men’s conditions somewhat better with a mostly different guard mentality, one for example was a concert pianist. Also there was a little more variety of diet than mostly rice. 

As Lou had authority over the Red Cross parcels dropped by the American planes, which contained drugs, cigs and soap etc a guard who’d befriended him suggested carefully that he bring the soap and share their bath time. Mum and dad and three children in a very large container of water. The ritual described in their book: ‘SHE WORE A KHAKI SMILE.’ Plus a description of  a Japanese farmer, not a young man, bringing a large container some distance to where these men were based.

Lou and Evelyn contributed these stories and letters which go towards the edited version of their love story across the WW2 period. (My brother and I hope you will be inspired by the guts and challenges endured by our parents. Not forgetting all who took part) 

Their song lives on!