Her mother came to England the second time on a troop ship. Although born in India of an Anglo Indian family, her 3rd great grandmother on her fathers side being Indian, she and her family were considered English, she was now married to Hugo and they and John, her son by her first mariage, were moving to England.
Hugo had been at the Slade Art School but had joined up when war was declared, whereupon the army had noted his ability to learn languages and he had been shipped out to India where he had spent the entire war on the North West Frontier.
Hugo had been at the Slade Art School but had joined up when war was declared, whereupon the army had noted his ability to learn languages and he had been shipped out to India where he had spent the entire war on the North West Frontier.
They arrived in England and went to stay with Constance's grandmother aka The Witch. Hugo had leave of a few days and then left for Germany, his new posting.
Constance was pregnant and gave birth to her second son very late on the evening of New Year's Eve.
She had last been in England in 1934 as a teenager before going to finish her education in France.
This time life was a 'trifle' different to say the least, she returned as a thirty year old with a young boy of five and a half, had given birth to another child and the country to which she had come, was practically destitute.
WW2 had ended eighteen months before, there was mass unemployment and everything - by which I mean everything - food, clothing, petrol, electricity, coal, gas was rationed and the winter of '47 was probably the worst in living memory.
She read a book last night called 'Her Frozen Heart' written by Lulu Taylor and published in 2017 which had been recommended to her by a friend. The book runs along two time ages, now and 1947 and it describes the winter of '47, chilling reading folks.
She, of course, was not born then but she is old enough to remember the winter of '62 when the family lived on a farm in the depths of the Kentish countryside.
It was three miles either way to any shops. The small country lanes were impassable with drifts of over 20 feet but her mother, Constance took this winter on without a problem.
For did she not live on a farm? Did she not know the fields like the back of her hands? Did her daughter not have Bluey, an Irish Cob? Was Hugo not an amazing craftsman who could make anything out of wood?
Between the two of them they designed and built a sleigh which would carry Constance over the fields and up the back way into the local village.
An old shire harness was cut down to fit Bluey, who, bless his heart, only snorted once when asked to wear the harness but when Hugo backed him into the shafts stroking his nose and talking to him, he picked up his head and 'nickered'.
Dearest Bluey. Sadly she didn't have a camera in those days and neither of her parents ever thought to take a photo of him and Constance in the sleigh.
A lot of people were surprised at her mother's resourcefulness but she hadn't just 'lived' through the winter of '47, she had lived and worked for the Army up in Kashmir from late in 1941 through until the Spring of 1946.
They have a lot of snow in Kashmir.
GeeGee Parrot.
January 4th, 2018.
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