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| Joseph Ringen Allison |
After World War II, Canada took part in the re-building of England
and Europe by helping with economic growth. For our ancestors engaged in
commerce through the businesses of
Hayward & Warwick and Manchester, Robertson, Allison, they could do their
part to re-build the Commonwealth by venturing to London to buy goods, and this
is exactly what Joseph Ringen Allison (my grand-father) did eight months after the war ended. Joe was a bit of a pack-rat (which is awesome
for us genealogists) and kept his two letters to his family recounting his
adventure. He went with nine others on a
buying trip sponsored by London-based Roditi & Sons (a firm about which I
could find no information despite exhaustive online searches). What follows is a transcription of his
letters. Thanks Grampy for this
delightful telling of your story!
D. Roditi and Sons Ltd
12a Golden Square
London, W. 1.
April 29, 1946
Dear Norma:
I thought you might be interested
in learning how the trip over went. Don’t tear this letter up as it will be
easier to show it to the families than to explain the details.
On our arrival in Montreal, we
went to the TCA offices in Paul Street and had our baggage weighed in and were
told to be back there by 1130. At 1145
we took a bus, which took the 10 of us out the 17 miles to Dorval Airport. There, after much discussion with the customs
and immigration men who spoke broken English we boarded our plane. It was a 4-motored Lancaster with a crew of 5
and seating capacity of 10 passengers.
It was snowing at the time and generally miserable weather.
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Based on the description, Joe and his nine companions likely
crossed the Atlantic in something like this |
At 1:06 p.m. we took off and
climbed to 7,000 feet where we were above the storm and the weather was
clear. There was no sensation to the
take off and once you became accustomed to the roar of the engines, the ride
was smoother than any rail trip I ever took.
About 15 minutes out the steward gave us instructions as to what we
should do in the event of an emergency landing.
The first break we saw in the clouds was about 3:15 when we were able to
look down on the Main Line CPR just west of McAdam. Then the sun came out and we crossed the
Saint John River at 3:45 E.S.T. and flew up the Washademoak then slightly south
– passing about 30 miles north of Moncton at 4 o’clock. At 4:15 we were over P.E.I.
(we were the travelling at 7,500 ft. and about 300 m.p.h.). We then passed on to Newfoundland and the
pilot set us down at Gander – the RAF-USA ferry command airport. He did such a perfect job of landing that
none of us realized we were down until the engines stopped. Incidentally, this airport was built of materials
mostly flown in and constitutes the largest paved area in the world. The immensity of the hangars and the whole
project is unbelievable. They gave us our
support at the RAF officers’ mess. There
is apparently no scarcity of butter in Newfoundland. On our table there were three half-pound
slabs for the ten of us. At 7:45 we
again took off in the darkness and headed out to sea.
By 1:00 a.m., which is 5:00 a.m.
G.M.T. the dawn was breaking and an hour later the clouds had broken and we
were in bright sunshine. At 7 a.m. the
steward served us a breakfast of grapefruit juice, ham, potato salad, radishes,
olives, vegetable salad, rolls, a cream cheese sandwich, a cup of coffee and a
jam tart. Try that some morning at seven
o’clock.
By 7:15 we were off the coast of
Ireland and then proceeded to fly across it towards Scotland. Ireland from the air is one solid mass of
green fields with hardly a tree in evidence.
At 8:52 we landed at Prestwick, Scotland – eight minutes ahead of
schedule, which is better time than the C.N.R. can keep on the East Riverside-
St. John run.
There we were passed through the
British Customs with remarkable efficiency.
The chief difference is that they know their jobs.
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| Blackbushe Airport |
From there – at 9:45 – we took
off in a 20 passenger troop carrying bomber which they have not yet had time and
materials to convert to peacetime garb. It
still had army equipment hanging from the walls and was painted khaki and
camouflaged. It was a big plane and even
smoother riding than the Lancaster we crossed the Ocean in. In about 2 hours we set down at another
Bomber airport at Blackbushe in the suburbs of London. There we boarded a special bus which was waiting
for us and drove the 34 miles into the city.
All along the route were large estates and beautiful gardens. The flowers are in bloom here and the trees
in full leaf. They have a privet hedge
here that is yellow green at this time of year and very dense so it can be
trimmed to any conceivable shape. We
were taken to the Airport terminal in central London (the city of Westminster)
and from there we took a taxi to the ‘Green Park’ Hotel which was the only place
Roditi could get reservations for us. Our stay here is limited to 5 days (May 4th)
as is general procedure here and then we have reservations at the Hotel
Piccadilly which is a really modern place.
Five days later we move to the Waldorf and that is as far ahead as we
have bee able to get reservations. This
will be alright however as we yet have to go to Stoke, Birmingham, Belfast and
then to Glasgow. Our agents tell us that
there is not much use going on the Continent as goods there are practically
unobtainable and where available are priced beyond all reason.
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| Caxton Hall |
This morning we had to go down to
Caxton Hall to obtain temporary ration books and registrations cards as
required of all visitors. Whoever said
Britain was starving didn’t know what they were talking about. There is an ample supply of good plain
food. For breakfast this morning we had
toast with lots of butter, sausages or bacon, fried potatoes and coffee. The British Ministry of Food has limited all
meals to 3 courses and stapled on them a standard price of 5/5 or about
$1.20. This, however, does not stop
restaurants from charging for extras such as a cover charge and special
services. As a result our lunch today (for 3) cost us 1/7/6/ or about $7.50 –
soup, hamburg steak and green peas and dessert.
Everyone stops for tea at about 4 o’clock so they are not ready for an
early dinner. Very few restaurants start
serving before seven o’clock.
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| London After WWII |
This evening we went for a walk
out Half Moon Street (remember in Sherlock Holmes) where our present hotel is
and there along Piccadilly to Piccadilly Circus then down Regent Street to the
‘Mall’ (you can see Buckingham Palace a few blocks up at the end of the
street.) There we went along to Trafalgar Square and into the Strand to Charing
Cross Station which is the terminal of the Southern Railway. There we spent quite a time watching the
local trains go in and out (one about every 3 minutes). After a couple of hours wandering around and
looking in windows we came home.
Everywhere is evidence of raids but in this area it is only an
occasional building either burned out or flattened completely. Apparently the greatest damage was around St.
Paul’s and along the River where whole areas were demolished. I haven’t been down there yet.
As nearly as I can figure now, my
reservations will permit me a return flight on the night of June 2nd
getting me in Montreal June 3rd.
It may be a day or two before I can get sleeper reservations so I will
be home on June 5th or 6th. Probably won’t have time to write any more
letters. In the meantime if you want me
cable me care of the people on this letterhead.
They will have my address.
Love to you – Helen – Joanne and
Albert – also Doc-Doris and Auntie Dot.
Joe/
North Stafford Hotel
Stoke-on-Trent
May 14, 1946
Dear Norma:
I got your letter this morning which
was forwarded to me here by Roditi’s. I
was so excited I could hardly eat my breakfast.
Since writing you I have been very busy making as many as 25 calls in a
single day and getting little bits of goods everywhere. We checked out of the Green Park Hotel and
moved into the Piccadilly which is really modern and expensive about 15 dollars
per day with no meals and a 10% service charge for the staff who you tip
anyway. With prices the way they are
here you would be lucky to get by on a 6 pounds per day if you didn’t move out
of your room.
We have pretty well covered all
central London in our meanderings and have seen areas where 4 to 6 blocks have
been leveled by the Blitz and not a wall left standing. In other instances we have seen half a building
blown away and business being conducted on in the remaining portion with
fireplaces and mirrors above them clinging to what is now the outside
wall. There is plenty of food here for
those who eat in restaurants but the average person is pretty strictly rationed
(4 oz. of meat per person per week) and the bread is getting blacker and more
tasteless each day as the percentage of white flour in it is cut. As well as that the hotel meals don’t seem to
satisfy you and an hour after eating you are hungry again. Thus the English have innumerable pauses
during the day for tea. I have never had
so much tea in my life. Even in the
hotels when the maid calls you she pokes a cup of tea at you. This isn’t so bad since the government has
announced all heat shut off as of May 1st and the average night
temperature in the hotels is about 32 degrees.
The water here is nice to drink if you are accustomed to drinking bath
water so I have been drinking beer with all my meals except breakfast. Haven’t even seen a sign of any milk since I
left.
On May 8 we checked out of the
hotel and boarded a G.W.R. (Great Western) train at 4:45 en route to
Kidderminster the carpet manufacturing centre.
The negines in their trains are about ½ the size of ours but make speeds
up to 80 m.p.h. and we arrived in Kidderminster about 170 miles away at 8
o’clocl. There we checked in at the Lion
Hotel. Next day we visited the factories
in the district and took a car out to Stoveport 6 miles away to another
factory. On May 10/46 the following day
we took a bus to Stourbridge and visitied the glass factories. In the afternoon we took a bus – a fast one –
it took us over 2 hours to cover 30 miles and we had to change 3 times – and we
went to Redditch where the needle factories and finishing tackle makers
are. On Saturday morning we came back to
the Picadilly. Slept most of Sunday and
in the afternoon went to the zoo. Never
saw so many weird anumals in my life.
Tell Joanne and Helen that I saw a couple of monkeys there that looked
exactly like them.
Monday morning we took a L.M.S.
(London Midland and Scottish) express from Euston station which did the 175 odd
miles to Stoke (first stop) in about 3 hours flat. An average of about 60 m.p.h. Here we are at the North Stafford Hotel which
is new and modern and we are visiting the potteries and will also do Birmingham
from here. Then on Saturday, Mr. May
from Roditi’s is going to pick us up and we are going to Belfast and the linen
mills returning via Scotland. Will be
back in London about May 28th and then after a few more calls there
will return home.
Glad to hear the kids are
ok. My love to you and the
Brittains. Tell them I can’t possibly
find time to write.
All my love to you, Joanne, Helen
and Albert
Joe/
Images:
http://cdn.theatlantic.com/assets/media/img/photo/2011/07/world-war-ii-the-battle-of-britain/w21_00725131/main_900.jpg?1420520466
http://www.bombercommandmuseum.ca/lanccanadian.html
