Times Advocate, 1989-11-08, Page 9ernembra
Olive and Ron Packham
the bom bin
rape her. Her loud screams
. brought co-workers to the scene,
, and the man fled.
"I kept my virginity through-
out the war!" she said trium-
-l.itantly.
The citizens of Birmingham
.lived underground at night. The
government gave out 8' by 6'
.corrugated metal shelters which
.were dug into the ground in peo-
ple's back gardens. The excavat-
ed earth was mounded. These
shelters protected the inhabitants
'from blast damage.
' But all was not doom and
'gloom.
"In spite of it all, we made our
own fun," Olive said.
One great comfort was the
.camaraderie. War is a great lev-
eler. Rich and poor, aristocrat
'and lower class, were all equally
endangered by random bomb-
ings, and all pitched in to help
each other.
Off-duty firefighters played
cards, or other games. Olive.
got her sweets ration in Smar-
ties, so some could be passed.on
to others, and the ones she kept
would last longer.
She and three girlfriends were
allowed to take a break at a re-
in England
Ron Packham was one of
those young men. He was serv-
ing in an RAF Regiment. He
began courting the intrepid lady
who had so artfully conned him
and his buddies.
After the holiday, the two kept
in touch by letter. Olive spent
the last- 18 months of the war
firefighting in London. Ron saw
action in the Middle East, and
then helped liberate Greece. He
was caught up in a little-known
incident of World Ware.
As the war was drawingto a
close he, along with several hun-
dred other Allied military per-
sonnel and civilians, were taken
captive by Greek nationals who
did not want the Greek royal
family back on the Throne. The
hostages were marched, 25 miles
a day, from Athens to the Alba-
nian border before being them-
selves liberated by the Ameri-
cans.
The couple set a wedding date
of June 13, a week after VE Day
(Victory in Europe). The bride
had made her wedding dress out
of off -cuts of parachute silk she
had been given during a fire visit
to a parachute factory.
There was still a shortage of
Gown of parachute silk
'ort on the coast of Wales. Only
military and others with security
clearance were allowed into the
arca.
- food, but Olive's father had a
friend on the east coast of Eng-
land who had always promised
to supply strawberries for Olive's
The four, not realizing the wedding. A call went out, and
�.:�.. <. a the he i
s. �,.. rr ee were picked packed
�.+.vic�+� .: .-...r....... +•-• ,;-. .e yi tine -
tance from the resort, found They never reached their desti-
themselves on the platform with
no way to transport the one huge
trunk in which they had packed
all their holiday gcar. Out of the
corner of her eye, Olive spotted
four strong -looking young men
in military uniform. They were
quite willing to help out these
damsels in distress.
With one man at the front of
the trunk, another behind, and
two under the middle, the eight-
some started off. Every time the
men were about ready to drop,
Olive would assure them the re-
sort was around the next
bend...or the next...or surely the
- :.'> ,- ii!Ank::ti11auv_ rcacheed.. "There is no glamour in war.
its destination atter an exfT'it�usY=
. ing two-mile trek. was Olive's final comment.
nation. Only the empty boxes
arrived in Birmingham. Olive
doesn't know who succumbed to
the temptation to indulge in such
a rare treat, but the wedding
guests had to make do with
tinned plums.
"I've never eaten a tinned plum
since," Olive said emphatically.
The Packhams still feel some
of the effects of a war that be-
gan 50 years ago. Neither can
bear to waste food. And Olive
still has the urge to mend the
runs in her stockings rather than
throw them out.
Times -Advocate, November 8, 1989
ce
Page 9
Adventures of
CREDITON - World War 2
was the backdrop for a meeting
between a quiet, gentle lad
from Crediton, Ontario and 'a
bubbly Scottish lass from Glas-
gow, Scotland.
Fred Sims met his Georgie in
mid -summer of 1945 at a dance
at Green's Playhouse in Glas-
gow. Fred had seen action in
Holland and Germany with the
Argyle and Southern'Highland-
ers, and was on leave from serv-
ing with the occupation forces
in Continental Europe. Georgie
was a member of the British
ATS (Auxiliary Territorial Ser-
vice).
For Fred, it was love at first
sight. Not so with Georgie.
"He never opened his mouth.
And he never left me alone,
even though I tried to hide from
the old bloodhound," she con-
fessed with a merry giggle. Be-
sides, she was already engaged,
"to a guy from Alberta".
Ten days later, the two said
goodbye at another dance in the
same hall. Fred was leaving for
Germany the next day.
Advised by her mother that
"the least you could do was see
him off at the station", Georgie
from a friend.
Georgie had heard horror sto-
ries of girls who had discovered
their military sweethearts had
not -always told the truth. Was
she to be another victim?
Fred had alerted a London
jewellery store to the! impending
arrival of his fiancee. A quick
phone call, and the manager
came down to open the store so
Georgie could pick out her ring.
Maybe everything was okay af-
ter all.
The two started for home.
The drive seemed to go on and
on. And on. Fred had told
Georgie that her new home in
Crediton would be 10 minutes
from the airport.. Georgie inter-
preted that to mean the London
airport. Fred had been talking
about Sexsmith in Hay town-
ship.
Finally, the Model A chugged
into Crediton where Georgie
was warmly welcomed by Fred's
mother and his three sisters.
The newcomer discreetly let it
be known that she would like to
use a bathroom.. The three sis-
ters offered to go with her.
Even more strange, one of them
produced a flashlight. Georgic's
Georgie and• Fred Sims
a war bride
Scottish lass and her lad
said goodbye again the next
day.
Fred had Georgic's address.
He began corresponding by
mail. _
"He was more talkative on
doubts about what she had got-
ten into flared again. She soon
found out the reason for the illu-
minated escort service. The fa-
cilities were outdoors, in a sep-
arate little building.
paper," Georgie noted. "1 was up in good time the
`t'YClti'1CClTl1It�" C:cltZ W.". i1t root-mug'itr:SteWritTe1 TgU-
January, 1946. The letters con- been the night before," Georgie
tinued back and forth across the laughed.
Atlantic. Finally, one with a The next two years were filled
with loneliness and homesick-
ness. She missed her family,
and the "clan and bang" that
are part of a big city like Glas-
gow.
"I went through hell. I
couldn't afford to go to Scotland,
or I wouldn't have come back,
Georgie recalled. "Fred's moth-
er was fantastic, more like a sis-
ter than a mother-in-law. She
was one of the reasons I stayed."
Fred had promised to send
his wife back to Scotland for a
holiday as soon as he could af-
Crediton postmark contained a
proposal of marriage. A reply
from Scotland bore an accep-
tance.
"1 missed him after we said
goodbye," Georgie admitted.
Georgie flew to Canada Sep-
tember 20, 1947, a week before
the date set for her marriage.
She landed in Dorval, Quebec,
and took a train to London. She
arrived in the middle of the
night.
Fred was waiting, but where
was the Buick, the one shown in
snapshots he had sent? Fred
stopped at a Model A explain ford �P Georgie did get
'�- - ` ^•` I..a.,,e� C,.q..-,.nnret 4jtar Cnr t.l_
down, and he had borrowed one wee s, to s ow of her tittle
Ittg uiat 1113 tall tkflI UUI!
It.k • h f(I - _ .. -
daughter, born in 1950. Fred
joined her for the last two
weeks.
Georgie went back for an-
other visit in 1981. Everything
had changed. So had she.
"Canada is the greatest coun-
try in the world. I wouldn't go
back to Scotland for all the tea
in China. And l've never met a
mar! I'dtrade for Fred," Georgie
sato reeenu'y: -
""I'm glad I got her," Fred
added.
As for the war that brought
them. together, Fred summed up
his,fcelings: "It was an awful
experience. I wouldn't have
missed it. 1 was very glad to get
back."
"Nothing is worse than war. I
hope there is never another big