May 2025
- Phil Hadley
- May 14
- 5 min read
Many of us are familiar with the impact World War Two made on some of the major cities of our land whether that be through the archive film footage, the myriad of photographs, or eye-witness accounts from those who were there or the measured tomes of the historian writing long after the event. We know about the 73 consecutive nights that the German bombers came to London during the Blitz – my mother recalled never going to bed during that time in her home in Stratford, London, but going every night to the shelter. We are aware of the devastation caused to places like Clydebank, Coventry, Hull, Liverpool, Southampton, and Plymouth. We have read of the casualties, the remarkable stories of the survivors and the heroics of the civil defence teams including the firemen, the ambulance men and women and all the teams that responded to a situation. We have empathised with the agonies of parents deciding whether to evacuate their children or keep them with them – my father was evacuated, my mother was kept with her family. But how did the war impact those small rural communities scattered amongst the farms or along the coast? What was their war like?
Beryl Jukes (nee Vivian) with her new book ‘Those Were My Days’ has provided a very informative and readable account that goes some way to providing an answer for a couple of villages in rural Cornwall. Published to coincide with the VE80 Celebrations, Beryl, now aged 94, tells the story of her childhood with a clarity and gentle humour that authors half her age struggle to achieve.
Beryl and her sister Betty lived with their parents in a cottage at the top of Toltiken Hill, Nancekuke, near Illogan close to the north Cornish coast. Her father was a teacher at Illogan Boys School when war was declared in September 1939. It was the following year that the family were to feel the impact of the war first hand when they were ordered to evacuate their home to make way for a new aerodrome that would become RAF Portreath. On top of that Bill Vivian had been ordered by the education authority to take over the headship of the school in the village of Gorran near Mevagissey on the south coast. But life is often complicated. Beryl’s mum was expecting another baby and in a rural community where only one farm had a phone, the family were given permission not only to stay in their cottage as the construction went on around them, but Mr Vivian was permitted to delay his move to Gorran.
Eventually Veronica was born, Mr Vivian moved to Gorran while Mrs Vivian was allowed a month’s confinement before having to pack up the family’s belongings for them to move to the schoolhouse at Gorran. Their old home became the guardroom at the entrance to the airfield before a purpose-built one was constructed later in the war. Their new home, attached to the village school, didn’t have electricity and only had water in one tap after someone spent 45 minutes using a handpump to fill a tank.
However, the family soon settled in and became part of the community. Beryl’s book tells of the hardships of rationing and shortages, of an UXB in the field next to the school, of the school’s population doubling due to the evacuees – both official and unofficial – and of the efforts everyone made to contribute in some way to the war effort. Beryl recalls collecting seaweed for penicillin, food for rabbits that were bred to feed the local hospital, and of organising a series of concerts with some of her friends to entertain the village and raise money for various causes helping the war effort.
Beryl’s book is illustrated throughout from her collection of photographs and remarkably she is able to name most of the people appearing in them. Beryl also compiled a list of all the children in Gorran she could remember from her childhood, both local and evacuees. I then sought to verify the list from other sources such as the 1939 Register or a variety of evacuee records held at Kresen Kernow – the Cornwall Archive and Record Office. Apart from disagreeing as to where two children lived (and they may have moved during the war) Beryl’s memory rang true to the records I examined proving she has a remarkable memory. Years working as a schoolteacher may have helped her with that!
Thus the book she has written provides a fascinating insight into a small rural community and the impact that the Second World War had upon their lives. There is sadness when the local beach was bombed and three were killed or when one of the evacuees she befriended was killed in London in a V2 attack after he had returned to the capital. There is joy and humour such as when she describes the items included in some of their contents or the pranks the teenagers got up to on the bus to and from the Grammar School in St Austell.
The book is available through this website for only £7.00 plus p&p.
A second book published to coincide with the VE80 Celebrations that also gives an insight into the impact of the war on small rural communities in Cornwall is my Gorran Haven & District War Diary. I had originally compiled a short diary of events during the VE75 events five years ago when the lockdown for Covid put paid to the planned commemorations. That I published as an eBook. Now for VE80 it is a much expanded, more detailed print version.
The first half of the book takes you through the war year by year for Gorran, Gorran Haven, Caerhays, Boswinger, Mevagissey, Portmellon and Pentewan. The second half gives the roll of honour for Gorran Haven, a list of those who served in the armed forces and those who did their bit on the Home Front, the village’s War Inventory – the record of what each householder promised to provide in time of emergency or need, and then a list of the known evacuees in Gorran Haven, Caerhays, Mevagissey and Pentewan. The book shows you something of the tremendous effort that was made by men and women and children in small rural places and that victory was achieved by that wartime generation who worked, served and sacrificed so much for our freedom and peace. We are forever indebted.
The book is available through this website for only £12.00 plus p&p.
Beryl’s book was launched at the opening ceremony of the Gorran Haven VE80 Celebrations when she spoke to an invited audience. Haven Church then hosted my exhibition of photographs of Cornwall in World War Two with many photographs from the local area being exhibited publicly for the first time. Over the three days over 300 adults and children came through the exhibition. The week then culminated on Sunday 11th May with a VE80 Service of Thanksgiving held at Haven Church. The service included stories and photographs from the war, hymns that were sung at similar services in Cornwall in 1945, a Bible Reading by a member of the church who was part of that wartime generation and an Act of Remembrance when the fallen from the parish or those who died in the parish were remembered.
This was the last great commemoration of World War Two when we had some for whom the events were part of their living memory. The number of those who served is dwindling fast, and even the children of that generation are passing from us. By the time we reach the 100th anniversary only a handful of the children will remain. Thus it was right and fitting to mark it in such a way, and it is a great privilege to be able to produce the account of someone like Beryl. Thus it deserves to be widely read. Until next month, Shalom. Peace then, peace now, peace forever.
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