Navy Rum and Brown Sauce Part 6

THE END — 1948 —AUGUST

At last on 15th August 1945 the war came to an end and we began to pick up the pieces of our lives again. So much had happened to the world — so many changes had taken place in the six years since the lovely August days of 1939. At the start of the war we were young, by the end we had lost our youth and the upheaval of the old way of life was to affect everyone. So much had altered and we like many others less fortunate were going to have to adjust.
Hove had its share of bombing and there was much destruction and loss of life. One bomb fell on a house at the top of Berriedale Avenue called “ Clondalkin” causing much damage. The house was owned by the MacManus family and Mrs. MacManus was in the house at the time but escaped serious injury. Mr. and Mrs. MacManus kept open house for their son’s friends. They were the parents of Judge John MacManus, who I am told, was known to the criminal fraternity as ‘Father Christmas’ because of his fair but lenient sentencing. After the war the house was rebuilt as it had been before. The Macs had a ‘home again’ party and invitations were sent out on a card bearing a topical illustration.

Fortunately the VI rockets known as Buzz Bombs because of the strange noise they made passed over in 1944 and 1945 still buzzing. It was when the engine cut out that the danger occurred and they exploded on reaching the ground. To our very great relief the terrible V2 rockets which came silently and without warning also avoided Hove. The war inevitably changed the face of Hove, and in the coming years the old Hove would become almost unrecognisable. Big new buildings were constructed on land cleared by bombing and the demolishing of large private houses. Few could afford to live in the pre-war style with staff, and women who had been in the Services and factories during the war did not want to work as living in maids in this new post war era. As time went by beautiful mansions in Grand Avenue were pulled down and modern blocks of flats built in their place. There remains, however, a small part of the brick wall which surrounded the grounds of one of the big houses used by HMS Lizard in which I worked during the war. One by one people came back into civilian life, some started their own businesses still wearing uniform. In 1945/46 Mr. Barry Sanders wearing his army uniform and a black beret came selling fruit and vegetables from a lorry and calling on houses in the New Church Road area. I remember him always smiling. He became very successful in owning and running six shops. He was elected to Hove Council and served two terms of office as Mayor of Hove. He was made a Freeman of the Borough prior to his retirement from the Council in 1995, having served 40 years as an Alderman and Councillor.
Many others did not come back. Some with whom we had lost contact returned, many seemingly in good shape, and some disabled beyond belief. All had something in common, they bore the mental scars of a war which engulfed the whole world and which had, literally, gone out with a bang.

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