About Bernard

Introduction

Bernard passed away on 18 May 2022, less than a month after his 89th birthday, in North Middlesex Hospital.

According to his wishes, his body was cremated on Monday 13 June 2022 after a Humanist ceremony. Not everyone who wished to attend was able to do so, whilst many more would not have been aware in time. Bernard was a member of many organisations and very active locally, so it was simply not possible to track down all those who knew him in the time available. Apologies to those we were unable to contact beforehand.

The ceremony was, however, recorded and is available elsewhere on this site from the main menu.

The celebration of Bernard's life continued afterwards in The Wonder public house in Batley Road, Enfield.

Bernard regularly played accordian for the Etcetera Morris Dancers, who were good enough to perform a number of dances outside in his honour. One of these was filmed and made available on this site, from the main menu.  

This page is still a work-in-progress, but the following was taken from a document found in Bernard's effects:

  

War Memoirs

The following are recollections from Bernard of the war years

My name is Bernard Alfred Hawkins and I was born on 25 April 1933 at the home of my grandparents. This was some accommodation attached to the Enfield Chase Lawn Tennis Club where my grandfather was the groundsman. 

The family home was actually 109, Edenridge Road, Edmonton.

I attended Raglan School and got on pretty well as I reached the standard five set aged 9 under teacher George Sturges, the local historian. I missed the chance to take the exam the first year so stayed there for two years when I did the 11 plus.

Before war was declared, my mother and I were evacuated to Bressingham near Diss in Norfolk. It was actually a chicken farm called 'The Nest' belonging to a retired sea captain and his wife Mr and Mrs Downton. We helped pack the eggs and enquired where they were going. We were surprised to hear that it was Enfield! 

We were privileged as we had our own water pump (and a bath) whereas the other villagers had to queue at the local pub for water. It had to be primed with salt water to clean it before use and resembled a bier pump in appearance. We only received half days at school as there weren't enough teachers to cope with the influx of new children. The schoolroom was simply divided by a curtain. 

We only stayed three weeks as I fell into the duck pond and my mother thought I'd be safer at home. It is rumoured that I had already acquired a slight Norfolk lilt to my accent.

I went straigh back into the juniors. We didn't have air-raid shelters as it was a single storey building but had blast barriers in the corridors where we sheltered on benches. One morning I must have slept through the air-raid siren as I arrived at a deserted school. We would have carried our gas-masks to school but not necessarily when we went shopping.

There was an Air-Raid Warden's Post, which was a dug-out, in the bushes opposite Bush Hill Park Station on Queen Anne's Place. Post boxes had their tops painted a greeny-yellow colour which was supposed to react and change colour in the event of a gas attack. All signposts were also removed from the streets in case of invasion. An everyday background noise at Edenbridge Road was the 'Tat-tat-tat' of machine guns being tested at the Royal Ordnance Factory.

On the first day of the Blitz we were visiting my grandmother in Harrington Hill, Clapton. The sirens sounded and the air was filled with German aircraft. The Spitfires followed, weaving in between them. My mother commented "I can't see us getting out of this; we may as well enjoy the spectacle!"

We could see the glow of the docks on fire in the distance.

We had now moved to 108 Edenbridge Road and had an Anderson Shelter in the garden which we only used once. They were installed at first without lining and the blast would often pull them out of the ground. They began to line them with a ledge of concrete about two feet high to anchor them.

My mother sensed that the war would go on for a long time and decided we would shelter in the living room instead.

There were a few incidents locally. No.112 received a hole in the roof, an incendiary bomb I think, and caught fire (8th September 1940). Two maiden sisters were living there but luckily they were sharing a shelter with the people at no.110, so were safe.

I also remember an incendiary bomb falling in the front garden of no.73 or 75 and someone being killed.

Oil bombs were the worst. We received instructions of how to deal with incendiary bombs using sand but nothing for oil bombs. One fell on a house nearby in Gardenia Road and it was gutted in ten minutes. Luckily there were no casualties.

I seem to remember a bomb being dropped on a house near Raglan School but someone I met a bit younger than I am has no recollection of it.

Of course the big incident was the V2 rocket at Abbey Road. I was either woken by it or thrown from my bed. (9th December 1944). At the time my mother was working at Parr's Engineering Works on Abbey Road. Parr made his money in the First World War and invented the Parr Utility Lighter, but during WW2 they made bomb detonators. Mum predicted another strike and sure enough about 10-14 days later, Sheen Court in Bagshot Road was hit by a V2 (7th January 1945). There were trapped casualties in the homes opposite the house. I was always curious about Sheen Court as a coach would arrive in the morning to take people away and brought them back again at 5pm. Some burly looking blokes were also seen hanging about outside who looked like plain clothes policemen.

In Park Avenue there is a single Bungalow and its garden received a hit during the war creating an enormous crater; the house itself was completely untouched however.

At the Lawn Tennis Club where my grandfather worked and we spent a lot of our leisure time a hole appeared on the slopes near the grass courts. It was about 8 inches in diameter. It turned out it was one of our anti-aircraft shells and had buried itself 15 feet deep and also travelled in a curve sideways; a fair size hole had to be dug to remove it.

When a bomb hit the New River (15th October 1940) a very wide area was flooded and it was rumoured that gutters were flowing as far as Bounces Road. There was a big dip in the grounds of the Lawn Tennis Club below the mound on which the Club house was built. This consequently filled

with water. My brother, Leonard spotted a huge Pike and was determined to catch it which he did using one of our grandfather's hay rakes. I remember him displaying it proudly on some scales to the other kids.

I spent the last year of the war at Enfield Grammar School. We were in the Lower School building on Silver Street and one year of the Enfield County Girls School also used the building. There seemed to be an invisible line in the playground separating us. There were two long, barrow shaped, dug-out shelters in the grounds of that site which at the time extended nearer the road that they do nowadays. We only used them once as by this time we were being attacked with V2 for which there was no warning.

We housed evacuees as well. My grandmother and two aunts came from Clapton to stay while their home was repaired. Also a cousin and her husband came up from Folkestone for a period of about six months. The coastal ports of Folkestone and Dover had become a target until Hitler lost control of the Channel.

Iron railings were all requisitioned and there was a stall under the bandstand in the Market Place, Enfield for the Spitfire Fund. People would donate things to be sold to raise money. Mother bought an enormous chandelier which looked very out of place in our small room at home. Later when we got a snooker table, it was suitable to light it.

We lost several members of our family in the war. My mother's brother William Pateman, known as 'Dick' died at the Siege of Malta. My cousin, Charlie Pateman died in the Sangro River, Italy (19th November 1943). Two cousins both called William Pateman. One was a seaman and I don't know the details of his death. The second in the R.A.F. got lost on a mission. He was a linguist so may have been involved in some clandestine operations. His name is on the Roll of Honour at Latymer School.

My mother's sister Mary (Hilda) lived at 69 Edenbridge. Her husband Tom was part of the British Expeditionary Force for the retreat at Dunkirk. He was in the rear-guard action at Cherbourg which he claimed was a lot worse.

.