| Description | Much of this diary regards Fry's feelings and reactions to the the Second World War, an almost constant commentary of developments heard through the press and mouth to mouth is provided along with the activities of Fry and her friends and family.
1940
Ap 17 arrival of visitors Audrey and Margaret [Kelly] preceeded by police enquiry. Fry finds that there are difficulties with Margaret's step mother; Henry Winslow for tea, mentions Kingsley Martin, Pollard, and Franco.
Ap 18 discusses Margaret Kelly's father; German's pressing Norway campaign, no British help; peepshow to the WI, silent reception; Mrs Ball to be cook if needed.
Ap 19 back pain; Dr and Mrs Taylor to tea.
Ap 20 letter from L Lyall; discusses Abyssinia and Sir Sidney.
Ap 21 called on Mrs Lawrence Robson, talked with Swedish group re the betrayal of Norway.
Ap 22 discusses Norway; Margaret called home by Mr Kelly.
Ap 23 went to nursing committee; children's drawing competition.
Ap 24 walked to Mayortorne with Peggy and Minnie; news from Norway.
25 Ap discusses situation re Norway and Sweden; Mrs Morton visit; children pick flowers.
Ap 26 Aylesbury; Mrs Ross Todd; Norway discussion; Mrs Cutler visit - Fry angry with her.
Ap 27 Lawrence Robson and wife; Sh. Whites to talk about Acklands movement.
Ap 28 visited Mrs Ross -Todd's garden; reading Mr Good's new book.
Ap 29 Miss Marcus leaving; took on boy from approved school; tea with Mrs Benson and Mrs O'Kent.
Ap 30 busy day descibing farm activities.
May 1 H Winslow to lunch; Katharine Hodgkin and children for afternoon; much discussion on Norway and Hitlerism.
May 2 discussion Norway and Germany, reference to Gandhi, Nehru.
May 3-7 much discussion and commentary on war.
May 8 saw the Livingstone film in Aylesbury.
May 10 Yvonne Jones; Manfred; Molly Bowden; discussion on war; Fry mentions putting her clothes ready by her bed should anything happen.
May 11 mentions Eugenie and Marie Mulle [friends in Belgium, letters to Eugenie can be found in FY/B/1].
The entries for the following days relate mainly to preparations for war including shutting her farm school and evacuating with the children to Cromwell House, Naunton on May 27th; her concern for Eugenie [29-30 May]. Also, Fry discusses stories related to the Battle of Dunkirk.
May 31 Mrs Horne; Mrs Wright; Norma Bull; doing munitions work; Gerry to lunch.
June 2 visited the Bensons and Nelsons.
June 3 descibes train journey to Naunton encountering soldiers returning from Dunkirk who Fry bought tea and sandwiches.
June 5 attended ARP meeting; discusses loss of troops.
June 6 reports bombing attacks started in parts of England.
June 21 treatment of refugees, especially nurses.
June 22 left Buckland having made arrangements to let it out.
July 2 Fry taken ill, thought to be gall stones.
Church Farm
Dec 3 Fry's first entry since illness. Mentions beiing cared for by Margery, Agnes and N Holdsworth.
Dec 6 letter from Harold Buxton, Bishop of Gibraltar for Istanbul with message from Halide Edib.
Dec 7 Ruth Spooner.
Dec 8 Molly Bowden visited, discussion on NL's problems with Mayortorne.
Dec 9 Agnes writing of unannounced evacuees from Bristol.
Dec 10 reports that AF [Agnes Fry] has an RGF evacuee who is researching an anti-night-raider defence; anti-German demonstrations in Norway, Belgium and Denmark.
Dec 11 Margery back from London discussing fate of the 'doubtful internees', tactics of Communists in the Chinese Campaign Committee; Mary Kennedy, disabled girl who had suffered from infantile paralysis going to the Wingfield Hospital as an almoner.
Dec 12 capture of Sidi Barani and discussion on Libya; death of Lord Lothian after speech on attaining their support; Anne Turner left, Mrs Nelson to tea; Dr Hart visit.
Dec 13 Richard Pankhurst [most likely to be Sylvia Pankhurst's son], brought by his mother with who Fry discussed the new empress of Abyssinia [Ethiopia].
Dec 14 Endre brought Cherry M down, they make light of avoiding bombs; letter from Halide supporting Fry.
Dec 15 Endre took C, Morris, Richard Pankhurst and Fry for a drive to Tring ford, Fry talks about bird seen there; mentions Charlie Chaplin's 'dictator film'.
Dec 16 Margery returned from visiting Marian R who was not well due to 'overwork & the idiotic false theories of 'Hay Diet' and Xtian [Christian] science' and sitting on the Alien's Tribunal.
Dec 17 Fry heard that Churchill cried when he went to the bombed east end of London; news regarding an incident involving a fleet of invaders that Fry regards as unreliable as the source was American; SMF to town.
Dec 18 discussion on being in charge of young boys with Miss Marriot; Richard obtained a bicycle.
Dec 19 Avice arrived at midday, she had been shelter sleeping and talks about comparison to a bed; finished reading the Grapes of Wrath.
Dec 20 Fry uneasy due to no German activity; talks about Avice and the importance of her role in a 'poory managed borough'; SMF to towm, Fry comment on her work in Alien's Tribunal; Richard Pankhurst left.
Dec 21 Percy Hamburg arrived; Avice left.
Dec 22 discusses M's Chinese friend Mr Liem's aborted visit; drones possibly heading for Merseyside
Dec 23 drones hit Manchester on previous night; reports on Churchill's broadcast re Mussolini
Dec 24 Tory and Henry Winslow visited
Dec 25 disappointing Christmas day; Fry starts to refer to Hitler as "Jerry"
Dec 26 Wrights to tea
Dec 27 talk with Percy Hamburg re his need to argue
Dec 29 Fry visited by a German Dr Pevsner to talk about Roger [Fry] and his work at the Omega, Fry goes on to explain the story of Pevsner's bad luck - his application form for naturalisation was lost and he was interned, losing his job at the Courtauld [Institute], he was working now on rubbish clearance. He discussed internment camps and the conditions of them
Dec 30 Fry reports on London burning from attacks and buildings affected
Dec 31 Fry ruminates on the opint of being positive when such a terrible year has passed; talks about her health; lack of news re Vichy; Trinity House destroyed; Lady Barton informs Fry of Ethiopean refugees in UK needing warm woolens, Fry sent some just finished
Jan 1 1941 visitors - Audrey, Peggy, Edward Ashcroft, Agnes and Linda. Also discusses M's [Margery] work on the aliena's Tribunal and her dissatisfaction with it
Jan 2 Mrs Bohm to tea; received letter from N Laycock asking to buy Mayortorne
Jan 3 Mr Belasyze Smith to discuss feeding stuffs forms and quantities avalable being dependent on how many ships are sunk; M [Margery] at Alien's Tribunal
Jan 5 Fry talks about not having enough meat to feed her house full of people
Jan 6 letter from B Moorhead in Singapore talking about teaching servants and their children; discusses Margery's case of the Alien's Tribunal
Jan 7 visit from Joan
Jan 8 visitors left; Maria Robles arrived, discusses a traumatic experience suffered
Jan 9 Fry talks of hearing planes; outburst of Ivy Serretis against Norah; read Seventh Child, Romily John "also reading 2 or 3 more serious things"
Jan 10 Fry reports that the British had dropped leaflets on Paris, but had no idea what they said; visit from Mr V Gaisberg re N Laycock's proposal to buy Mayortorne based on proposals agreed two years previously, Fry is considering inflation and the effect of war on the economy
Jan 11 "Permission recd [received] from Lab. Exch. [Labour Exchange] for Mrs Bohm; talks about N Laycock's brother in law who was a wholesale clothier who lost everything in the bombing of the square mile, he has no idea if his clients owe hime anything so is having to write round to ask and they are paying up willingly. Further descriptions of situation follow
Jan 12 Fry is concerned about "uncomfortable situations" but does not elaborate on what they are; talks about Endre taking Ivy and Peter back and "N's" [Norah?] involvement; reading Road to Bordeaux
Jan 14 visit from the doctor and health related issues; talk with Audrey who seems to be alone in the world
Jan 15 Fry describes how Audrey encountered a confusing situation with her aunt and father and comments that it was "characteristic of our lowest strata"; Fry is advised against selling Mayortorne
Jan 15 letter from George Fournier re. a close shave when his house was bombed, he lost all the photographs of his children; Mrs Benson visited, talked about her alien tribunals, some of which are mixed up with the "Boothby business", she reports this is all very secret
Jan 18 Arrival of Avice who is "full of life"; crocheting for Abyssinians [Ethiopeans]; finished Havelock Ellis's Soul of Spain
Jan 19 mentions Lady Ellen Burton and "SMF"; talked about Chinese cooperative societies; possible exaggeration of the Communist revolution reported in the newspaper; Wavell's attack on Tobrak; Miss Burton brought up in a convent and worked as a tailor for Debenham & Freebody with stories of the amount of money people spend on clothes; Fry talks about Avice's experiences in the shelters, with particular reference to the disturbance the situation causes to the rituals of the Jewish inhabitants
Jan 20 SMF [argery] returned from tribunal of which the verdict was that the Weininger could not be let out of internment (files on Weininger can be found at The National Archives, ref KV 2/2855-2860)
Jan 21 comments on the Boothby report;Margery relieved; Nora Barlow visited to talk prisons (Barlow - grand daughter or Charles Darwin)
Ja 22 Fry discusses the involvementof the USA in the war
Ja 23 Jens and Hilma Boving visited, told stories regarding the war, censorship, and people's situations at home in France; Fry's cow, Viola, is barren; comments on the African campaign being a "sideshow"
Ja 24 Mrs Robson, a swedish woman, came to tea, reported there being no lack of food in Berlin or Lisbon; reports on situation in Netherlands re Germany bombing hospitals in the hope the Dutch will think it was the British
Ja 25 Mrs Edwards friend of Halide, visited, Fry discusses her children; talks about Doreen Regan; is upset about doreen talking about being rated in Fry's classes (she is upset because she never ranked her pupils
Ja 26 Miss Robinson visted, talked about Labour Exchange; trouble for Italians in Africa; Little Maria to visit for talk and poetry; Fry played Beethoven variations
Ja 29 Margery left; Mr Gurney came to see about painting woodwork Fry says "His view (as a decorator) is that Hitler mutn't put us off such things"; visited Mrs Hudson, saw her mother; discussed possibility of room for Mr Bohm; letter from Agnes re five parachutists down at Faild, and a messerschmitt and bombs
Ja 30 bombs dropped nearby; Miss Bland visited, converted to sympathy with India by Edward Thompson's lecture
Ja 31 Margery returned, describes air raid and black out at Malden train station; concern for friend, Micu, who has befriended a possible spy, and pro-Nazi; story of teacher and child killed by bomb in Marston the day before; talk of concentration camps; Bronio (Bronislaw) Malinowski in touch, he had re-married
F 1Enid Mansfield postponed visit, Fry fears she is a weakling; SMF anxious about possible invasion; M Gott dropped in, told of Emilie's experience of arrriving in Bristol station as it was bombed, slept on straw bed; Emilie now working in the Prime minister's office and cannot talk about the war at all due to secrecy of her work, she is also transported to a secret location to sleep
F 2 Mrs Ball visited to talk about getting Mrs Bunning into the workhouse Infirmary; M worried about invasion; Nelsons to tea, husband on home guard, lied about his age to get in, he is popular with the other men;Wendell Wilkie appointed super director of arms production in USA
F 3 anxiety over not being bombed, scared of something worse
F 4 good weather conditions making people nervous; Fry has enquired about the [air raid] shelter; Dr L Hart visited and declared Fry well; Miss Mansfield arrived, Fry feels she is incompetent
F 5 talks about Petain
F 6 M returned form Long Crendon; visit from Grace Beale - discussed a bomb dropped on her house
F 7 H Winslow brought over 'T.O.', LLindebergh believs person was converted to Naziism
F 8 comments on spring weather; Igor Anrep visited; Helen Barlow and her father [Tom Barlow] visited; Maria Robles not well
F 9 Fry expresses her difficulties with Igor as a guest; talks about Churchill's address on the radio
F 10 Fry talks about the papers printing directions of what to do in the case of an invasion, and the government issuing instructions; letter fom Ruth expresses her view that the beach at Thorpeness; 'M' [Margery] had seen a Prince of Circus in court, who was 'evidently an ingrained Nazi' , she then gave a talk to Egyptian and Persian students on English systems of justice
F 11 discusses Mrs Bohm, reasons not to have Mr Bohm to stay, letting Mrs Carter go; went to Nelsons, Fry feels inferior to 'M'
F 12 discussion re Peggy who wants to get into teh Food Office so she will not be conscripted into the 'Wom' [sic] Services; Mrs Moss (nee Beattie) to tea, ad to advise on place of deposit for 'Ray's' zoological publications; Bulgaria being invaded
F 13 Micu visited, she and F concerned about 'Mr X'; difficulties regarding house staff
F 14 Tea at Jens Boving's corrugated hut where they are very happy, they discuss Boving's unhappiness in his Goverment Job in Wales and the characters related to this
F 15 N [possibly Norah] quarantined due to flu and sorry for herself; SMF involvement; Avice visiting "v refreshing"
F 16 concerns about invasion; Fry talks about living in "Hades"; Avice helps Fry in discussing her relationship with "M"
F 17 letter from Agnes; Fry talks about departure of many house guests; Mrs Carter left, and Mrs Bohm and husband arrived
F 19 Fry discusses Bohm children
F 20 Back bad; M to London to give Rotarian address on China, brought home by Mr Rollins from Dunstable, a builder who may lose the business his family have run for 200 years; talks about progression of war, and Halide and Agnes
F 21 saw Gerry who had H Polleti's daughter at her school as she was expelled from the Guinness School, Fry talks about how the child produced a 'Child's Commmunist' book; Dr Tweddell visited, talked about Keynes and anti-semitism
F 22 discusses progress of Germany's invasion of Bulgaria; C Morris down for weekend
F 23 "Reynolds is always a croaker and today it is v. gloomy"; Fry mentions countries that have been taken, "M & Cherry"; Elizabeth and Ian Yarrow
F 24 problems regarding domestic help from Enid Mansfield
F 25 Fry talks about her relationships with "N" and "M"; also difficulties with Mrs Bohm; and Joan's broken rib
F 27 Fry discusses her sister's illness and morbidly talks about them "dying off"; Mr and Mrs Barratt visited; Molly Bowden looked in
Mar 2 "KR" left; Jens Boving came to tea, discusses Hilma
Mar 4 "T.O." visited; Jens Boving came to see Dr Lloyd Hart; received letter from Bobby Piercy
Mar 5 Enid Mansfield left
Mar 6 Fry talks about potentially having to kill her cattle due to low feed stocks; tea with Mrs Nelson to seek advice on Mrs Bohm's money problems; mentions Aubrey Fry; Yvonne keen to learn
Mar 9 Fry talks about there being no newspapers or radio to find out about a raid on London; Norah miserable
Mar 10 Fry lists the damage to London in the raids mentioned previously; mentions invasion of Yugoslavia
Mar 11 aeroplanes overhead at night, sound of bombs and guns; Walfors Davies is dead
Mar 12 Yogoslavis not definitely lost; singing lesson for Maria
Mar 14 Fry spent twwo previous days in Aylesbury Hospital having X rays, mentions meeting a "West Indies born Chinese" radiologist; picked up by Jens Boving; M brought round Georges Fournier who is stationed at Portsmouth with a French Navy training ship, he tells the story of the escape of an English Secret Service agent
Mar 15 Avice and Manfred arrived
Mar 17 Avice and Yvonne left; Mrs Horwood re losing pullets to a fox, and chocolate being impossible to get hold of for civillians; Sir Francis Lindley discussing war tactics
Mar 18 M left for Stafford; N returned from St Leonards; Mrs Warren for tea
Mar 19 Fry talks about rationing; weekly lists of sinkings
Mar 21 tea with Mrs Robson
Mar 25 Yugoslavia have signed the Tripartite pact
Mar 28 visited Barlows with M, Fry talks of Norah and Helen, Cornford neice; swapped a "pigling" for a porker at Mayortorne; Fry talks about her feelings at revisiting her old home
Mar 29 M left for a stormy "C.C.C." meeting in which the split with the Communists seemed inevitable; Cherry visited and talked about his actions with regard to the BBC's attempt to "interfere with broadcaster[']s private opinions, and the protest meeting by the Civil Liberties where Forster and Redgrave spoke
Mar 30 visit from H Winslow and "T.O."
Ap 1 Norah preparing to leave; fry discusses her relationship with Norah
Ap 2 Fry talks about the new BBC directors, it seems Margery Fry applied. Margery and Lady Bridgeman were omitted and Lady V Bonham-Carter the only woman included; fry wonders if the BBC thought Margery may be a Pacifist; Julian has no money and Pam has to go to Lake La Hache to look after him while Eva finds a job
Ap 3 Fry ill in bed and visited by Grace and her attractive friend Pat; mentions suicides of Virginia Woolf and "Ct. Teleky"; discusses progress of the war
Ap 4 "S.M.F." gone to stay night at V Gollancz's to decide the fate of the Chinese Campaign Committee with regards to the "crawling Communist members"
Ap 5 visit from Avice who is "cheery as ever"; M back for a visit to Gollanez who is obsessed against Communism; news of Nazi coup in Iraq; news of appointment of Govenor of Bombay
Ap 6 news of war between Germany and Italy; Maria arrived early with dripping hair; Bovings visited to meet Mr Robson and his wife, brought Mrs Susan Maxwell, and Miss Booth; Fry mentions talk of how people were shocked at the lack of human interest in the BBC reports
Ap 7 Fry summarises what is happeneing world wide in terms of the war; M at lunch to say goodbye to Mr Kuo who is returning to China to be foreign minister; sent another cardigan to Abyssinia
Ap 8 news of war; visit form French woman - Mlle Vilde - she was "mauled" in an air raid; Norah visited for a few minutes; two Miss Marriotts for tea
Ap 10 news of raids in Britain; Henry Winslow visited to sketch Fry, he has a story about an American he knows who is travelling the world and decribes how he found various countries
Ap 11 Harry Puddephatt visited to bring Fry a Jersey cow
Ap 12 M went to Oxford; cow, named Ladybird, is not happy
Ap 13 Henry Winslow visited to draw Fry
Ap 14 news of war; Fry talks about the portrait Winslow is drawing "a soft filmy drawing of a very peculiar, unpleasant looking woman. But as I extremely dislike my own face & hardly know it I daresay it's quite good"; Margery and Winslow do not get on
Ap 15 bomb fell as Fry was writing
Ap 16 Mrs B in town; M off to stay with Agnes; Norah for lunch; Bobby Piercey for tea; N brings news that Birmingham is almost destroyed
Ap 17 bad attack on London
Ap 18 Norah left; received news of Joan in London; went for drive
Ap 19 Miss Moss brought her two step children round
Ap 20 Gerry laid up with bad cold
Ap 21 Mrs Robson "elegant young Swede" drove Fry to her in-laws in Marsworth; Mrs Robson suspected to be pro-German; old mrs Rogersarrived unexpectedly looking thin and old
Ap 22 Fry discusses bombs dropping as she is writing; T.O. visited with Winslow
Ap 23 bombs mentioned in previous diary entry were dropped on Berkhampstead High St; talks about situation in Greece; M returned with stories of meetings with various individuals and what they talked about, including soldier, former reporter for the Daily mirror; a draper who said that people were wanting to buy more than ever before but that cotton goods were being exported to the USA, so there is only Rayon, slik stockings were his particular headache
Ap 24 Greek situation; Grace Beale and friend Pat visited before becoming "Waafs"; M reports on damage to London
Ap 25 Avice visiting for weekend , mentions that Tony Trench is missing, he may be a prisoner; Fry discusses the progression of German invasion; Avice much more tired than previously; Fry anxious about her cow
Ap 26 Avice took nine goose eggs to Mrs Knight
Ap 27 more news of what is happening in Greece; talks about a speech by Churchill
Ap 28 Fry talks about being shocked by the idea of the Swastika on the Acropolis; went to Nursing meeting, Fry mentions she felt out of it; heard that Charing Cross Bridge was destroyed
Ap 29 Maria went to the dentist; Peggy with lumbago; Mrs Miller spoke with Belgian who had escaped to England with millions of punds worth of diamonds
Ap 30 SMF to town; ran into Kingsley Martin who appeared to be "veering towards advocating a negotiated peace with H!"; Mlle Vilde almost on staff, told of 400 Woolwich arsenal workers who were killed in a shelter
May 1 Miss Knight and two children over to tea
May 2 Joan visited; Avice has left Friends [possibly the Quakers's]; Fry concerned about lack of food for her animals
May 3 problems with acquiring food for animals; rationing
May 4 Margery had two student friends to tea, also Ralph Hawtrey and his sister,he looked ill, fry mentions that "his wife is mad", sister is starting nursery schools; also man named George who talked about life with "merch. service" [possibly Merchant Navy], the intelligent conversation on board ship, and a library which changed with each voyage
May 5 went with SMF to aylesbury to bring out Champion Russell coming from Oxford, Fry talks about him being "simple and sincere", and "keeping the cathedral open for all colours"
May 6 Miss Parson who was having a difficult time under an evacuated teacher visited; brother of Miss Parson works as police at Whitehall, reports that meeting are held in underground bunker; Peggy noted Ladybird [cow] not well; Champion Russell apperas to be enjoying his visit, Fry comments on how easy it is to feed him on war rations as he does not eat much
May 7 Fry is haing problems feeding her pigs as noone has any food to sell; Ch[ampion] Russell is now having a dull time; reports planes are flying overhead; Greeks seem to have lost their Navy
May 8 Fry mentions that Champion Russell has left, she talks about the qualities she admires in him; Peggy visited, her mother is very ill, perhaps dying; discusses food for the pigs
May 9 Peggy phoned, her mother is dying; Rosemary Bland visited - very naive and "v. English", but Fry feels, open to new opinions and has no problem with "left" ideas if introduced gently; Fry reports on progression of the war
May 10 Fry discusses the progress of the war; Peggy phoned, her mother died, her father is now ill; Avice arrived, tired but cheery and brave, with stories of the awful things from Lambeth Hospital where she works
May 11 Westminster Abbey, Houses of Parliament, ad British Museum all bombed in London raid, Avice rushed back to help; Mr Bohm for the afternoon, "a most unappetising man"; Peggy returned, less shattered than expected
May 12 Fry mentions tat this is her first night away from home since the war began; H Winslow took Fry to lunch with Tory at Wheatley
May 13 story about Hitler's deputy supposedly landing a self piloted plane in Scotland;
May 14 news on the progress of the ward; three Americans visited, they told that Plymouth is devastated
May 15 war news; Agnes went over to see Lister
May 16 Met Ann Simon and Hilda Harrison at Bora's Hill
May 17 Wind gone but no rain; bombs last night; Monica Bridges came for tea, she survived a bomb hitting her house; played Billiards as an excuse to not go to bed, Fry says 'These ights are not inviting'
May 18 Agnes has enjoyed visiting, Jan and Con have been very hospitable; Ruth Spooner biked over to visit, she mentioned that Wyndham Deedes is working for the Ministry of Education and his job is to keep up the morale of London, he visits shelters and ARP officers
May 19 Fry is back home after her week with the "M's"; Agnes left early to see Anne Lawrence and Hugo Malet in Bath; Fry drove to Wallington, train to Aylesbury and met Peggy for drive home; Fry notices absence of "N"
May 20 discusses need for USA to join war; twins are in, quarantined for chicken pox; Mrs Smith, an evacuee came to see about lodging with Fry, also Miss Jex, an HMI with regards to Miss Parsons
May 21 Crete has been attacked; foxes are stealing chickens at an alarming rate
May 22 Mrs Milton visited concerned about a broody hen; Miss Marriot concerned that not enough effort is being put into the war; Margery has returned, depressed; Edward Ashcroft is also visiting as he has not had a holiday in three years, he says that Buckinghamshire's agriculture is "backwards". Ashcroft has 100 conscientious objectors at his disposal but could not use them as there were restrictions as to how they could be treated
May 23 mentions the battle of Crete; talks of other war developments
May 24 news of the sinking of The Hood (a ship); Jean Nelson took Fry to Aylesbury to go shopping; Manfred visiting
May 25 Manfred's uncle and aunt, the Freidlanders visited, Fry talks about them being "refreshingly free fr. usual refugee failings, keenly po-Brit & anti-Germ & rejoicing in being able to work and help"; she mentions a small Sunday lunch due to rationing; miss Parsons visited to discuss her problems with evacuee teaching, which may already be solved due to Fry's report to the Education Committee
May 26 Y Jones visited; Edward Ashcroft visiting again; Mrs Bohm came to ask about work; "SMF" in town at tribual about aliens; many sheep have died in Scotland, and some shepherds; lots of rain
May 27 Edward Ashcroft left and took Fry to Aston to leave a message for Miss Marriot; Molly Bowden came to tea, she admitted her belief in teh Nazis was falsely based and that her Nazi friends were "shocked by the Jewish program"; sinking of the Bismarck; Roosevelt on the involvemetn of the USA in the war
May 28 Fry discusses situation in Crete; Fry describes going to the canal with M; Miss Luk scared; Yvonne took Maria to Aylesbury for diptheria jab
May 31 Mr Yu Ming, grandson of Sun Yat Sen, arrived from Oxford, Fry talks about conversations she had with him about his grandfather; Fournier and Miss Onslow came and stayed the night
June 1 troops have withdrawn from Crete; Fournier left in the morning, Fry talks about his confidence; Fry is feeling down; Gerry visiting,she thinks that Norah's "defection" was due to jealousy of Margery, ad mentions that Norah had siad Fry had been "her absolute object of devotion"
June 2 Fry spent the day with the Bovings; discussed farming issues with Jens; mentions the Battle of Crete
June 3 "The horrors of the evacuation of Crete are now becoming known"
June 5 Fry talks about the progression of the war, and the fear it is causing across the globe; Anni Noll "(Wassermann)" came to discuss an education scheme she has been commissioned to write for the England of 1950
June 6 SMF back from town, brings bad news after recording conversation with J Huxley, R Graves and others for the BBC, she reports tat Churchill is very tired; discussion on where Hitler may strike in UK
June 7 war news; saw Mrs Nelson in Aylesbury, went to Tring and bought cereals; Avice visited; Mr and Mrs Thorne visited; Peggy handed in her notice
June 8 Avice and Fry visit the Bovings, Fry thinks about buying a piece of land to build a house "to die in"; SMF returns from Oxford with news that Norway is seeking Dominion status in the British Empire after the war
June 9 Fry is very concerned about the war outlook
June 10 Fry is concerned about her goslings; Avice tried to find people to look after the Hayter children as they are too difficult for Mrs Wright; a woman named Miss Beach Thomas came to visit Margery; there were concerns regarding the amount of meat available [due to rationing]; talks about her goslings; Mrs Wright visited with her goslings; Fry was expecting Miss Bronold, but Vidy Roshill turned up, she mentions that Ashton is undertaking spy training at Blenheim
June 11 Miss Bronold visited; Mr Pretty also visited, discussed difficulties of buying lad due to need after the war for public buildings
June 12 Maria not well; Miss Bennett visited to tell Fry about her school; reports of Bohm children not good; the goslings are better |