Devoran WI celebrates 21 year anniversary at Devoran Village Hall in wartime WW2 May 1940

Western Morning News 13 May 1940

Coming of age of Devoran W.I.,

a W.I. branch born at the end of one war in 1919 and a 21st birthday celebrated in the first year of another world war, May 1940. 

“The Village Hall was decorated in the movement’s colours of red, yellow and green …”

President Miss M.P. Tyacke (appropriately with her WW1 nursing connections) welcomed local hospital nurses from the Royal Cornwall Infirmary (Truro) with a  gift towards the ‘Linen League Box’ fundraising   and ‘Friends of the Hospital’  fund. The NHS was still eight years away in peacetime 1948.  

and a topical wartime Food Flash from the Ministry of Food.

Rationing was now in force, so sugar and ingredients for a three-tiered cake was probably becoming  a challenge!

Rationing in the UK 

• 22 September 1939 – petrol
• 8 January 8 1940 – butter, sugar, bacon, ham
• 12 February 1940 – paper
• 11 March 1940 – meat
• 8 May 1940 – tea, margarine and cooking fats … 

Blog post by Mark Norris, DVH 100, 13 April 2024 

Devoran Village Hall in profit 1940

Devoran Village Hall at its annual meeting, the first since the outbreak of war in September 1939, was in credit balance of £22 2s 1d in May 1940.

The Bank Of England inflation calculator makes this equivalent today to £1,019.48.

As reported in the West Briton 2 May 1940

Most of this Devoran Village Hall committee can still be found in the village – by visiting Devoran Churchyard:

https://devoranwarmemorial.wordpress.com/2020/06/22/devoran-churchyard-headstones-connected-to-ww1-and-ww2/

 

 

Refugee Fundraising in Devoran Village Hall Aid for Finland 1940 fighting against Soviet Russia

As reported on 19 February 1940 – Western Morning News. £7 in 1940 is worth £324 today. 

Usually whilst drives and dances at the Village Hall were for fundraising for running the Hall itself. In wartime they were often for good causes.

In this case, fundraising is for the Finnish Relief Fund civilian refugees from Finland, displaced by the “Winter War” fighting between the Finnish soldiers and the invading Soviet Russians.

At that time in 1939-40 Finns were our Allies and the Russians were our enemies, still in a mutual non-aggression pact with Nazi Germany. 

All that changed in Summer 1941 when Germany invaded Russia in Operation Barbarossa. The Soviets and ‘Uncle Joe’ Stalin became our allies and the Finnish army or leadership eventually sought military support from the German army. A case of “My enemy’s enemy is my friend”?  

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The Finnish Relief Fund was set up by former US President Herbert Hoover, in the then neutral USA. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finnish_Relief_Fund

Devoran’s M.C. [Master of Ceremonies] was Captain Lewis Edison Letcher (b. Truro, 1891, d.1956) fought in the First World War. 

Appealing in Cornwall for the Finnish Relief Fund,  Lady Vyvyan of Trelowarren was Clara Coltman Rogers (1885-1976) who lived first at Tregye as part of the Powys Rogers family of Tregye. She had been a WW1 VAD nurse, explorer, travel writer, gardener and gardens writer,who later married Lord Vyvyan and  inherited   Trelowarren estate. She was a  close friend of Daphne Du Maurier.   

as reported / printed in the Newquay Express, 2nd May 1940

Some impressive names here amongst the ‘great and good’ of Cornwall. The Botanical Bishop of Truro Bishop Hunkin (soon to be a private in the Home Guard) supported the appeal. In 1942 he donated plants to Devoran churchyard to honour the Lobb brothers, local plant-hunters. 

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The Finnish Relief Fund or Cornish Finland Fund fundraising ceased in mid to late May 1940 – both funding for munitions and relief for displaced Finns was included. From January to May 1940, £2360 was raised in Cornwall, equivalent today to £109,362. 

Cornish Guardian, 23 May 1940

Dunkirk and the fall of France took place in this month that the Fund was finished https://devoranwarmemorial.wordpress.com/2020/05/05/devoran-in-may-1940-ww2/

 

The Agar Robartes family , landowners in Devoran and village benefactors were also involved in the Finnish Relief Fund appeal. 

Blog posted by Mark Norris DVH100, 13 April 2024

Wartime Jam Production in Devoran Village Hall Devoran WI September 1941

“The secretary (Devoran W.I.) Mrs E.T. Dillon reported that 60lb of blackberry and apple jam had been made at the centre …”

as reported in Western Morning News 10 September 1941

The late Betty Phillips of Devoran remembers (Operation Cornwall 1940-44, Viv Acton and Derek Carter, p.87):

“picking pram loads of blackberries and collecting and cleaning jars for the W.I’s Preservation Centre set up in the Village Hall to make jam from the surplus fruit.”

Western Morning News 27 October 1941 –  Mrs. G.T. Langdon reported that 424 lbs of jam had been made.”

(Falmouth WI branch recorded 630 lbs jam  made in 1941, 675 lbs in 1942.)

Blog posted by Mark Norris, DVH100 on 13 April 1924

Gas Masks Issued in Devoran Village Hall September 1939

Masking Devoran – a distribution of gas masks for Devoran and Carnon Downs districts was made on Thursday and Friday at Devoran Village Hall, Mr. H.C. Sweet (senior warden) superintended, assisted by members of the Red Cross Detachment and other residents.

as reported in Western Morning News 7 September 1939

Masking Devoran – a distribution of gas masks for Devoran and Carnon Downs districts was made on Thursday and Friday at Devoran Village Hall, Mr. H.C. Sweet (senior warden) superintended, assisted by members of the Red Cross Detachment and other residents.

as reported in Western Morning News 7 September 1939

Harry Sweet is listed as an ARP Warden for Devoran amongst others  on the 1939 Register. 

Notice how in Perranarworthal,

use of the playing fields were being set aside or allowed for “the children arrived  from the metropolis” (presumably evacuee children from London or other big cities), linked maybe to asking “Misses Hiskock (reception officers) to attend the next meeting of the council”; 

as in Devoran, gas masks have been issued in Perranarworthal “all the masks had been issued, except to those absent on holiday”;

and a medical “first aid post” for Perranarworthal area had been secured with help from Truro Rural District Council.

Blog post by Mark Norris, DVH100, 13 April 2024 

 

 

Air Raid Precautions Lectures Devoran Village Hall Munich Crisis 1938

Devoran WI  information – they met in the Devoran Village Hall 

Miss M.P. Tyacke presided and Major H. Christie lectured on A.R.P in the home. Mesdames A.M. Pascoe and E.J. Turner were tea hostesses.

Western Morning News 19 October 1938  

Editor’s note: Mrs Turner was wife of Mr. E.J. Turner, the Devoran Council School Headteacher. 

A few weeks earlier Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain had returned from his meeting with “Herr Hitler” during the Munich Crisis 30 September 1938 waving his “Peace in Our Time” piece of paper, having postponed the outbreak of World War Two as it turned out by only a year.

Discussions about Air Raid Precautions and Gas attack were taking place before Munich September 1938, as Major H. Christie of Newquay was talking at Wadebridge British Legion Hall in June 1938 –  

as reported in the Cornish Guardian, 9th June 1938.  

The content of the Wadebridge talk sounds the same as the Devoran Village Hall talk:

“Major Christie discussed the general outline of the A.R.P. schemes, and gave demonstrations with the three types of gas masks, viz. those for civilians, air [raid] wardens, and Service men respectively.” 

“He also showed how rooms in dwelling houses might be sealed , and how concreate bomb proof shelters could be made. Quite a number of questions were asked at the close of the talk, and these were ably answered by the speaker, who was warmly thanked for such an instructive address.”

As reported by Cornish Guardian, 9th June 1938.  

Major H.H.V. Christie of Newquay was noted as “one of the chief ARP experts in Cornwall” (in a press cutting entitled “Bombs which burn through iron / Fires fed by water” about incendiary bomb threat in the Cornish Guardian, 30 March 1939). Christie  would no doubt warrant a further future blog post about his wartime role and Cornish activities in preparation for WW2. 

Major Christie was also County Commandant of the Red Cross in Cornwall , which is how he would know Miss M.P. Tyacke, who was a former VAD nurse in WW1, see “National Service Red Cross Appeal for Blood Donors”, Cornish Guardian article 27 July 1939. 

However this 1938-1939 year gave the military and civil defence authorities time to organise for a possible war in Europe and air raids on Britain before Hitler and Nazi Germany finally invaded Poland in September 1939.  

Blog Post by Mark Norris, DVH100 Preparations, 13 April 2024 

 

 

A Christmas Concert with the Gleemen, Devoran Village Hall, December 1935

A.C. Truscott’s The Gleemen were top of the bill at this 1935 concert in the Devoran Village Hall.

as reported in the local Cornish press, 5th December 1935

“Concert – Mr. J. King, sen., presided at a concert given by Mr. A.C. Truscott’s  Gleemen, at Devoran Village Hall on Friday in aid of the Devoran Fur and Feather Society.

There was a fairly good attendance.

The programme comprised part-songs, plantation songs, and sea shanties by the Gleemen; instrumental …

Mr King spoke of the society’s aim to reacha higher standard of exhibits , to make it second to none in the district.

Mr C.M. Shephard thanked all the artistes, and Mr. Marshall for assistance. The tea committee consisted of Mesdames Bennetts, Tregaskis, and Loosemoor, and Miss Nicholls. Mr. King thanked the committees. 

as reported in the local Cornish press, West Briton, 5th December 1935

The Fur and Feather Society was the local Poultry, Bird and Pet Animal show in the Village Hall. 

 

Canada and emigration, talk at Devoran Village Hall January 1925

A talk on Canada and emigration was given at the Village Hall, reported in the West Briton  on 29 January 1925.

“Lecture – Mr. John Cardale, Canadian Government Emigration Agent, of Bristol, gave an interesting lecture at the Village Hall, Devoran.” 

as reported in the West Briton  on 29 January 1925.

I wonder if any Devoran families or their young men or women took up the challenge of emigration to Canada in 1925, becoming and new generation of ‘Cousin Jacks’ or ‘Cousin Jills’.

Employment in Devoran must have been at a low point with the railway and the docks finally gone during the First World War. 

John Cardale is featured on the Memorable Manitobans website:  https://mhs.mb.ca/docs/people/cardale_j.shtml 

John Dowglass Cardale (1860-1937)

Image source: Lynne Roberts

John Dowglass Cardale (1860-1937) – Farmer, municipal official.

Born at Bloomsbury, Middlesex, England in 1860, son of Edward Cardale and Catherine Newton Dowglass, John emigrated to Canada and farmed in the Rural Municiaplity of Blanshard. On 27 June 1883, he married Jessie Stewart (c1865-1910) in the Rural Municiplaity of Ivanhoe. They had no children.

Active in municipal government in Canada …  Cardale was the first Secretary-Treasurer of the Union of Manitoba Municipalities, departing in 1913 to take a position as Emigration Officer with the Canadian government at Bristol, England.

On 20 July 1914, Cardale married Lilian Beatrice Thomas (?-?) and they had two children: Mona Cardale (1919-2014) and John Dowglass Cardale (?-1990).

Cardale died at Bristol, England on 26 February 1937. He is commemorated by the village of Cardale in western Manitoba.”

Information source: https://mhs.mb.ca/docs/people/cardale_j.shtml

Devoran Village Club Finances West Briton 22 March 1923

“At a meeting of the Devoran Village Club Committee last evening, the Treasurer (Miss. C. Rogers) stated that contributions to date totalled £284 17s 7d and there remained a balance in hand of £241 2s. 9d.

It was agreed the club should be known in future as the “Devoran Village Club”.

As reported in the West Briton 22 March 1923

That amount raised was equivalent to £14,216 in today’s money (2024, Bank of England Inflation calculator 2024)

Above this snippet was mention of the appointment to County Horticulture of Mr. H.W. Abbiss. This roving instructional role would later help Harry Abbiss when he  become an organising part of the secret Auxiliary network working alongside the Home Guard.

https://devoranwarmemorial.wordpress.com/2017/09/15/harry-abbiss-and-secret-cornish-home-guard-auxiliary-units/.

Blue Bird Mouth Organ Orchestra concert

Concert – An entertainment was given at Devoran on Friday by the Blue Bird Mouth Organ Band under Mr. G. Rundle (Truro). Mouth organ and concertina items were given, and solos by Mr. Pearce (tenor).

Half of the proceeds were for Devoran Village Club. 

As reported in the local press, 1920s? (date TBC)