Chapter Sixteen

           It was then January 23rd, 1953, and the day we were to view the business we were being asked to manage. Throughout Britain the weather had been foul. This was the year when many areas suffered from flooding. The winds were at gale force. We drove to Portsmouth and took the ferry to Ryde on the Isle of Wight. The crossing was very rough. The waves flooded the decks and being no sailor, I disgraced myself immediately by being seasick. Peter and Clive had no such problems. Both loved the sea. I just prayed for dry land.

     Vernon Herbert met us at Ryde and we were driven to Ventnor, then a smart resort on the South coast of the island. The Winter Gardens had been driven to bankruptcy by the previous tenants. Nuthalls Caterers Ltd. had taken it over and had every intention of making it pay. It was in our hands to make it happen. This time we were offered a salary of £650 a year but no accommodation.

     There was a lot to do but we decided to accept the challenge. We moved over to the island in March. By then a smart new bar had been built. There had been extensive re-equipping and decoration in ballroom, stage, kitchen and restaurant. We were asked to plan a profitable summer programme.

     The season lasted with luck from late June until early September. The previous management had facilities for a small bar, a cafeteria and offered a season of concert party type entertainment in the ballroom cum theatre. The reason for their failure was because visitors would only attend one concert during their stay as the programme never changed. Their takings never covered their expenses. We had to come up with a new look.

     Moving there almost immediately, we lived on site, sleeping in the artistes’ dressing rooms and storing our furniture and belongings where we could. We began to look for a house and decided we would get permission to build on an attractive plot we found in Upper Ventnor, with wonderful sea views. Clive enrolled in the Catholic Junior School, where on hearing he had been christened in a Church of England service, The Priest in charge baptised him as a Catholic, given that his father had been educated at the Oratory and his Grandmother was a relative of Cardinal Newman! Clive seemed to settle in there fairly well.

    First of all, we christened the updated bar The New Elizabethan in honour of the newly-crowned Queen. After a lot of thought, we proposed to run the Winter Gardens on the lines of a continental cabaret for four nights each week, offering a talent competition, a music night and visiting speciality artistes, coupled with a dance on Tuesday and Saturday and a Palm Court Concert on the Sunday. This programme would give visitors a wide choice of entertainment during their stay. On Cabaret nights, the ball room would be laid out with individual tables and chairs. There would be no entry fee but they would have to order drinks. In the event, the Talent Night became so popular that we eventually had to charge a small entry fee. Peter emceed these evenings with great skill and aplomb and managed to persuade at least a dozen acts to “have a go” each week.      

      Our resident quartet, the Doug Carver Trio, always rose to the occasion, accompanying the singers or providing background music for other acts. The other nights were also usually well patronised especially the dance nights. This was the beginning of the Rock and Roll era.

      The Palm Court concerts were popular with both Island residents and the visitors. We augmented the in-house musicians with several talented amateurs locally. I became “the disembodied voice” and read a poetry prologue and epilogue as well as announcing the programme. Sunday afternoons were always spent searching for appropriate poems to read, ranging from Masefield’s Sea Fever to extracts from Tennyson’s works and including verses from some of the more modern poets. I thoroughly enjoyed Sunday evenings.

    Very soon we had an additional task. Ventnor pier had been split in two during the war, as were all the piers around the British coast. This was done to prevent possible landings of enemy forces.  It was quite a mammoth task of rebuilding. A new bar was constructed at the end and named The Caribbean Bar, echoing Princess Margaret’s recent trip to the island of Mustique. A well-known local architect, Basil Phelps, went to town on the project and decorated it with palm trees and coconuts and even the odd stuffed monkey amongst the foliage. Of course, all the entertainment here was in addition to providing luncheons in the Winter Gardens café, an ice cream parlour and full time bar service.

    The weekly programmes were a great success and the Winter Gardens prospered. Fortunately the Ventnor trades people were pleased with our efforts and I was elected to the District Council as an Independent Councillor. My slogan was “Vote Younghusband for a better Ventnor” and I canvassed in our very old Morris with its dickey seat and outside brake handle. I had always been interested in local government. At one stage during the war when at Bentley Manor, we were discussing what we would like to do when peace came. I had said I would like to go into Parliament but I had no alieniation with any political party. It was just an idealistic dream. However, settling for local government, I looked forward to the experience. Once more, I encountered the old enemy of sexism. The male members would use Rotary or Masonic reunions to discuss Council projects and come to the meetings with a fait accompli. Once again I had to put on my fighting boots!

    We found that on the Isle of Wight, as in many resorts just after the war, trade was limited to the summer months. We considered how we could extend it. We went on to propose a Spring Time Festival. The Winter Gardens would offer free entertainment from early May until June and  during September and October and the town would benefit from early and late groups taking advantage of cheaper prices. The hotels and boarding houses were pleased with the suggestion and planned their own publicity. We contacted volunteer organisations to put on quizzes, concerts and competitions and had a great response. The first year’s efforts were highly successful and Ventnor continued this for several years in the future even after we left.

     Head Office must have been pleased with us because after two years, we were offered a promotion – to run the two banqueting halls in London at the Southampton Row headquarters. It would be a big challenge for both of us, neither having received any formal training but we agreed to take it on. We had at the time no idea of the difference we would find, employing London staff as compared to our local helpers from the Isle of Wight.

      It would mean giving up the house we had built in Ventnor. This had been very special to us as we had purchased the plot, designed the house and watched it being constructed. Our builder, Jim, had a great sense of humour and when the roof was finished on the very day that the infamous murderer Christie was hanged, he placed a note in a milk bottle and incorporated it in the top of the gable at the front of the house. It read ‘Christie had it today!’ I am sure it is there to this day and any new owners probably have no idea about it! We were sad to leave our first real home but realised our future necessitated the move.

      We did not realise that our move would coincide with a downturn in the economy and it would take us eighteen months before we were able to sell Clinton House. Fortunately, one of Peter’s father’s cottages at Stanmore was once more vacant so we moved in there. I was now living once more within sight of where I had served during so many of my years as a WAAF Officer. I wondered what had happened to the many able young women I had worked with there. Had their boy friends, their fiancés, their husbands returned safely? Had they found a niche in post-war Britain?

Serving overseas!

Bridging the Centuries 

By Eileen Younghusband