Royal picture puzzle

It is a royal occasion of some pomp involving doctors and nurses. That much is clear.

But Mr Hawksby knows little else about it. He would love to know the name of the building in the background, and hazards a guess that it might be the York County Hospital.

Also, do you know the occasion? Or the names of any of the people shown? Or have an idea of the date?

If you can help, please contact me at The Evening Press, 76-86 Walmgate, York YO1 9YN, or on (01904) 653051 ext 337.

Next up in this week's dip into the postbag, a school photograph that is over 60 years old. Keith Jackson was a pupil at the Manor School, Marygate, in York in 1929, when the picture was taken.

Mr Jackson, who is 83 and now lives in Holgate, has dug deep into his memory and recalled some of the names of his schoolmates shown here.

The names he can remember are H Allan; A Milling; W Fenton; G Shortle; R Hirstwood; Harold Pratt; H Gossop; W Ellis; Norman Smith; Bert Lawrence; W Lightfoot; H Lawrence; Alec Watts; J Wilson; Bob Yates; Bob Howland; F Ramsden; R Maskill; W Reeves and Geoff Smith.

"I have named as many as I can remember, but as they would all be as old as I am, there will alas be many who are know longer waiting for the bell," Mr Jackson writes.

Our third photograph propels us forward a few years. It was sent to us by Raymond Godley, who lives in East Kilbride, near Glasgow.

He was prompted to write after visiting York and reading Charles Hutchinson's review of the Jack the Ripper film From Hell in the Evening Press.

"I was intrigued to see the name of Sergeant Godley, played by Robbie Coltrane," he writes.

"Yorkshire also had a Sergeant Godley - Sgt Albert Godley PS 274; my father was with the West Riding Constabulary for 26 years.

"His last posting was in Selby, 1935-49, where he retired. All this from a chance reading of your newspaper."

You do not need a photograph to prompt a memory of course. Many people have the images stored in their mind, and that is certainly the case with Rosemary Smith of Easingwold.

A story last year on Anderson's Tailors in York prompted recollections from Mrs Smith. During the war she became an apprentice "tailoress" at the shop.

"Anderson's bespoke tailors was the creme de la creme of tailoring," she writes.

"They had two shops in Coney Street. The workshop was behind the smaller shop which looked over the River Ouse where we could see freight taken down the river to the warehouses. The river would often freeze towards the middle in winter, people skated at the river sides.

"There would be about 40 staff, tailors and shirt-makers, making select Army uniforms, Monty jackets, hunting jackets and jodhpurs, men's suits and ladies' costumes.

"The most select materials were used, everything was hand-stitched to perfection."

Wartime rationing brought clothing coupons and a changed working environment.

"The male tailors were conscripted into the forces, the tailoresses into the Wrens.

"One went on to work with munitions. I saw her a few months later, she was upset because she'd gone a shade of yellow, caused by her job, and she wasn't pleased at having to get a bus at 1am to drive out to Thorp Arch to do the job.

"I went into nursing at Merseyside where smoke was belched out to camouflage the area. There were bomb casualties, empty beds waiting.

"The Glenn Miller Orchestra beat and the jitterbug, the black out too."

In February, Yesterday Once More recalled the days of bomber command. This drew a reprimand all the way from Hampshire.

Joan Scott-Allen of Fareham was sent the article via her brother and "found this most interesting because I was there. However, I was most disappointed to discover that our RAF station, Breighton, didn't get a mention".

She sent a couple of chapters of the book she has written under her pen name of Vass, based on her experiences working in signals alongside air crew during 1944-45. So, to make up for my earlier omission, here is an extract.

It features a character called Muriel, nicknamed Basher, on her first day in the signals department at RAF Breighton.

"The vital information about the receiving and sending of telegrams was explained in some detail and Corporal Margery warned Basher not to get too emotionally involved, because she would have the task of sending out bad news to wives and mothers that their sons had been either killed or missing whilst on duty.

"Basher swallowed hard at this news because it had never occurred to her that this is what her job would involve, but she decided that she would cross that bridge when she came to it...

"The signals section was next door to Flying Control and both were near the runway, and so during early morning duties the planes would be rumbling back from their nightly raids, whereas during early evening they would thunder down the runway taking off.

"It was during a morning duty that Basher was handed a fistful of telegrams that had to be sent out over the telephone.

"Without checking them she picked up the phone and asked the operator to put her through to telegrams.

"The telegram operator answered and asked her for the message. Basher began reading first the address and then the text...

"'We regret to inform you that your husband Squadron Leader Smith, has been killed in action...'

"Her eyes filled with tears as she continued to read out at least 20 telegrams all informing mothers and wives that their sons and husbands had either been killed or were missing."

Poignant stuff.

To find out more, visit her website, www.jvass-author.co.uk.

Updated: 10:49 Monday, March 25, 2002