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Category: Community
Forum: Chat Room
Thread: On this Day |
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Thread Status: Locked Total posts in this thread: 716
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
Sunday, 19th August 1945 Jos came home from church with the Sunday (French) papers. He was surprised to read that Britain (l'Angleterre) had become impoverished. How could a country with a gigantic Empire run short of cash? |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
Monday, 20th August 1945 The discussions resumed with a session on democracy, elections and voting. Jos could not understand how anyone could discuss such subjects. He only voted for Catholics and if all the candidates were catholic he did not feel any need to vote. |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
Tuesday, 21st August 1945 The Monday newspapers had arrived, and one item in them had stimulated a lively discussion among the class members, many of whom had been bricklayers, glaziers, electricians or plumbers. How was the new post-war britain going to be built, while all the builders were still in the Forces? The redundant factories of the armaments industry were to be used for making prefabricated sections of houses and other buildings to be assembled on concrete foundations containing all the essential services. |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
Wednesday, 22nd August 1945 The discussion today was a sequel to yesterday's. How were people going to live and raise families in prefabs? How big will these cardboard houses be? Will everything in them be standardised with 28" high working surfaces everywhere? Three years later, after revisiting the battlefields, I would be passing through Calais on my way home, and a railway porter would point out a settlement of these "prefabs" and tell me it was known as "Cartonville." |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
Thursday, 23rd August 1945 Today's papers had fairly full explanations of the Beveridge Report and the session was about the effects the new Citizens' Charter would have on returning ex-servicemen. The numerous competing benefit "clubs," mostly run by trades associations and trade unions would give way to one Executive Council office per district, run by the Ministry of Health and Pensions, which would take over from the Ministry of Labour and National Service. |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
Friday, 24th August 1945 Now, the proposed National Health Service came under discussion. It seems that the government would buy all the doctors' surgeries and set up health centres from which doctors would practice in groups. Every holder of a National Registration card would receive a National Health card with the same registration number and be entitled to choose any doctor in the service. All hospitals would be financed by the M of H and GP's could refer patients to whichever hospital suited the patient's condition.. |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
Saturday, 25th August 1945 One Saturday, maybe this one, I went to Louvain to see a film show. I still have the programme in my scrapbook . |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
Sunday, 26th August 1945
----------------------------------------I spent the day with the van Anderlecht family, their young son, Pieter and a pack of cards. The main game was something like "Happy Families." [Edit 1 times, last edit by Former Member at Aug 26, 2009 10:52:01 AM] |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
Monday, 27th August 1945
We received a special edition of "Soldier," entitled, "Who Goes Out?" For the next fortnight this was the only topic of discussion. |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
Tuesday, 28th August 1945
----------------------------------------One man (the resident of the billet next door to the van Anderlechts) turned up for the discussion with a swollen hand. I looked at it, decided that an abscess was forming and took him and his mucker to the MI room, switched on the boiler to prepare a kaolin poultice and took his temperature. Fortunately this was normal, as I was not inclined to give him four hourly injections of the crude penicillin which was then available on prescription. I ground down some Epsom salts and glycerine with a mortar and pestle. The M.O. walked in while I was spreading the paste on lint and wanted to know what it was. I replied, "Morrison's paste, Sir," adding, "We are also making a kaolin poultice, in case you preferred that." He replied, "Why not use both?" So we did. [Edit 3 times, last edit by Former Member at Aug 28, 2009 4:53:37 PM] |
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