Notes from the Author

Always Eat When You Are Hungry

The Camp Song

The inspiration for the title of this novel comes from the first line of the song that was regularly sung at the start of meals at holiday camps during the 1950s.

"Always eat when you are hungry
Always drink when you are dry
Close your eyes when you are sleepy
Don’t stop breathing or you’ll die
Ahhhhhh…men!"

Nobody took the religious implications of this song seriously. What they did take seriously, and embraced wholeheartedly, was the real sense of comradeship that singing this song installed in all those seated in the camp dining room. Once the singing was over the dining room rang with clatter of catering trolleys and the clinking of plates.

There was always a soup and bread roll starter for lunch and dinner (or as it was known ‘dinner and tea’) for which the men were regularly chastised by their wives for breaking the roll up into small pieces, floating them in the soup then dunking each piece prior to slurping it all up. Wives would strive to deploy the ‘posh’ way of spooning the soup which involved tipping the bowl away from them, pushing the spoon through the soup before scooping up a spoonful from the far edge of the bowl. This often resulted with the soup washing over the far edge and ending up on the table cloth due to the wives complete lack of practice of this etiquette when at home. The men however, held on no such ceremony, adopting an ‘elbows up and get on with it’ approach to the task ahead.

The IRA in the 1950s

'Operation Harvest' was the first major military undertaking carried out by the IRA since the 1940s, when the harsh security measures of both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland governments had severely weakened it. In 1939-40 the IRA carried out a sabotage/bombing campaign in England (the S-Plan) to try to force British withdrawal from Northern Ireland. 

From 1942 to 1944 it also mounted an ineffective campaign in Northern Ireland. Internment on both sides of the border, as well as internal feuding and disputes over future policy, all but destroyed the organisation. These campaigns were officially called off on 10 March 1945. By 1947, the IRA had only 200 activists, according to its own general staff.

In 1948 a General Army Convention issued General Order No. 8, prohibiting ‘any armed action whatsoever’ against the forces of the recently proclaimed Republic of Ireland, amounting to a de facto recognition of the state. Under the new policy, IRA volunteers who were caught with arms in the Republic of Ireland were ordered to dump or destroy them and not to take defensive action. From then on, armed action was focused on Northern Ireland. In 1954, after an arms raid at Gough Barracks in Armagh, a speaker at the Wolfe Tone commemoration at Bodenstown confirmed that IRA policy was directed solely against British forces in Northern Ireland. By the middle of this decade, moreover, the IRA had substantially re-armed. This was achieved by means of arms raids launched between 1951 and 1954, on British military bases in Northern Ireland and England.

[:: source Wikipedia - Border campaign (Irish Republican Army) ::]
Italian POWs in Norfolk

POW camps were common across Norfolk, popping up in areas where work was needed most. Pudding Norton camp was built in the early 1940s to house Italian and later, German and Ukrainian prisoners of war. One POW camp was based at Hempton Green, Hempton, Fakenham. In 1947 around 8,000 men were brought to Great Britain from a POW enclave in Rimini, Italy. On arriving in Britain the POWs were split up and sent to several different camps the largest number going to Hempton Green which housed 1001, later this number reduced to around 875.

 

Norfolk people opened up their homes and their hearts for Italian and German POWs for Christmas. It seems strange that a wartime enemy would be invited over to Christmas so soon after the war – but this was the case across Norfolk. Few realise just how significant these people were in Britain, particularly agricultural areas such as Norfolk, where they were largely used as labourers. In Norfolk, the sight of Italian POWs working the land would have been a common one, as they proved vital to aiding the recovery of the crippled British economy following the war. For example, the winter was cold and bitter in 1947, and many country roads throughout Norfolk were blocked with snow. Clearing it was a task which was vital to complete, and many PoWs were called out to deal with it.
There was very little anger from the locals towards prisoners, and by 1948, the majority of them had been repatriated to their homes.

Caister-on-Sea Holiday Park

Caister Holiday Park first opened in 1906 and is the oldest holiday centre in the UK. It was set up by John Fletcher Dodd, a former grocer and a founder member of the Independent Labour Party, as a socialist holiday camp to offer cheap holidays and breaks to the working people of East London. During the 1930s the holiday camp built the largest dance hall for miles around - it was big enough to accommodate 600 couples on the dance floor! A new dining hall was also built that could seat 500 people.

The 1950s Caister Holiday Park became a real family holiday camp with upgraded accommodation and a choice of bars and entertainment. So many people now wanted to experience a seaside holiday at Caister that the former Midland and Great Northern Railway laid on a special summer Saturday express train from Liverpool Street called the ‘Down Holiday Camps Express’. This ran from London to Caister-on-Sea via Cambridge, Ely, Norwich and Wroxham until the line and station closed in 1959. The railway station was originally called Caister Camp Halt.

[:: excerpt taken from caistercaravan.co.uk The History of Caister Holiday Park ::]