1951

my Grandad Frank Woodhouse server at St Sampson's

Before boarding at Cape Town. 

page 57 describes the thinking behind the trip to England. Sadly I never knew my Mum's parents. She had nursed her mother with Alzheimer's shortly before she met Dad and I gather that my grandfather Arthur Codling was not an easy man. He was a market gardener in Sprouston Norwich. None of Mum's family attended their wedding or sent presents and it cannot have only been the war that prevented that. There had certainly been a major clash with Mum's sister Doris and they were only reconciled many years later.
Dad does not record that Mum had savings for the trip stolen from her bag on the day she went to book our passage so they had to start again! In 1951 Mum and I got the train to Cape Town to board the Cape Town Castle. This was one of the Union Castle line. We were both horribly sick on the boat. One morning I went down to breakfast and asked for scrambled eggs. As they arrived the ship lurched and my eggs hit the wall. Back to the berth to be sick!
When we got to Madeira I said I really could not wait to get off that ship. However when I saw that the gangplank steps down to the waiting boats had large gaps I quickly said I would stay on board! I was very frightened of the water. Dad admitted that he was frightened himself when he took me into the sea on holiday on the Natal South coast and I really did not like going into the sea as a result. Sad really in view of all the sunshine and the pools available.