Friends
Heather Richardson (née Preston)
I first met the Hawkins family in the summer of 1953. Eric was the new headmaster of Calday Grange Grammar School for Boys, West Kirby, Wirral. Anne was the new girl in the class Upper 4 at the girls school in West Kirby. My route to the girls grammar school took me past School House, so we went together. Sometimes I could hear the clarinet and later the cello; Eric practising his scales.
Ellen was most welcoming and we once heard about her and Anne's experiences in Denmark during the war. I was invited on several Xmas Eves to join family and friends and an elite choir for Xmas music. Magical evening hearing music I'd never heard before. Anne and John opened their presents that day - continental tradition.
School exchanges meant I had a French girl and Anne a German. Mine said she wouldn't go into a house where there was a German. We told them they had to get on and by the end of the trip they were friendly enough. When I was due to go back to my exchange's house in France, Eric said we must keep a scrap book and gave me an exercise book. On my return he marked it and corrected my French; I've still got it, mainly filled up with metro tickets and entrance tickets and some descriptions written in French.
Eric was kind enough to give me a reference when I applied to college and for my first job. I’ve always kept in touch with Anne; she was our "maid of honour" at our wedding.
One event sticks in my mind as there was a lot of talking and tut-tutting when during the Suez crisis of 1956, Eric wrote a letter to the Manchester Guardian questioning the wisdom of military action against Egypt. West Wirral was a very safe Conservative seat and Selwyn Lloyd was the MP and Foreign Secretary! Events proved Eric right.
My husband was at Cambridge in the late 1940s reading French and German. He really was a linguist and found the bias on literature rather frustrating. He really wished he could have done a linguist degree like that of Eric's at York University.
I'll always remember Eric and Ellen with affection and gratitude. The family contributed to many happy memories of my childhood in West Kirby.