CHAPTER IV
SOME MEMORABLE VISITORS AND VISITS
One summer day in July, Marina, Duchess of Kent, came to have a look at the Community. She was the "Patron". I am not at all sure what this title meant or entailed. She had only been once before, to The Mote, where she was presented with a gigantic bed-spread, hand made and embroidered at the Community. I have a photograph of this occasion when Lord Lytton was present in a cut-away morning coat and top hat. Miss Leila wore one of the largest hats I have ever seen and Miss Dave seemed to have a dress almost to her ankles; apart from these details I have no recollection of that visit.
This was different though: an enormous amount of cleaning and polishing went on in the morning. "Every room," said Miss Leila, was to look "immaculate".
After wondering what to do with a great many objects that cluttered up the girls' room I finally took everything that could not be forced into lockers, drawers or cupboards and put them under my bed: I had a room next door so this was very simple. I thought all the rooms looked amazingly clean and clear; in fact in the girls' playroom there seemed to be practically nothing at all. The floors were highly polished and there were a lot of very beautiful flowers about.
The Duchess arrived in the afternoon in a huge car. She was taken round by Miss Leila; Miss Dave attended to the Lady-in-Waiting and the chauffeur had tea in the kitchen. Towards the middle of the afternoon it began to rain. I spent a large part of the visit removing various girls from the front drive, all staring into the royal car; "Only having a decker" they said.
When she finally left she told Miss Leila she thought they all looked "very high born children"; we were gratified, although a little sceptical about some.
I note in the journal I kept that the following day reaction set in and everyone was “somewhat irritable", and someone slipped on the too highly-polished floor and hurt her leg; she was, I thought, justifiably annoyed.
On another occasion, the Duke of Edinburgh called in at tea-time one day; he was staying with the Brabournes at New House. He was shown over the West Wing where the boys under fourteen were housed: they were in charge of a woman who had been many years at the Community and had become adept at sensing what was going on, although unseen.
During this visit, while doing the honours of a dormitory to the Duke, she heard a lot of scuffling and gasping going on behind a closed door. Talking loudly and moving away from the door she led the Duke to another room. A fight of considerable dimension was going on between two boys behind the door. I thought afterwards that the Duke would have been quite interested to see it and might have given valuable assistance; as it was he was led away to tea in the hall with the staff, where we found him charming and friendly.
Another visitor who was introduced to the Community by Lord Brabourne was the actor, Kenneth More; he also had tea in the hall with the staff; he was amusing and cheerful, calling everyone "darling”, including Miss Leila. We enjoyed that tea very much.
The other visitor who came now and again and was deeply appreciated was Dr. Kellmer Pringle. She came in an official capacity: saw children, advised on them, read case-papers and often addressed the staff after supper.
She was always deeply interesting to listen to; she spoke faster than would seem possible and sometimes I felt almost breathless trying to keep up: she was deeply interested in everything and everyone, gave a very great deal of valuable advice and she would walk round talking to various adults, to anyone she met in fact; she was very much liked.
The British Council sent parties of students or visitors to Britain, at intervals. They also were interesting to meet as they were of all nationalities.
Miss Dave's sister was at that time Principal of the Rachel Macmillan Training College in Deptford and her students came sometimes. I was once showing some of them round the various departments: we gazed long at the boys' showers, latrines, dormitories, playrooms, cloakrooms and at each step one of the young women would sniff and say "God bless my soul!". it seemed as good a remark as any other I thought; it is often difficult to find a different and appropriate adjective for each sight.
There were many visits of course from parents, relatives, friends, probation officers, teachers, social workers of every sort and Home Office Inspectors now and again.
I happened to be in the kitchen once when two Inspectors were brought down to look at it.
"What is this?" said one of them, holding up a packet of 'Puffed Wheat' cereal and looking at me while Miss Dave was explaining the electric stove or the potato peeling machine or the "steamer".
"Well," I said, "it's a cereal."
"And when do you eat it?" he asked.
"We have it for breakfast sometimes." I said. "Ugh;" he said, "Rabbit's food."
As it was not a favourite cereal of mine I hoped it would be changed for another but we continued with it. I decided that that particular Inspector could have no children of his own as it was, like all the cereals, very popular with them.
The psychiatrist, Dr. Maberly came now and again, officially to see the children. He had managed to get down to Hyde House during the war, although not very often. He used to see an extremely disturbed and difficult girl we had there and who came on to Mersham-le-Hatch. I met Dr. Maberly one evening coming out of Miss Leila's sitting room.
He looked rather furtively round and then said, “Tell me, has that spitting girl gone?"
When I replied that she had left, he said "Oh what a relief!" I thought he was a very honest man.
He had evidently suffered very much during interviews with her. She should not have stayed on as long as she did at the Community actually as we were not able to do anything for her but there was literally nowhere for her to go. She was finally given a place in the Adolescent wing of a mental hospital.
But the most memorable visit, certainly for those who lived in the main building of the house, must surely have been that of the present Queen Mother.
She was due to arrive at half past two and after the mid-day dinner the younger children went off to their various playrooms and their elders surged upstairs and downstairs and everywhere it seemed: but at last they dispersed and there was comparative quiet; but not for long.
About ten minutes before the expected arrival of the Royal Visitor I was standing on the landing of the first floor when I saw hurtling down in front of me over the bannisters the large end of an iron bedstead: the sort with two legs and arms and a back that used to be seen in cottage gardens propping up earth and acting as a fence: there was an earth-shaking resounding crash as it fell on to the stone passage two floors below. The noise was ear-splitting; no one was in the bottom passage at the time, otherwise if hit they would probably have been killed.
What seemed to be most of the Community naturally rushed from every corner to see what was going on.
The bed-end had been thrown over by a very disturbed and often violent girl: she was in fact the girl whom Dr. Maberly had enquired about. How she had ever been able to take the bed to pieces no one could imagine as these particular beds were almost impossible to move: they were in a dormitory waiting to be replaced by new divan beds. The girl was probably thwarted or annoyed about something and whereas anyone else would have shouted, or sworn or thrown a broom across the room, she resorted to half a bed.
She was attended to, the bed-end picked up and five minutes later the Queen Mother's car was at the door.
She too was taken round and shown everything and I seem to remember that she and Miss Leila had a solitary tea together in the library. I do not suppose any mention was ever made of that bed. She would probably have been quite interested I thought, as it would have been out of the ordinary and not what she would normally expect: she could even have been introduced to the girl: it is interesting to surmise such a meeting.
But Institutions like to parade their best to illustrious visitors, but I would contend that sometimes what is not so desirable, but nevertheless there, can be very interesting and informative.
Another notable visitor was Sir Malcolm Sargent, who was staying with Lord Brabourne. Sir Malcolm, looking extremely debonair with a crimson carnation in his buttonhole, was followed upstairs and downstairs and from room to room by a procession of boys which seemed to grow at every turn. Sir Malcolm led this kind of entourage with great skill, never staying too long in one place, wheeling his men round after him like an experienced general: twenty Community boys must have seemed small beer though after Promenade concerts.