Alec and Lucie Moss in 1938. Alec's rediscovered diary tells the story of the first two years of World War 2 through the eyes of a Palmers Green resident
16th March 1941
"About 8.50pm there was some intense AA fire almost overhead. Lucie, as is often her habit, got up to peep outdoors. Gerald & I exchanged winks (as we often do when Mother gets restless). I went on reading, the gunfire increased and then I decided to peep outdoors, Gerald having a laugh at my expense. I had hardly set foot in the hall when the front door slammed, followed by a terrific crash. Lucie running down the hall and slipping over, a tinkling of glass, the wireless cut out (I did not notice this till afterwards). [...] Our front door was blown open and the lock broken and the doorpost split. [...]
"Lucie was saying she saw a light in the sky before she heard the swish of a bomb and that made her slam the front door.
"In the direction of the Bowes Road – Green Lane crossing there was a big fire, great flames leaping through the roof of a building. I put my hat and coat on (wearing rubber soled slippers) and walked towards the scene with Mr Arnold, treading on glass all down the road. At the bus stop nearly opposite the Pitmans College there was a mass of wreckage in the middle of the road with men working furiously among it, the whole scene lit up by the burning building. I heard today that Mr Robinson (our Y.O.C. Football ref) was there and that 38 people were killed in a petrol bus and that a 29 (petrol) bus had just left the spot before the bomb fell and was full up, people standing inside.
[...]
"I was out before 7am this morning to see the damage in daylight. The lower end of our road had suffered badly from the blast, glass roofs, ceilings & doors. Few people, except the civil defence, were about. Where the bomb or bombs had fallen on our side of the Green Lane, four shops and the Bank by the bus stop were a heap of ruins; Brooks the Chemists on the corner, the bank opposite and the 3 shops this side of the Chemist’s. Many others bordering the ruins were badly blasted. On the other side of the road the two corners’ premises and part of the Prince’s (dance) Hall in ruins. I hear (almost certainly true) that a dance was in progress. I later heard the drummer was killed."
On 15th March 1941 Alec Moss and his wife Lucie were at home, at 57 Melbourne Avenue, Palmers Green, when the dance hall on the corner of Green Lanes and Princes Avenue was hit by a bomb and a passing bus was caught by the explosion. Alec duly noted the details in the diary he had been keeping since the start of World War 2.
The family home in Melbourne Avenue, photographed in 1950
It's one of the more dramatic moments in Alec's diary, now published by his grandson, but there were many more scenes of wartime destruction witnessed by the 43-year old First World War veteran as he made his way round central London visiting his firm's customers and suppliers, noting the roads that were closed, and the notable buildings that had been destroyed. The impression that comes across is of people taking all this in their stride and just getting on with things - for instance, ten hours after the destruction of the bus, London Transport employees were already fixing the damaged trolleybus wires in Green Lanes.
Alex Khan came across his grandfather's wartime diary while clearing out the house that had belonged to his late Uncle Laurie. Alec Moss took up his pen five days after the declaration of war, and the volume that his nephew discovered runs up to late August 1941, at the height of the German offensive on the Soviet Union.
It's a pity that later volumes have not been preserved, because the writer, who had served as an intelligence officer in the previous global conflict, was able to describe the course of the war in few words but with a perspicacious eye.
Gerald, Daphne, Alec and Laurie Moss at the seaside in 1939
However, interesting as his description of the worldwide hostilities is, the most fascinating thing about the diary is the detailed picture it paints of everyday life in our part of London. Pondering whether it is worthwhile renewing his tube season ticket, taking his young daughter to Broomfield Park or for a trip around London by bus and tram (she was particularly delighted by the Kingsway Tunnel), taking material to the tailors for a new suit, baling out water from the family's air raid shelter (and growing peas and marrows on top of it)... And the frequency with which people went down with various illnesses and took to their beds.
We also see the evolution of Alec's family, in particular of his eldest son Laurie, who moves to Merseyside to take up his first job as a schoolmaster, before being called up just before the diary breaks off, and his precocious, but clearly delightful, little daughter Daphne. Daphne, who was five in 1939, is currently living in Southampton and wrote the introduction to the published version of her father's diary.
Alec Moss, 1897 - 1965
Alec Moss was born Alec Moskovitch and grew up in the East End of London. His parents had emigrated from Lithuania to escape anti-Jewish persecution, but in England they encountered anti-Russian sentiments, explaining the change of surname to Moss. At school Alec became proficient in French and German, which proved very useful after he enlisted during World War 1.
After the war Alec went into the London rag trade as an embroidery designer. In 1920 he married Lucle, daughter of a north London watchmaker.
Despite the difficulties caused by the war, what comes across is the busy social life in this pre-television, pre-Internet age. And the sheer number of football and cricket teams that there were in the area at the time, though as the diary progresses we see the teams getting thinner as their members are gradually called up. Alec and his two sons were heavily involved in both sports, in particular with Parkhurst Athletic (named after a street in Bowes Park) and was president of Palmers Green Athletic Club. Alec and his sons were frequent visitors to the clubhouse in Broomfield Lane, where he would play darts and table tennis and down a light ale or two (or on one occasion, a Bass, a Worthington and a barley wine, "the latter particularly potent").
Parkhurst Athletic (or Parkhust Albion?) football team 1940. Alec Moss is first on the left in the front row, Laurie Moss is third from the left
Alex Khan has done a great service by bringing this diary to light. You don't need to be interested in military history or sport to enjoy peeping through this fascinating window into Palmers Green's past.
Life in London 1939-41 - A Veteran's View
Alex Khan came across his grandfather's diary around a decade ago when clearing out his late uncle's house and has had it transcribed and published in book form, under the title Life in London 1939-41 - A Veteran's View. As the title suggests, the journal breaks off in 1941 - it seems that Alec continued to keep it, but the volumes in which it was written have been lost.
Alex has self-published his grandfather's diary. The price (£10.95 in paperback or £4.99 for the ebook) just covers costs.
It includes an introduction by Alec Moss's daughter Daphne, who was 5 in 1939 and currently lives in Southampton.
Links
Enfield at War: The Princes Dance Hall bomb
The tragedy at the Princes Dance Hall (Palmers Green Tales)