Superfluous Women

 

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Dedicated with thanks to our forebears who struggled for the rights of women; and with hope to the present generation, that they will continue the struggle to preserve and enhance those rights.

 

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Without Virginia Nicholson's
Singled Out: How Two Million Women Survived Without Men after the First World War
(Viking 2007), I could not have conceived and written this book.

My thanks also, for help on many and varied subjects, to Dolores Gordon-Smith, author of the Jack Haldean mysteries; Malcolm of the Telephone Museum; Christine Jones; Gavin White; D. P. Lyle, M.D.; Allan Mitchinson; Penny Bingham; Eddie Tulasiewicz; Jo Parker; The Centre for Buckinghamshire Studies; Simon GP Geoghegan; and to my brother, Tony Brauer.

 

 … far away,

Behind the row of crosses, shadows black

Stretch out long arms before the smouldering sun.

But who will give me my children?

—“The Superfluous Woman,” Vera Brittain

 

HISTORICAL NOTE

Britain after the First World War had about two million more women than men. The press labelled them “superfluous” or “surplus” women.

 

ONE

Daisy awoke
gasping for breath. Her racing heartbeat thudded in her ears. For a frightening moment she had no idea where she was.

Just a nightmare, of course. She had dreamt she was shut up in an airless room with no doors or windows where a faceless figure was trying to smother her. As memory returned, her heart quieted, but her breathing was still laborious. Her chest ached. She started to cough.

Raising herself on one elbow, she reached for the glass of water beside the bed and took a sip. She had gone to sleep sitting up, as the doctor had recommended. The hotel's inadequate pillows had slipped off the bed during the night. The chambermaid would bring her a couple more if she asked. The staff of the Saracen's Head had been very friendly and helpful when she arrived in Beaconsfield yesterday.

The pale light filtering through the blue cotton curtains told her she had slept through the night for the first time in weeks.

Getting out of London, out of the Thames Valley, clearly was a good idea. The smog of October 1927 wouldn't count among the worst to afflict the metropolis. However, the southerly breeze that broke it up wafted the noxious mixture of coal smoke and river fog up the hill to Hampstead, usually happily above the miasma. Daisy's mild cold had turned to bronchitis.

The doctor ordered her out of town. She didn't want to impose her illness on friends and she felt too rotten for a long journey. Beaconsfield, a small town on the edge of the Chiltern Hills, seemed ideal.

The air was clean; she was breathing more easily already.

She was about to leave the warm nest of her bed to retrieve the pillows when she heard a tentative knock on the door.

“Who is it?”

“Your tea, madam.”

“Come in.” Calling out set off another fit of coughing.

“Oh, madam, you don' half soun' ba'.” The local speech featured unvoiced final consonants, much easier to understand than some dialects Daisy had encountered. She very soon stopped noticing. “You better have a cuppa, quick.”

The maid, a sturdy, sandy-haired, freckled young woman of about Daisy's age, set down the small tray and poured. “Here. Carefu' now. You don' wan' it to go down the wrong way.”

Daisy managed to stop coughing for long enough to sip, and then to empty the cup. It soothed her throat a bit. “Thanks. Weren't you waiting in the dining room yesterday evening?”

“That's right. I'm a waitress, really. I don't do the cleaning and such, but I live in so it's easy to help out with early morning teas, and sometimes on reception, to oblige. And to earn a bit extra, too,” she confided. “I'm saving up to go to London and learn to type. I want to work in an office.”

“Good for you. What's your name?”

“Sally, madam. Sally Hedger. Properly, Sarah. There's another cup in the pot if you want it. And a couple of biscuits. I saw you di'n't eat enough dinner to keep a flea alive.”

“I was too tired, and my throat's a bit sore from coughing. I haven't been very well, so I came to Beaconsfield to breathe the country air. It's already doing me good. Would you mind awfully picking up my pillows? I seem to have knocked them off in the night.”

“Here you go.” Sally plumped them up and put them behind Daisy's back. “That'll be comfier for you.”

“I don't suppose you could scrounge a couple more for me? I'm supposed to sleep sitting up.”

“I 'spect so. Can you manage till I've done the rest of the teas?”

“Of course. Whenever you have a moment.”

“And how about breakfast in bed? You didn't ought to be rushing to get yourself up.”

“Sally, could you really? That would be marvellous! You're a treasure.”

“Don't tell anyone or they'll all be wanting it, too.”

She was as good as her word. Daisy didn't get up till after ten. She was able to take a leisurely bath instead of the usual hotel scramble to get out of the way of other guests queuing up. Back in her room, she went to the window.

Last night she had been too exhausted to bother about the view. Now she looked out over back gardens to meadows where black-and-white cows grazed, and ploughland with winter wheat just beginning to green the pale, chalky soil. A few trees were bare already, but oaks clung stubbornly to the brown leaves they would keep all winter and the bright gold of beeches stood out against the grey sky.

Not the slightest breeze stirred the leaves. Daisy decided she felt fit enough for a short walk. She dressed warmly, a flannel petticoat under her tweed skirt and a flannel vest under her blouse and pullover—her fashionable friend, Lucy, would have been horrified, she thought with amusement. Stout walking shoes, a warm coat, and a blue muffler and hat her stepdaughter had knitted for her, pulled down over her ears: she might well stun the local citizens as well.

She hadn't paid any attention to the town as she was driven through the streets from the station, but she had noticed a church right opposite the Saracen's Head. A stroll round the churchyard would be a good start to regaining her strength.

Dressing had tired her. On second thoughts, she took off the hat and stuffed it into the coat pocket, then tidied her hair. It was after eleven, time for morning coffee.

The residents' lounge had only two occupants, who looked like commercial travellers. Deep in discussion over papers spread on a low table, they scarcely looked up as she passed through to the ladies' parlour beyond. There, three elderly women were seated at a round table by the fire. They glanced at Daisy and, obviously deciding she was a stranger of no interest, returned to their chatter. Not so many years ago, a woman staying alone at a hotel would have caused disapproving stares. With two million more females than males in the country, most of whom would never have a chance to marry, single “girls” were no longer noteworthy.

Coffee and a cream cake restored Daisy's desire for a little gentle exercise. (She didn't even feel guilty about the cream cake as she had lost several pounds while ill. Well, a few at least.)

She went out. Slowly, feeling like a tottery old lady, she crossed the wide street to the church. She stopped to look at an elaborate war memorial. Bronze plaques on all four sides each listed twenty names: eighty men lost from this small town and the surrounding rural district. Daisy noted several pairs of names, including two Hedgers who must surely be related to Sally, the waitress, as well as a few trios, and six surnamed Child—six killed in one family.

Filled with melancholy, she trudged through the churchyard, right round the church. In spite of the grey sky, the day was now warmish for October. She unwrapped her muffler and undid the top button of her coat.

As she completed the circuit, a ray of sun broke through the clouds to strike a wooden bench near the memorial. Daisy accepted the implicit invitation. Though she had coughed only once or twice, her legs felt a bit wobbly. She was glad to rest and contemplate the scene.

Opposite, on the corner, stretched the gabled west front of her hotel, the Saracen's Head, a centuries'-old coaching inn. The exposed timbers of the first floor looked much too straight to be the originals, though. The few other half-timbered buildings in the vicinity looked more genuine; most were typical Home Counties, mellow red brick with red-tiled roofs.

All four streets meeting at the crossroads were unusually wide for a town centre. They formed the intersection of the main route from Windsor to Aylesbury and the London to Oxford road, now the A40. Daisy had often driven through, in fact, without taking any particular notice of the town.

She wondered whereabouts Willie lived. Wilhelmina Chandler, a friend from school, had very recently moved from the North to Beaconsfield. They had exchanged occasional letters over the years, but never met since leaving school. Daisy hoped to call on her and refresh their friendship, once she'd recovered a bit more strength and was sure the coughing spells were a thing of the past.

The letter with the address was in her room. When she felt up to a visit, Sally would probably be able to direct her to the street.

She returned to the hotel. Climbing the stairs brought on another spate of coughs and she was glad to collapse onto the bed. A glass of water followed by a cough pastille did the trick. The taste of horehound, wintergreen, eucalyptus, and menthol lingered in her mouth, making the prospect of lunch unappealing.

In the end, telling herself firmly that she must keep up her strength, she went down to the restaurant just before they stopped serving lunch. Only half a dozen people were there, and most of them were just finishing their meals, so Daisy was able to chat with Sally.

The waitress brought a bowl of oxtail soup. “This'll do you good, madam. If I was you, I'd have the shepherd's pie after. Nothing in it to scrape a sore throat. It'll go down a fair treat. Stewed apple and custard for afters?”