| 1939 to 1945 diaries of Mary French who was born 4 Dec 1922. They have been transcribed by Mary's family.
1939
January 1939
February 1939
March 1939
April 1939
May 1939
June 1939
July 1939
August 1939
September 1939
October 1939
November 1939
December 1939
1940
Summary
January 1940
February 1940
March 1940
April 1940
May 1940
June 1940
July 1940
August 1940
September 1940
October 1940
November 1940
December 1940
1941
January 1941
February 1941
March 1941
April 1941
May 1941
June 1941
July 1941
August 1941
September 1941
October 1941
November 1941
December 1941
1944
Summary
January 1944
February 1944
March 1944
April 1944
May 1944
June 1944
July 1944
August 1944
September 1944
October 1944
November 1944
December 1944
1945
January 1945
February 1945
March 1945
April 1945
May 1945
June 1945
Not all the diaries are yet available here.
Some background
Mary was the daughter of Annie and Cecil French, of Dover's Cottage, St Peters Road, West Mersea. She had an older sister Joan and an older brother Charlie.
Annie French was from the Martin family - her brother Edward and wife Rose were at Moor Farm, Peldon, regularly visited by Mary.
'Aunt' Lucy was married to Oswald French, a nephew to Cecil. Lucy and Oswald had a son Gordon who appears regularly in these diaries.
Harold Rudlin was the son of George Wyndham Rudlin and Mildred Emma French. Harold was born 24 Feb 1923, so was 3 months younger than Mary.
Annie Symonds was a good friend of Mary's. She lived at 4 Barfield Road, daughter of Frank and Alice Symonds, and had two brothers, Jimmy and Cyril.
Sybil Martin, Mary French and Annie Symonds passed the examination for admission to Colchester County High School. Annie went on to become a missionary in Ghana.
When Mary was at the County High School, Ruth Hardy King 'Miss King' was the Headmistress. Miss King had a flat after the War (perhaps during the War) over Kent Blaxill's on the corner of St Nicholas Street, Colchester. There is now a road in Colchester named Ruth King Close, close to the present County High School site. It has a gate to keep the girls out (or the residents in ?)
In Mary's time the more-senior girls at the High School were on a site on the west side of North Hill. The other girls were at Greyfriars at the top of East Hill.
Mary also recorded some Memories of WW2 for the 1995 Mistral Magazine to commemorate V.E. Day.
See MIS_1995_A28
For a Family Tree of this branch of the French family: AFM_FRE_002
Notes Feb 2020
August 1939 tells us that Mary's father Cecil was serving on the yacht THALASSA at the time.
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