Mum – In hos. Very sore. Mr A came twice. P R A & E came, so did Christine Carter, Sue & Dorothy, Ken E, Mrs Elsegood, Sue Banning, Mr & Mrs Munday & Nancy. Had flowers from Church & Dorothy (Mr S. Sec).
Roger – I went to work today. Andrew was there. In the morning I helped Mr. Peake move some book-presses and in the afternoon Andrew finished the music section. A woman came in who teaches English at Earlham I must ask Caroline if she teaches her. This evening went to see mum with Liz. She is better and is on 60 mls of water instead of 30 but she was feeling a bit faint when we left. Nicki Lauda, racing star, has been critically injured in a crash in Germany. A bridge over the Danube has mysteriously collapsed. Amin has arrested 2 British people in Uganda who he claims are spies.
Notes
Post-op Recovery
Mum was in the Norfolk and Norwich Hospital having had surgery for a renal stone the previous day, see Chapter 116. She noted that she was still very sore.
Mr Ashken
The surgery had been conducted by Mr Ashken (Mr A). During this period, mum was working as part-time medical secretary for his private practice and that of another surgeon, Mr Stephens, see Chapter 121. Michael Ralph Handley Ashken was consultant urologist at the Norfolk and Norwich Hospital from 1968 to 1996. He was also President of the British Association of Urological Surgeons from 1994 to 1996. He was born in 1931 and he died in 2016. Mum was part-time secretary for his private practice from 1975 to 1980. Mum noted that he came to see her twice.
Visitors
Mum noted the people who came to visit her but there is some confusion with her noted as some names are crossed out. I suspect this was because she completed her diary a few days later and struggled to remember who had visited when!
P R A & E refers to me (R for Roger) and my siblings Tricia (P for Patricia), Alan (A) and Liz (E for Elizabeth). We all visited her. Others who visited included Sue and Dorothy, who were NHS secretaries for Mr Ashken and Mr Stephens respectively, see Chapter 121; Ken Elworthy (Ken E) who was one of the Ministers at St Peter’s Park Lane Methodist Church, see Chapter 124; and Nancy, probably Nancy Papworth, a friend of mum’s from church.
The other visitors mum noted were Christine Carter, Mrs Elsegood, Sue Banning and Mr and Mrs Munday. However, these names were all crossed out. They all appear in the following day’s entry making it likely that that was indeed when they visited.
In my diary, I noted that I went with Liz to see mum. It is likely that we were restricted to two visitors at a time so it seems I went with Liz and presumably Tricia went with Alan. I noted that she was feeling better and that her water intake had been increased from 30 mls to 60mls. However, she was feeling a bit faint when we left.
Flowers
Mum noted that she had received flowers from St Peter’s Park Lane Methodist Church, see Chapter 124, and from Dorothy who was Mr Stephen’s (Mr S) NHS secretary (sec), see Chapter 121.
Saturday Job
At this time, I had a Saturday job at the Scientific Anglian bookshop, see Chapter 119. I sometimes worked there additional days during the holidays as here. On this occasion, I noted that Andrew was there and, in the afternoon, he finished sorting the music section. I noted that, in the morning, I helped Mr Peake move some book-presses.
Book-Presses
Apparently, book-presses are traditional mechanical tools or heavy pieces of furniture used in printing, bookbinding and antiquarian book restoration. They typically refer to cast-iron desktop machines, often called nipping or copying presses, that feature a large central screw mechanism and a wheel handle used to apply immense, even pressure. This flattens warped pages, presses new bindings and holds text blocks rigid while being glued. Such presses seem familiar to me and it appears likely that these were the kind of thing I was moving with Mr Peake on this day.
Andrew
I don’t know much about Andrew except that he was a music student and that he worked some shifts at the Scientific Anglian bookshop.
Norman Berry Peake
Norman Berry Peake owned and ran the Scientific Anglian bookshop, see Chapter 119. There is an excellent biography/obituary of him in the Proceedings of the Geologists’ Association in which he is described as a chalk revolutionary. Born in 1921, in Southend-on-Sea, he became interested in geology at school. On leaving school, he worked as an assistant chemist for May and Baker and then for Cellon. In 1944, he was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemists. He left Cellon when it was taken over by an American company.
He was an active member of CND and the British Communist Party. Sadly, he developed dementia in later life. In 2003, he was admitted to a care home in Sidestrand and he died there, on 24 January 2010, aged 89. The biography/obituary includes some photos of Norman Peake and one photo of The Scientific Anglian albeit in a dilapidated state. I also came across, elsewhere, a great photo of Norman Peake leading a CND march along Castle Meadow.
English Teacher at Earlham School
I noted that a woman came into the shop who taught English at Earlham School. I commented that I should ask Caroline if she taught her.
Caroline Kingham
Caroline refers to Caroline Kingham, my girlfriend at that time. I recall Caroline and would consider her as my first “proper” girlfriend, see Chapter 122. We went out for a relatively long period by the teenage standards of that time, but it was probably less than a month all told! I confess that I was unable to recall her surname but was able to track it down as my mother and her mother later worked together. This entry, I think, means that she went to Earlham School although, from memory, I thought she had been to Notre Dame! I don’t know much about what happened to her but I believe she may have married Marcus Adam Batch in June 1982.
Niki Lauda
I noted that racing driver Niki Lauda had been critically injured in a crash in Germany. Andreas Nikolaus (Niki) Lauda was born in Vienna in 1949. He competed in Formula One in the seventies and eighties winning three world championships. He died in 2019.
The crash occurred in the German Grand Prix at the Nürburgring, see Chapter 123. Ahead of the race, he had urged a driver boycott over safety concerns but the majority of drivers disagreed and the race went ahead. He was extremely badly burned suffering extensive scarring. Amazingly, he was only away from racing for six weeks missing two races. Following this accident, changes were made at the Nürburgring and, in 1984, a new track was built.
Reichsbrücke
I noted that a bridge over the Danube had mysteriously collapsed. The bridge in question was the Reichsbrücke in Austria, see Chapter 129. It had been built in the thirties, opening in 1937. It survived the second world war but collapsed on 1 August 1976 killing one person. The cause of the collapse was determined to be structural failure in the bearings. Two temporary bridges were used for four years and a new bridge, the current one, opened in 1980.
Graham Clegg and Jack Tully
I noted that Ugandan President, Idi Amin, had arrested two British people accusing them of being spies. Local press reports identified them as Graham Clegg, aged 38, and Jack Tully, aged 65. Apparently, they had been arrested the previous Wednesday, when Britain broke off diplomatic relations with Uganda, but their names were only disclosed at the weekend.
Graham Clegg was a businessman who had moved from Uganda to Kenya but he had been arrested when visiting Soroti in Northern Uganda. Jack Tully was living in Soroti and was apparently arrested when he questioned Mt Clegg’s arrest.
Jack Tully was quite quickly released but Graham Clegg was held until 25 August 1976 when he “turned up” at the French Embassy.
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