A woman who escaped a daylight raid in London while working for a children’s charity during the Second World War has celebrated her 100th birthday.
A chat with the remarkable Beryl Sims, of Hurst, reveals fascinating stories from her long life. They’re told with clarity and, often, a great sense of fun.
Asked about being 100, she joked: “I feel the same as I did a week ago.”
She added: “I’ve got nothing really bad wrong with me at all. I’m quite lucky really except I can’t see properly. I miss reading but I listen to the radio and television. And I can get around with my stick.
“I’ve always been fairly active. I had three children and life has always been very busy.” Born in Harrow, Middlesex, she left school at 17.
“It was wartime. I had wanted to become a children’s nanny but that meant a long time training. So my father decided I should learn shorthand, typing and book keeping and then get a job in London,” she said.
She went on to work with the NSPCC children’s charity in London as the financial director’s secretary.
“It was a good job, a jolly nice one. I had my own little desk and typewriter. I took letters from him [the director] and did the book keeping for the NSPCC.
“I did a special type out of a very special sheet to show how the society finances were going. It was to present to the directors.
“While I was there we had a daylight raid so we went down into the basement. We just had to wait until the raid was over and just hope everything hadn’t been shattered over the top of us. I wasn’t really frightened, you just hoped for the best,” she said.
After three years at the NSPCC, she changed direction. “Everybody was being called up into the forces. I thought I’d rather go into the Land Army [helping grow food].”
At a Hampshire farm she recalls standing on top of a big stack of wheat above the noisy threshing machine beating away to separate the grain from the straw. “I was feeding the wheat down into the threshing machine. It was frightening, awful, up there,” she said.
At about 17 she met her husband-to-be George at a party.
“We sat next to each other. The next day he phoned to ask if he could take me to the cinema.” she said.
“I think it was love at first sight for him but more gradual for me. If you say it was love at first sight for me, it sounds more romantic though,” she added, smiling.
They married when Beryl was 21 and George 20, and later moved to Hurst.
They had three children, Christopher of Henley, Linda of Devon and Tim who lives with his Mother. There are three grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.
Beryl helped George with his highly-regarded book-selling business and typed up the books, including thrillers and poetry, which he wrote. She also collected for charities including the Royal National Lifeboat Institution and the NSPCC. George died in 1999.
Children from Year 6 at St Nicholas Primary, Hurst, sang to Beryl and gave her flowers last Friday, two days before her birthday.
Beryl used to hear readers at the school. One of those readers, Helen Corcoran, 33, said: “It was always a special day when Mrs Sims came. We all hoped it would be our turn to read to her.”
Hurst’s parish council chairman Wayne Smith presented Beryl with a birthday cake and flowers from the village at the surprise gathering which Beryl took in her stride.
