Part 6 of our fascinating story of Vicky Rylance’s childhood experiences in Malta during WWII.
The lack of proper food and the continuous tension over the years made its mark on the population. People just grew thinner, looked shabby, but morale was always good. However, there were several epidemics. The one I remember most, because it caused most havoc, was Typhoid Fever. This was apparently caused by the use of human manure on the fields to try and increase the yield, as well as sewage seeping into the water system due to bomb damage. Many, many people died of typhoid fever. There were other epidemics, one of which was scabies and many people were affected by this awful skin decease, which caused weeping boils and terrible itching all over the body. What I remember most about scabies is that children who contacted it had to have their heads shaved and I found this scary and dreaded the possibility of contracting it. Our family was indeed blessed because we escaped all these deceases; but everybody knew of friends or relatives who had succumbed.
During the blitz, we attended school as much as was possible. Most of the large state schools were taken over by the civil authorities for use as hospitals or places of administration. In Birkirkara, where we lived during the war, the state school became St Francis Hospital. We lived very near this building; everyday especially during epidemics there was a never ending stream of horse drawn glass hearses passing by. Death became an everyday thing, not particularly scary to children. I remember thinking that the horses with their black plumed headdresses pulling ornate glass hearses were very interesting.
Large houses in every town or village were taken over by the authorities and converted into schools. Because of the large number of children of school age, we could only attend for lessons either in the morning or in the afternoon in a kind of shift system. Strangely enough, our education did not really suffer. I started to learn to read and write in English and Maltese during this time. Luckily for me, there was a Franciscan Sisters’ Convent and school in the same street as our house and my parents enrolled us at this school in order to supplement our education. We attended the state school during the hours of our shift and then went to the Sisters’ during the free time. We were short of books, copy books, pencils and various things. At one point we used a really old fashioned form of learning to read and write – we used slates – a very thin piece of black slate framed in wood which had its own pencil to scratch the words out and could we wiped clean like a blackboard. Girls had to wear a white pinafore for school and my mother made this herself from her ‘bottom drawer’ items, very pretty aprons with frills and flounces, I hated wearing mine.
As well as food, all sort of items of everyday living were either very scare or simply unobtainable since no raw materials or supplies were coming into the Island. There was a shortage of material for making clothes; people made their own clothes out of whatever material they could find, even parachute material, which was very highly priced if you managed to get it and was used for wedding dresses! Everybody started to look very shabby. Cast off men’s shirts and even women’s skirts were recycled to make clothes for children. At the time women, especially in the villages, used to wear Faldettas, a sort of large black cloak with a stiff top for a headdress, made of black silk. When these wore out in the war years, they were impossible to replace, and eventually became defunct. Women got used to the freedom of being bareheaded.
At the time, people wore hand knitted garments. During the War, knitting wool was another item which was no longer available. When children grew out of their knitted garments, women used to unpick them and after washing and rewinding the wool, they made new knitted garments with the wool from old items. If there was not enough wool for a garment, they became quite adapt for making the welts at waist and sleeves in a different colour.
Shoes also became scarce and people made their own sandals. The soles were made of pieces of rope, which were sewn together in the shape of the feet, and the uppers were made of cloth. These were widely worn, it was better than going barefoot. Fuel also became scarce, both petrol for buses (there not many cars in Malta then) and paraffin for cooking. Electricity was also in short supply, so we used paraffin lamps. When paraffin was rationed, people resorted to using candles, which in turn became in short supply and people even tried to make their own. There was also water shortage and we had to save water as much as possible. My mother used to bathe us one by one in zinc bath using the same water. I hated this and always tried to be the first in the clean water.
To be continued . . . . . . .
Written by Vicky Rylance, Hon. Secretary Mellieha Group
I remember it well. I was a year older than your mother.
Well done for these reminiscent writings, I enjoyed reading them immensely. Hardly anybody mentions war time nowadays and the hardships endured during those times are not appreciated. Looking forward to the next installment!