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Introduction: My Aunt, Marjorie (known as Madge) [1888-1975) and my Mother, Gwen (1889-1972) were born at 11 Southey Road, London. Their brother, Sidford Ewen (1881-1964), served in the Merchant Navy. In 1903 the girls were apprenticed for three years to the Women’s Printing Society Limited, 66 Whitcomb Street, London WC - Madge as a Compositor and Gwen as a Monotype Keyboard Operator. Their apprenticeship pay was to be ‘3s. 0d a week for the first three months with an additional 6d per week for every three months until the expiration of the term.’ Later both girls went to work in the printing office of the British War Office and were there during the First World War. After the War, the printing department was phased down — Madge, who was senior to Gwen, was kept on, but Gwen had to find other employment. They lived at home with their parents, Edward Alan Robert Ewen and Matilda Harriet Ewen at 83 Charlwood Street, Westminster, London.

Between the Wars: In 1924, a year after their Mother’s death, Gwen was offered a Monotype Keyboard Operating position in Cape Town, South Africa, with the Standard Press, which she accepted. It was while she was working in Cape Town that she met my Father, Arthur Franks, also a printer — a Linotype Operator. Arthur Franks had grown up in Brighton, England, but emigrated to S. Africa in the early 1900s. Being in the printing line, Arthur was regarded as ‘key personnel’ in both WWI and WWII and thus not accepted for military service, although in WWII he was a Warden in our street. Madge continued to serve in the printing office of the British War Office in London.

World War II. When WWII broke out life became very hectic for Madge and the printing office hummed. As the hostilities increased, it was felt that the printing section should be moved to a safer place and the staff were then stationed at Wormwood Scrubbs for some time! Later on the printing section was again re-located, but this time to Blenheim Palace! Quite a change of scenery — from a prison to a palace! Madge commented to Gwen in a letter once that the grounds of Blenheim were so vast that she could not walk all round them in one day! The office moved back to London at the end of the War.

In the meantime, in late 1939, Gwen, now a housewife with a 9 year old child (me), was approached by the Typographical Union in Cape Town and asked if she would return to her trade as a Monotype Keyboard Operator in a printing office, as so many men had been called up for military service. Gwen accepted and was only too pleased to be ‘doing her bit’ for the war effort. She worked for the Monotype Composing Service in Cape Town for the duration of the war and for quite a few years afterwards. Gwen, of course, was most concerned about her father and sister in England, and she spent hundreds of pounds on preparing and sending food parcels to them, as well as to the wives and mothers of soldiers and sailors my parents welcomed into their home when the ‘convoy ships came into port’ in Cape Town. Special among these men, were three sailors serving on the Royal Navy Patrol Ships. Their ‘trawler’ would call in at Cape Town; the ‘boys’ would visit us. Then they would disappear again, sometimes for months on end. We knew not where and never asked. Then luckily, they would call in again. We got to know them well. Many of their exploits have been included in a book Trawlers go to War by Paul Lund & Harry Ludlam, 1971.

After WWII: In October 1946 Madge’s long service with the War Office was recognised when she received a letter from the Registrar of the Order of the British Empire, St James’s Palace SW1, which read:
‘I have the honour to send you herewith the Warrant under The King’s Sign Manual granting you the dignity of a Member of the Civil Division of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, and to inform you that the Insignia has been sent to you under separate registered cover.’
She also received a letter from Buckingham Palace signed by King George VI who regretted that he was unable to personally give her the award which she had so well earned.

Madge retired in 1948 at the age of 60, having faithfully served in the Printing Section of the British War Office in a position of responsibility and confidentiality through two world wars and in fact for her entire working life. Gwen eventually retired from her printing position at the age of 72. Gwen, as far as I know, was the ONLY female Monotype Keyboard Operator in South Africa at the time.

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