Army & Navy

Its back to the 1939-40 Army & Navy pricelist that im currently salivating over . Just think anywhere in the Empire you could order England by mail . Everything from a headstone to a maids uniform , groceries of a typically English nature , "tea and anchovy sandwiches anyone ?" cooked of course in Pyrex .
Everything for your wedding from the stationary to the rings and the favours ,your whole house furnished and your china pattern picked out .

 Just think, once upon a time those girls who hadnt found a husband during the London season were packed of to any relative on the other side of the world and told to find a man . I suppose it worked rather well really , the men were to busy doing their bit for the Empire to have the time for much courting and the choice was limited so if you could stand the sight of each other it worked out rather well . Many couples met on board ship . Dont forget that right up to the 50s marriages were quite often an arrangement between the two parties , divorce wasnt an option and you just laid back and thought of England . Being a spinster lady wasnt much of a choice , incomes for females were to low to support them , so it was stay at home and care for your parents or marriage.
My grandad however was one of twelve children and as he so charmingly put it "the two ugly sisters were given to God" so yes I had a pair of Great Aunty nuns , who terrorised us all as children , I rather liked them ,they didnt take any nonsense from anyone and once they retired from the nursing side spent their time on pilgrimage well into their 80s . Pilgrimage was code for church sponsored holidays all over the place. I also remember that if you fed them Guinness they did the bad Irish whining singing , which usually meant my mother driving them to Holyhead and ramming them back on the ferry to Ireland .
But its them i have to thank for my need for all things religious around the house , they used to bring me little coloured pamphlets about the Saints , I quite fancied being a martyr as a child and I quite liked the outfit, so my parents banned me from seeing them. Then the parcels started, theology textbooks and Butlers lives of the saints..lol I think they were trying to recruit me . They might have won the argument but I discovered boys and that was that.