The advertising sales had started slowly in the New Year. Neville still had his regular customers providing repeat business but new sales were proving very difficult, and this year’s quota was higher than the previous year. His working hours were getting longer and finding time to continue his Business Studies course was proving to be difficult. He had now moved into his own house, which meant he had more time on his own to study but also the thoughts of Albert filled this period of solitude. How much of what he told Neville had been a figment of his imagination? Had he invented members of his family just like a small child's imaginary friends? What facts did Neville have to corroborate his story? Albert had related the details of the meeting, between Albert and Ann and the subsequent meeting with her husband; however, there was no one else present. How much of what Albert had told them about these meetings could they believe? Albert’s story had started with the wartime incident in France and this is where Neville's investigations had to start. He made plans to visit the archives in the Barnshead library, however, if he found nothing did this mean the events never happened or were simply not reported?
It was not a good time to be taking vacation but Neville persuaded his boss that he needed a days’ holiday and that he would work on a Sunday to make up the lost time. Many of his retail clients were available on Sundays so it could still be a productive day. Neville was not sure how long the research of the archives would take and therefore he planned for a two-day visit to Barnshead with an overnight stay in a hotel recommended by Mark Coleman. The two hour drive on a Friday morning included some typical English villages and countryside and would have been a pleasant journey at other times of the year but the days were still dark and damp with leafless sad looking trees lining the route. He headed towards the town centre, intending to ask someone the way to the library but noticed a sign pointing the direction and was able to find it with ease. He parked close by and after a short walk he stood in front of a two storey red brick building with a short flight of stone steps to the entrance door. A wooden floored corridor, with offices on either side, lead to an open area filled with shelves of well-thumbed books. A young lady sat at a desk that was covered with a layer of books except for a small space for a sheet of paper on which she was writing. After writing, what looked like some sort of code, she moved one of the books to a wheeled trolley at the side of the desk. Neville initially saw her as a young woman but closer inspection suggested she was little more than a girl, probably late teens and wearing modern clothes that looked at odds with the character of this museum of learning. She finally realized Neville was standing there and after apologizing for not noticing him earlier asked if she could help him. Neville explained what he was looking for and she told him the reference and archive sections were on the next floor and if he could wait for a few minutes, she would take him there and explain how the filing systems worked. She escorted him upstairs to a room similar in size and shape to the one on the ground floor. The room contained shelves lined with an equal number of books but of uniform size and colour compared to those downstairs. A separate, smaller room contained the newspaper archives. Looking around the room, there appeared to be very few filing cabinets, and Neville wondered how comprehensive the archive could be. The young girl noticed his puzzlement and explained that the library had copied most of the papers to microfiche. She pointed to the viewer on a desk in the corner and explained it had greatly reduced the storage space required; assuring him it would also make the research much easier.
The microfiche were housed in the drawers of grey metal filing cabinets, each fiche held in an envelope just large enough to allow the top edge, and title of the fiche, to be visible without removing it from the envelope. The cabinets contained an archive of national and local newspapers dating back to the 19th century together with copies of bulletins published by the parish council and churches. Neville thought is unlikely this wartime local news would have warranted national coverage so he asked where he could find the local publications. There was a file for each newspaper, sorted by the date of issue. There were three local papers being produced in 1944, the Herald, Chronicle and The Post. He was not sure of the date he was looking for only that it was after D-Day and therefore sometime after early June. The file for the Herald seemed to be the smallest so he decided to start with that paper. The librarian, whose name was Marie Giroux, showed him how to operate the microfiche viewer by placing the fiche into a flat holder that slid from front to back and side to side, the resulting image displayed on a screen. The top left corner of the fiche showed the front page of the newspaper and moving the holder sideways and then down showed the subsequent pages. The Herald, produced every Friday, did not appear to include many pages. The topics rather than being local were reproductions of what one would have expected to see in the national newspapers, the only local items appeared to be adverts for local businesses. As this was Neville's subject, he found himself studying the adverts until he reminded himself what he was actually looking for and this was wasting his time. If this was the type of material, he was going to find in these newspapers, he was not very hopeful of discovering anything of interest. He decided to try one of the other publications.
The file for the Chronicle, published on Wednesdays and Saturdays, was slightly thicker. The Saturday issue must have been a weighty tome, as it sometimes required more than one microfiche to show all the pages. The front-page headlines gave details of the latest events in the war, Allies Advance, Germans Pushed Back, Allies on the outskirts of Paris, Allied Troops land in the Low Countries, etc... The rest of the paper gave details of local news that looked very similar to what you would expect today. There were accounts of local accidents or fires that required the call out of the fire brigade, announcements of births, obituaries of love ones, marriages, and some wedding reports included pictures with the men normally in uniform. Neville decided he must be very thorough and methodical in his search through these papers. What he was looking for, if it existed at all, probably only warranted a few words at the bottom of one of the inner pages and he could easily miss it if he simply skimmed through the print. This was going to take some time; he took off his jacket and decided to get himself as comfortable as he could.
“I’m just about to make a cup of coffee would you like one?”
Neville looked up from the screen; Marie stood next to him.
“I would love a cup, thank you very much,” he replied as he stretched his shoulders back to relieve the stiffness that had developed whilst sat relatively motionless studying the images on the screen.
Marie was dressed in a light purple long sleeved t-shirt with a wide black belt on the outside of the shirt that hung loosely around her waist. The shirt reached down to a black mini skirt that most people would not see as she sat behind the desk at the library reception. Her wavy auburn hair was short on top and the sides, longer at the back. Her face was oval shaped with high cheekbones emphasising a welcoming smile. She wore very little makeup. Neville wondered what colour her lips and eyeliner would be when she was not at work and out socialising with her friends.
He looked at his watch; he had been there three hours with no sign of what he was looking for. However, he had read reports of the sad deaths of local servicemen and therefore was encouraged that he might find some mention of these three friends.
Marie sat next to him for a few minutes while he continued his search and drank his coffee. She finished the drink and picking up the empty cup wished him luck with his research. She reminded him that the library closed at 5 o'clock but would be open again on the Saturday morning at 10:00 if he needed to return.
Marie returned already wearing her coat and was clearly anxious to lock up."It's gone 5 o'clock, I will really have to ask you to leave," Marie said to Neville who sat in front of the viewer.
"I think I've found what I was looking for," remarked Neville, "It's in The Post, at the bottom of the second page, there is even a photograph."
Marie looked over his shoulder and could see a headline of "Three Local Men Reported Missing", together with a picture of a bride and groom. She could not read the rest of the article from where she was standing and asked,
"Why is there a picture of a wedding?"
"One of the men was recently married. He had leave from the army just before he went overseas and married a local girl, and it seems they were only together for 48 hours. Most of the story is about this rather than the death of three men. Maybe the reporting was restricted and they couldn't print anymore about what happened."
"Does it give the name of the bride?" Marie asked.
"Just a minute," Neville re-read the article, "Yes, her name was Jane Wheatley before she became Mrs Richards."
"I think I know that woman," exclaimed Marie, "she is a teacher at the local comprehensive school; she was my O'Level English teacher about five years ago".
"But this picture is over thirty years old, how can you be so sure?"
"Well firstly the name, we all knew her as Miss Wheatley, I didn't know she had ever been married, but she once showed us an old school picture and she pointed out which one was her. She went to some sort of special all girls’ school, somewhere near here and she showed us the picture, it was part of a project we were doing at the time, I don't remember exactly what it was about, but I certainly remember the photograph. She really hasn't changed all that much over the years. Everybody really enjoyed her lessons, a lovely woman."
"Does she still live round here?"
"Yes she still teaches at the school, she lives just over there," pointing in a general direction at one of the windows. It's a street off the High Street heading out of town. I don't know the number, but you can't miss the house, it stands further back from the street than the rest and has a long front garden. The garden's so big she has a gardener, she's the only person I know has a gardener."
Neville knew a gardener, his name was Albert, this woman, Jane Wheatley, must have known Albert, she married one of his friends.
It was not a good time to be taking vacation but Neville persuaded his boss that he needed a days’ holiday and that he would work on a Sunday to make up the lost time. Many of his retail clients were available on Sundays so it could still be a productive day. Neville was not sure how long the research of the archives would take and therefore he planned for a two-day visit to Barnshead with an overnight stay in a hotel recommended by Mark Coleman. The two hour drive on a Friday morning included some typical English villages and countryside and would have been a pleasant journey at other times of the year but the days were still dark and damp with leafless sad looking trees lining the route. He headed towards the town centre, intending to ask someone the way to the library but noticed a sign pointing the direction and was able to find it with ease. He parked close by and after a short walk he stood in front of a two storey red brick building with a short flight of stone steps to the entrance door. A wooden floored corridor, with offices on either side, lead to an open area filled with shelves of well-thumbed books. A young lady sat at a desk that was covered with a layer of books except for a small space for a sheet of paper on which she was writing. After writing, what looked like some sort of code, she moved one of the books to a wheeled trolley at the side of the desk. Neville initially saw her as a young woman but closer inspection suggested she was little more than a girl, probably late teens and wearing modern clothes that looked at odds with the character of this museum of learning. She finally realized Neville was standing there and after apologizing for not noticing him earlier asked if she could help him. Neville explained what he was looking for and she told him the reference and archive sections were on the next floor and if he could wait for a few minutes, she would take him there and explain how the filing systems worked. She escorted him upstairs to a room similar in size and shape to the one on the ground floor. The room contained shelves lined with an equal number of books but of uniform size and colour compared to those downstairs. A separate, smaller room contained the newspaper archives. Looking around the room, there appeared to be very few filing cabinets, and Neville wondered how comprehensive the archive could be. The young girl noticed his puzzlement and explained that the library had copied most of the papers to microfiche. She pointed to the viewer on a desk in the corner and explained it had greatly reduced the storage space required; assuring him it would also make the research much easier.
The microfiche were housed in the drawers of grey metal filing cabinets, each fiche held in an envelope just large enough to allow the top edge, and title of the fiche, to be visible without removing it from the envelope. The cabinets contained an archive of national and local newspapers dating back to the 19th century together with copies of bulletins published by the parish council and churches. Neville thought is unlikely this wartime local news would have warranted national coverage so he asked where he could find the local publications. There was a file for each newspaper, sorted by the date of issue. There were three local papers being produced in 1944, the Herald, Chronicle and The Post. He was not sure of the date he was looking for only that it was after D-Day and therefore sometime after early June. The file for the Herald seemed to be the smallest so he decided to start with that paper. The librarian, whose name was Marie Giroux, showed him how to operate the microfiche viewer by placing the fiche into a flat holder that slid from front to back and side to side, the resulting image displayed on a screen. The top left corner of the fiche showed the front page of the newspaper and moving the holder sideways and then down showed the subsequent pages. The Herald, produced every Friday, did not appear to include many pages. The topics rather than being local were reproductions of what one would have expected to see in the national newspapers, the only local items appeared to be adverts for local businesses. As this was Neville's subject, he found himself studying the adverts until he reminded himself what he was actually looking for and this was wasting his time. If this was the type of material, he was going to find in these newspapers, he was not very hopeful of discovering anything of interest. He decided to try one of the other publications.
The file for the Chronicle, published on Wednesdays and Saturdays, was slightly thicker. The Saturday issue must have been a weighty tome, as it sometimes required more than one microfiche to show all the pages. The front-page headlines gave details of the latest events in the war, Allies Advance, Germans Pushed Back, Allies on the outskirts of Paris, Allied Troops land in the Low Countries, etc... The rest of the paper gave details of local news that looked very similar to what you would expect today. There were accounts of local accidents or fires that required the call out of the fire brigade, announcements of births, obituaries of love ones, marriages, and some wedding reports included pictures with the men normally in uniform. Neville decided he must be very thorough and methodical in his search through these papers. What he was looking for, if it existed at all, probably only warranted a few words at the bottom of one of the inner pages and he could easily miss it if he simply skimmed through the print. This was going to take some time; he took off his jacket and decided to get himself as comfortable as he could.
“I’m just about to make a cup of coffee would you like one?”
Neville looked up from the screen; Marie stood next to him.
“I would love a cup, thank you very much,” he replied as he stretched his shoulders back to relieve the stiffness that had developed whilst sat relatively motionless studying the images on the screen.
Marie was dressed in a light purple long sleeved t-shirt with a wide black belt on the outside of the shirt that hung loosely around her waist. The shirt reached down to a black mini skirt that most people would not see as she sat behind the desk at the library reception. Her wavy auburn hair was short on top and the sides, longer at the back. Her face was oval shaped with high cheekbones emphasising a welcoming smile. She wore very little makeup. Neville wondered what colour her lips and eyeliner would be when she was not at work and out socialising with her friends.
He looked at his watch; he had been there three hours with no sign of what he was looking for. However, he had read reports of the sad deaths of local servicemen and therefore was encouraged that he might find some mention of these three friends.
Marie sat next to him for a few minutes while he continued his search and drank his coffee. She finished the drink and picking up the empty cup wished him luck with his research. She reminded him that the library closed at 5 o'clock but would be open again on the Saturday morning at 10:00 if he needed to return.
Marie returned already wearing her coat and was clearly anxious to lock up."It's gone 5 o'clock, I will really have to ask you to leave," Marie said to Neville who sat in front of the viewer.
"I think I've found what I was looking for," remarked Neville, "It's in The Post, at the bottom of the second page, there is even a photograph."
Marie looked over his shoulder and could see a headline of "Three Local Men Reported Missing", together with a picture of a bride and groom. She could not read the rest of the article from where she was standing and asked,
"Why is there a picture of a wedding?"
"One of the men was recently married. He had leave from the army just before he went overseas and married a local girl, and it seems they were only together for 48 hours. Most of the story is about this rather than the death of three men. Maybe the reporting was restricted and they couldn't print anymore about what happened."
"Does it give the name of the bride?" Marie asked.
"Just a minute," Neville re-read the article, "Yes, her name was Jane Wheatley before she became Mrs Richards."
"I think I know that woman," exclaimed Marie, "she is a teacher at the local comprehensive school; she was my O'Level English teacher about five years ago".
"But this picture is over thirty years old, how can you be so sure?"
"Well firstly the name, we all knew her as Miss Wheatley, I didn't know she had ever been married, but she once showed us an old school picture and she pointed out which one was her. She went to some sort of special all girls’ school, somewhere near here and she showed us the picture, it was part of a project we were doing at the time, I don't remember exactly what it was about, but I certainly remember the photograph. She really hasn't changed all that much over the years. Everybody really enjoyed her lessons, a lovely woman."
"Does she still live round here?"
"Yes she still teaches at the school, she lives just over there," pointing in a general direction at one of the windows. It's a street off the High Street heading out of town. I don't know the number, but you can't miss the house, it stands further back from the street than the rest and has a long front garden. The garden's so big she has a gardener, she's the only person I know has a gardener."
Neville knew a gardener, his name was Albert, this woman, Jane Wheatley, must have known Albert, she married one of his friends.