Some Sunny Day

He underlined how important it was that the courage and compassion of nurses like Madge Lambert and memories of Burma Campaign veterans like Basil were put on record before they disappeared into the mists of time. In an extraordinary coincidence it emerged that David went to the same St Andrews Church of England primary school in Bebington on the Wirral peninsula which I had attended many years earlier. His help was reflected by that of William Spencer of the National Archives at Kew, Abigail Cornick, curator of the Museum of the Order of St John, Clerkenwell, London, and Terry Sutton, of the Dover Association. Kashif Ahmed’s advice on cultural nuances of the sub-continent and help with translation was invaluable.

The reality, however, is that without the advice and expertise of my agent, Rebecca Winfield, at David Luxton Associates, it is highly unlikely that this book would ever have appeared. I am deeply in her debt. The guidance of Oliver Holt of the Mail on Sunday was also much appreciated.

To Ingrid Connell and Zennor Compton, who edited the book at Pan Macmillan, your patience and expertise was invaluable from start to finish.

Surprisingly I will, for once, get the final word in with my wife, Gaynor.

Thanks for everything you did to help over the past two years.

— Robert Blair

List of Illustrations

1.   Madge Graves in 1930, aged seven.

2.   Doris, Mum, Doreen and Madge in High Wycombe in 1941.

3.   Madge as a trainee Voluntary Aid Detachment nurse at Stoke Mandeville Hospital, 1941.

4.   Madge with Vera Clark, her fellow VAD.

5.   Madge with Phyl Irvine in 1942.

6.   Ward 11, Stoke Mandeville Hospital, May 1943.

7.   Madge in London, July 1944, as she waited to depart for India.

8.   Arriving in Poona and enjoying a banana.

9.   With the girls at the mess at Poona.

10.   Vera outside a basha ward.

11.   56 Indian General Hospital, view from the mess.

12.   The Lamberts on parade. From left to right: Bill, Buster, Beryl, Basil, Brian and Bob.

13.   Basil at the Officers’ Training Centre in Mhow in 1943.

14.   From left to right: Basil, Jock, Jim and Tom in Chittagong, March 1944.

15.   An entry in Lieutenant Colonel Whittaker’s war diary, mentioning the Japanese woman with a gunshot wound.

16.   Patients and staff at Christmas, 1944.

17.   A beautiful bridesmaid in a dress made from a sari.

18.   On holiday in Calcutta with Basil, April 1945.

19.   Saying goodbye. A picnic on the beach at Patanga, May 1945.

20.   Madge and the girls on the MV Georgic as they began their journey home.

21.   Vera, Phyl and Madge on Regent Street, London, 1947.

22.   Basil came back to the coldest winter of the twentieth century, February 1947.

23.   Madge and Basil on their wedding day, 16 October 1948.

24.   Madge and Basil meeting Dame Vera Lynn on Horse Guards Parade on the 60th anniversary of VE and VJ Day, July 2005.

25.   Madge meeting Prince Harry at Buckingham Palace Garden Party in 2017.

1. Madge Graves in 1930, aged seven.

2. Doris, Mum, Doreen and Madge in High Wycombe in 1941.

3. Madge as a trainee Voluntary Aid Detachment nurse at Stoke Mandeville Hospital, 1941.

4. Madge with Vera Clark, her fellow VAD.

5. Madge with Phyl Irvine in 1942.

6. Ward 11, Stoke Mandeville Hospital, May 1943.

7. Madge in London, July 1944, as she waited to depart for India.

8. Arriving in Poona and enjoying a banana.

9. With the girls at the mess at Poona.

10. Vera outside a basha ward.

11. 56 Indian General Hospital, view from the mess.

12. The Lamberts on parade. From left to right: Bill, Buster, Beryl, Basil, Brian and Bob.

13. Basil at the Officers’ Training Centre in Mhow in 1943.

14. From left to right: Basil, Jock, Jim and Tom in Chittagong, March 1944.

15. An entry in Lieutenant Colonel Whittaker’s war diary, mentioning the Japanese woman with a gunshot wound.

16. Patients and staff at Christmas, 1944.

17. A beautiful bridesmaid in a dress made from a sari.

18. On holiday in Calcutta with Basil, April 1945.

19. Saying goodbye. A picnic on the beach at Patanga, May 1945.

20. Madge and the girls on the MV Georgic as they began their journey home.

21. Vera, Phyl and Madge on Regent Street, London, 1947.

22. Basil came back to the coldest winter of the twentieth century, February 1947.

23. Madge and Basil on their wedding day, 16 October 1948.

24. Madge and Basil meeting Dame Vera Lynn on Horse Guards Parade on the 60th anniversary of VE and VJ Day, July 2005.

25. Madge meeting Prince Harry at Buckingham Palace Garden Party in 2017.

Some Sunny Day

Robert ‘Bob’ Blair is the son of an RAF navigator who flew in the Burma Campaign and a WAAF mother who was stationed at Bletchley Park in the Second World War. He was educated at Wirral and Ellesmere Port Grammar Schools and began his career on weekly papers. He moved to the London Evening Standard before emigrating to Canada, where he worked for the Ottawa Citizen, then on to Hong Kong. After two years with the South China Morning Post Group he returned to London and spent thirty years with Mirror Group Newspapers.

Over the years he has visited more than ninety countries, including India, Myanmar (formerly Burma), Malaysia (Malaya), Singapore, Thailand, Hong Kong, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, China, Taiwan, Borneo, the Philippines and Indonesia.

First published 2018 by Pan Books

This electronic edition published 2018 by Pan Books

an imprint of Pan Macmillan

20 New Wharf Road, London N1 9RR

Associated companies throughout the world

www.panmacmillan.com

ISBN 978-1-5098-5938-2

Copyright © Madge Lambert and Robert Blair 2018

Couple dancing by Leonard McCombe/Picture Post/Getty Images; background image by Planet News Archive/SSPL/Getty Images; back dancing image © BBC; portraits courtesy of the author

The right of Madge Lambert and Robert Blair to be identified as the authors of this work has been asserted by them in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All photographs © Madge and Basil Lambert, except for here,