A Rolling Stone Gathers No Moss

By Mike Hilton

It covers the life starting from the Grandmother who experienced the hardship in the 1920’s of a mother who had to bring up her two children without any financial help so her children her children were subjected to a very hard life. When the girl finally grew up who was then in her teens ran away with a young Jewish man who came from a wealthy Jewish family, but unfortunately could not keep his hands off women consequently she continued to suffered a hard life. Not having the atmosphere of a tight family background her children did not have a bond with their parents. This built a barrier around their hearts so that in the coming years it was difficult for them, especially the Author to have a close relationship with anyone. Not having a father to guide and advise him of the things of life, he was left to his own desires. Having a positive attitude no matter what the situation he was able to handle each situation. His experience of travelling to Australia at the age of seventeen with a group of other young boys and the mischief they caused during the trip, then being taken out into the country life of Australia compared to that of England was quite daunting, This experience lasted a few years before deciding that the country life was not for him. So making his way down to the city of Sydney where he had a slight problem with the police so packing up and returning to England for a period of two years before deciding that England was not for him. While there he fell in love with a student school teacher who promised that she would follow him out to Australia once she had completed her University degree. This did not happen much to the distraught to the author. Spending two more years in Sydney working as an assistant to the manager of a large battery company. He again left and returned to England for another short period before returning to Australia, but this time it was Perth as each time his ship called into Perth he was determined to come and live here one day. Perth was the only Place that the author really felt at home so the following years saw him get married, ventured into several business that not all were successful , so even at the age of seventy eight he still had to earn a living. Which did not bother him as he enjoyed the cut and thrust of life.

• Language: English
• Publisher: ReadOnTime BV
• Release date: Sep 24, 2013
• ISBN: 9781742841861

Mike Hilton

Mike Hilton believes that all individuals have a responsibility to continually work to improve themselves and use their talents to benefit their communities. Mike developed his focus on community at the University of Dayton. He’s a proud husband, father of two and resident of the thriving community of Lexington, KY.

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A ROLLING STONE GATHERS NO MOSS

This book is dedicated to my Mother

Mike Hilton

A Rolling Stone Gathers No Moss

Smashwords Edition

Copyright © 2012 Mike Hilton

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

The information, views, opinions and visuals expressed in this publication are solely those of the author(s) and do not reflect those of the publisher. The publisher disclaims any liabilities or responsibilities whatsoever for any damages, libel or liabilities arising directly or indirectly from the contents of this publication.

Any resemblance to persons living or dead is entirely coincidental.

A copy of this publication can be found in the National Library of Australia.

ISBN:  978-1-742841-86-1 (pbk.)

Published by Book Pal

www.bookpal.com.au

Contents

Chapter 1

Dawning of a Foundation of Life

Chapter 2

Goodbye to England

Chapter 3

We come to the Great South Land

Chapter 4

Moving to the City

Chapter 5

Return to England

Chapter 6

Australia Lures Him Back

Chapter 7

A Reluctant Return to England

Chapter 8

Australia Demands his Return

Chapter 9

Life in Western Australia

Chapter 10

Experiencing the Pressures of Business

Chapter 11

A New Enterprise

Chapter 12

Life in Real Estate

Chapter 13

Glass Can be Dangerous

Acknowledgements

Chapter 1

Dawning of a Foundation of Life

For those fortunate enough to enjoy a middle class life, in the late twenties and early thirties in England, could not have lived in a more idyllic period in the history of Great Britain. The sun never set on the greatest empire in the history of the world. England was at its height of glory, for those living there it was as though one lived in a constant atmosphere of warm sunshine, life could not be more perfect for people who financially had no problems, compared to thousands who were experiencing the rigours of the 1930s depression.

In the mid-1920s, Phyllis Austin lived with her mother and a brother, Jack, in a small timber two-storey home consisting of a block of six cottages. The only way of entering the houses, other than the front door, was to walk through a tunnel that separated one house from the other. Once at the end of the tunnel there were two gates, one on the left and the other on the right, which lead to the backyard of each cottage. The backyard consisted of a small paved area surrounded by high brick walls that gave access to the coal shed, toilet and of course the back door that was the most frequently used. Hanging on one of the walls in the backyard was a large metal bathtub that was taken down once a week and taken into the kitchen where it was filled with hot water for weekly baths, as there was not a bathroom in the cottage. These cottages were located on the edge of Epsom Common and are now on the Protected Building Heritage list. Next to the cottages stood a large garage that housed the trucks of Reeves, a local transport company. When I say Reeves Transport Company, I mean it consisted of several small trucks; a five-tonner would have been the largest. On the other side of the cottages was a brick building accommodating the local laundry, the rest of the area was the Epsom Common.

Granny Austin, as her grandchildren knew her, had four children. First were two boys, Tom and Harry, while she was married to a young electrician who, unfortunately, was electrocuted and died. Having to fend for herself and two boys, she fell into a relationship with a man named Austin. Her two boys did not want their mum to marry this man as they felt that he was not reliable; however, she did not heed their concern so the relationship continued and consequently two more children were born out of wedlock, a boy named Jack and a girl who was named Phyllis. This relationship did not last, so again she was left to rear the four children on her own. In those days there was no support from the government for single mothers who consequently found life extremely hard. By this time, the two eldest boys left home and Granny Austin had to find work to feed and clothe her two remaining children.

As she could not afford to pay anyone to look after the two children while she was at work, there was no option but to lock them in a room with food and water until she returned that evening. This continued until the two children were old enough to go to school, a great relief to their mother.

By now, Phyllis was developing into a beautiful young girl who drew the attention of her headmaster.  Realising that she came from a family experiencing hard times he delved into the history of her family. On finding out the plight in which her family was living and as he and his wife could not have children, the headmaster offered to adopt Phyllis but Mrs. Austin would have none of it; however, she did agree that Phyllis could live with them. Phyllis begged her mother not to do this but as her mother could not afford to feed and clothe her two children, she had no option but to let her daughter go.

As far as Phyllis was concerned it was a complete disaster, going from one extreme situation to another, as life with the headmaster and his wife was like being in prison. She literally became a servant. To earn her keep Phyllis had to get up at 6:00 a.m. every morning and scrub the kitchen and pantry stone floors, clean out the wood-fired grate and prepare it for the coming night’s fire, all this before going to school. Her work was so hard that the skin on her hands was often red and raw due to the fact her hands were continuously in buckets mixed with water and carbolic soap.

This life continued right up until her teens. The headmaster’s family, being an old strict church-going family, was extremely hard on Phyllis, to the extent that she could not speak or associate with boys. It was inconceivable that this continued into her late teens. Even then, one day the headmaster caught her talking to her cousin, he promptly sent her home and made her stand in a corner for two hours.

After leaving school Phyllis embarked on a childminding course and finally became a nanny and started work looking after children of professional families.

It was during this time that Harry Segal, a tyre salesman with the Michelin Tyre Company, happened to see Phyllis Austin while riding on a bus along Epsom High Street, a country town in the outer Southern suburbs of London. Now Harry was of medium build and slightly balding even at so young an age, but his charm with women was extraordinary. His personality could charm birds out of trees, which attracted women to him. He was immediately smitten by Phyllis’s beauty, approaching her he cheekily introduced himself, but being completely ignored he persisted in his effort to gain her attention. Finally, she succumbed to his charm and so the relationship began.

Becoming infatuated with Harry and to the astonishment of the headmaster and his wife, Phyllis suddenly left them and ran away to London with Harry.

Harry Segal had quite a history. Although coming from a wealthy Jewish family, the Mitzman’s who originated from Poland, he had, even in his teens, a philanderers’ background.

His family disowned him when they found out that he was now living with a woman who, to their dismay, was a Gentile and to compound the situation he had made her pregnant! He had a history of philandering. Sometime before he became involved with Phyllis he met a beautiful Jewish girl whom the family accepted; however, not long after the relationship blossomed the girl became pregnant and gave birth to twins. To the shock and horror of both families, Harry did a runner and disappeared. In 1933, he impregnated the daughter (Rula) of a well-known British boxer and as soon as the boxer found out, he gave Harry the option of marrying his daughter or having the daylights punched out of him! Discretion being the better part of valour, he agreed to marry the girl.

A small wedding took place much to the relief of the girl’s father, but Harry’s family were rather ashamed that their son had seduced the girl before marriage and she was now pregnant. Unfortunately, the marriage did not last long and Harry left this young girl with two baby girls.

Some years later Rula met another man and wanted to marry him, so she made enquiries about divorcing Harry Mitzman, but as she had not seen or heard from him for eight years and no trace could be found, she got the wedding annulled on the understanding that he was assumed dead. She wasn’t able to find Harry because he had his name changed to Victor Segal in 1934.

When the news came out that he was now living with Phyllis, a Gentile woman who was pregnant, it was the last straw. He was banished from the Mitzman family, so he adopted his mother’s maiden name Segal. He had two sisters; the younger one, named Mabel, later became an opera singer under the name of Bentina Barry, but her career was short-lived after moving to Italy and singing minor roles in opera’s before World War II. She could have become one of the world’s leading opera singers as her voice blended in magnificently with the works of the many operas, but her arrogance cut her career short as the profession would not tolerate her behaviour so her career faded away and she died from cancer at the age of forty-six. Her elder sister, Dorothy, lead a mundane life, little was known about her other than she lived in South Africa for a while before returning to England in the early thirties.

Even after Victor married Phyllis, and at this time, he was still married to Rula, he had several affairs. During the war, while serving teas to the troops at Birmingham Station, a woman approached Phyllis and asked if she was Victor Segal’s wife? Confirming that she was, the woman became rather aggressive and shouted out that Victor had made her daughter pregnant!!

Not long after this, Phyllis and Victor did a moonlight flight to London and she became pregnant. Phyllis was rather embarrassed over Victor’s surname; being a Gentile, she could not accept the Jewish name Segal especially now that she was pregnant, so she convinced him that he should change it. After suggesting several names neither of them would agree on, several weeks later while at the pictures, the main male character in the film was named Mike Hilton. Both were keen on this surname so they decided that Victor should change his surname from Segal to Hilton. A few months later Phyllis gave birth to a baby girl, who was christened Mary Yvonne Hilton. However, her Auntie Dolly, Victor’s sister who saw the baby not long after it was born said Oh what a bundle of Joy, so from that time on the baby was called Joy.

A few months after Joy was born Victor could not help himself and did a runner, leaving Phyllis virtually destitute, so much so that she had to put her twelve-month-old baby Joy in a workhouse while she tried to find a job. After Victor left Phyllis with their daughter Joy who was twelve-months-old, Phyllis wrote this poem on the back of a photo showing herself and Joy.

Goodbye to the one who deceived me

Goodbye to the one I still love

Goodbye to the one who will need me

And so farewell to love

The effect on this twelve-month-old child was devastating as she developed whooping cough while in the workhouse and was neglected by the staff. This had serious consequences on the emotions of Joy’s life for many years and having a close loving relationship with anyone became very difficult.

Sometime later Victor returned and managed to convince Phyllis to let him make it up to her, as funnily enough, he really loved her. Phyllis was in no condition to refuse him so they got back together with the result that she fell pregnant again and when the baby was about to be born Phyllis had to be rushed to hospital. While there, Victor managed to entice a young virgin back to their house where he seduced her on Phyllis’s bed!

A few days later Phyllis gave birth to a baby boy who was Christened Michael Phillip Hilton after the name of the character they saw in the pictures.

Phyllis’s brother Jack never married, which was a pity because he was such a lovely man, but owing to him being born a bastard he was too ashamed to let the girls he fell in love with know where he came from. In the several relationships he had, the girls fell madly in love with him and were completely dumbfounded when he broke the association prior to getting married. Consequently, he lived all his life with his mother in the Isobel Cottages on Epsom Common and to the Hilton children they were known as Granny Austin and Uncle Jack. As the children grew up it became quite confusing as all their friends had a granny and a grandfather, this again could have had a slight detrimental effect on the minds of these grandchildren.

Apart from his personal philandering ways, Victor had a positive and determined personality, so it was not long before Victor had established a very successful laundry business. He moved to a lovely country home called Heath and Reach located near Leighton Buzzard in Southern England. Life could not have been more perfect, money was no object, there were horses in the stables and the garage housed several large cars. The two children could not have wished for a more wonderful life, riding ponies and being spoilt with plenty of toys. Michael was given a Hornsby train set, but because he was too young to play with it, Victor and his friends used to unpack it and play with it after the children had gone to bed.

As Sir Winston Churchill so aptly put it, the gathering storm of the Second World War was ominously looming over the horizon. The then Prime Minister Anthony Eden came joyously back from his historic visit to Germany waving the Hitler signed peace treaty, as he stepped down from the aircraft smiling and saying peace in our time. What a deluded man.

Having sold Heath and Reach, the family moved to a house named Blemon Gardens in the suburb of Ealing London. By now Joy was five, and Mike was four, and again Phyllis was pregnant and gave birth to a second son who was Christened, David Christopher Hilton.

The storm had broken, war had been declared and London endured the most horrific bombing one could imagine. The Blitz as it was so called. It was so frightening that Victor would not stay in the house at night or the air raid shelter, he became an air raid warden whose job it was to walk the streets at night helping bombed victims or ensuring if lights could be seen from any window. It was common to hear a voice shout out.

Hoy, switch that light off!

His most frightening night was when he had to run over to the local cafe where during some evenings he would spend time drinking coffee with his friends after work. On this occasion, the cafe had been hit with an oil bomb. On arriving at the scene, the cafe was gone and was just a huge hole in the ground belching out horrific flames. Laying in and around the rubble were some of his friends. You could only tell that they had been human beings because of their skeleton-like bodies with their flesh burnt black and hanging off their bodies. The grotesque position of their arms and legs indicated the agony they had suffered before succumbing to their death while covered in boiling oil! Victor was never the same after seeing such an unbelievable sight.

A few nights later, another air raid saw a house that a friend of Joy’s lived in had blown the child to smithereens, the next morning the firemen found that the blast was so great it had blown a kitten into the little girl’s stomach, which would have caused a horrendous agonising death.

By now both Joy and Mike were both attending primary school each morning after spending the night in an Anderson air raid shelter dug deep into the back garden. This shelter consisted of a concrete base and walls and a curved roof of corrugated steel sheets and then heavily covered in soil. Each night they climbed down into this shelter and slept on makeshift beds on the concrete floor. Filling the night was the monotonous hum of the German Luftwaffe bombers hovering overhead and the whistling sound of the bombs as they hurled themselves towards the suburbs of London. As the bombs met their targets huge explosions could be heard that were so forceful they shook the apples off the tree that hung over the shelter. Then the screaming engines of the spitfires zoomed overhead as they circled around and attacked the German bombers firing their machine guns and eventually shooting the bombers down. The empty shells from both the bombers and the spitfires fell like rain over the shelter and the roofs of the houses. Can you imagine the fear that struck these and other children, waiting for the moment when the next bomb would land on their home and blow them to smithereens! Or worst still, if it was an oil bomb you would suffer a horrendous death of being boiled alive in oil! The fear in these children’s minds would be embedded in their memories forever!!

The next morning as these two children walked to school the surrounding scenery had changed, as they passed the rows of houses only to see smouldering heaps of rubble where only the day before there stood a family’s home. It was strange to see the remaining parts of a bathroom or lounge with their bright colours hanging perilously over the edge that once was part of the home. Then on arrival at school you would go into a classroom and notice that one or two of your friends were missing, empty desks were a monument to the friends you had lost. Sitting there, you wondered if your desk might be among the empty ones the next morning. As the war progressed each morning there would be more empty desks, the anxiety of not knowing what happened to your friends, not knowing whether you would see them again had a lifelong effect on those that survived the horrendous bombing during the earlier years of the war.

One morning, after walking down the littered street towards the school, which was in a cull-de-sac located across the road at the end, Mike was reminded that it was like looking at someone’s mouth. There would be a row of teeth, then suddenly a gap as though a tooth had been pulled out, and so it was with the houses. The street would have row after row of the same type of two-storey houses with all the woodwork and bricks painted the same colour, then suddenly there was a gap where a house had been the day before but was unlucky enough to suffer a direct hit during that night’s air raid. Was anyone at home when that bomb struck? No one would ever know as they would have been blown to pieces!! On arriving at the school gate there were a group of people and several policemen standing outside the main gate. What was the problem? A time bomb had landed on the playground, so until it was defused we had to go home.

Victor Hilton was one of the families in those days who could afford a car. One day, as he was driving Joy and Mike to school, the police waved the car down and told him that the government had just passed legislation giving the police and/or armed services the authority to commandeer private vehicles for emergency situations. At that time, they had to require a car to take a family who had just lost their home due to bombing and had to be at the station. They would deliver the car back as soon as they had deposited the family at the station. Even after strong objection, Victor had no option but to hand over the car. We all had to get out, in the boot were some toys and personal effects, but there was no time to take them out. So off the car went driven by a policeman. The car was returned some hours later still in good condition, however, the boot was empty! Someone had taken the opportunity of helping themselves to the property of someone who was better off than they were.

As the war progressed, the might of the German army had reached the beaches of France on the English Channel, and was preparing to invade England. You could stand on the coast of either England or France and on a clear day see each other’s coastline; it only took a few hours to cross the English Channel. The British had steeled themselves for the ultimate invasion!! The might of the German army stood ready, poised to invade the greatest empire that the world had known. The British people were stunned. The country had not been subject to such an invasion since the hoards of Vikings or the Roman Empire and William the Conqueror. It was a grim time for England, but the man that rallied this great Empire and renewed the defiance in the heart of the people was the only man of that time who had the guts and determination to say that as long as he lived no German would set foot on English soil. No German would take the crown of the King of England. It was as if fate had engineered this great man, Sir Winston Churchill, who endeared himself to the British people renewing their spirit with speeches such as We shall fight them on the beaches, we shall fight them in the towns and country lanes, and we shall never surrender. Had any other politician of that time been the Prime Minister, the history of the world might not be as we know it!!

While these great events were materialising it was common knowledge, as news seeped through to the English people, of what the Germans were doing to the Jews in Europe. As Victor’s two children were half-Jewish, the thought of what could happen to them should the Germans be successful in invading England was disturbing, so he sought a way to get his two children out of the country. In his determination in searching the possibilities, he discovered that a ship carrying wounded Canadian soldiers and a few nurses and a number of children was set to sail from Liverpool. With his persuasive charm, he managed to get two berths aboard the SS City of Benares. It meant that Victor and Phyllis may never see their two lovely children again. The anguish of letting them go by themselves to an unknown destination was devastating to say the least, but it was better to know that their two loved ones were still alive and safe than be put to a torturous death in the hands of the Germans should they ever be successful in invading England. However, a day before the ship was due to sail Joy had a bad case of Whooping Cough and could not go because it was an infectious disease. The doctor said, I am sorry but I cannot sign clearance for your daughter as she could infect the whole ship, now what about this young man, has he got any symptoms?

Victor’s anxious reply was, No, no he is okay, but the doctor said that he might have delayed illness so he can’t go either!

Both parents were devastated yet in some way relieved that they would not lose their children, but what would become of their children should the Germans be successful in invading England.

Now we have to introduce God into the life of this young man. All his life in the years to come, the hand of God would be on his shoulder. Although he knew that in his heart there was some strange feeling, he did not recognise it for many years that he would be blessed by God.

Not long after that ship sailed, it was torpedoed by a German submarine and only a handful of nurses and soldiers and only one boy survived that horrific incident. Ninety-nine children lost their lives as they went down with the ship!

In the meantime, the British government had decided that all children living in London of twelve years and younger, owing to the horrendous number of children being killed by the Blitz, should be evacuated out of London and into safer areas in the country. As Joy and Mike were in this age group, their parents were given notice to pack a small suitcase each with their clothes along with a little brown box that contained their gas mask and they were to be taken to the railway station as soon as possible. And so began a period from 1941 to 1944.

On that memorable day, one of the saddest in the lives of these two, as well as many more children, as they waved goodbye to their parents as the train moved slowly out of the station.

At this point, you have to realise what was going through the minds of children of this age group. From a life that was peaceful and full of fun that changed dramatically almost overnight. All of a sudden, the children had been taken from their comfortable beds and having to sleep in air raid shelters, or in underground railway stations. All the while listening to the dreaded noise of these big black frightening things flying in the air over their homes and dropping these things that exploded on houses and buildings that were there one minute, but with a frightening tremendous explosion that shook the whole area, were gone the next just leaving a pile of broken bricks and rubble. It was a shock to hear men, women and children screaming. They would run aimlessly around, looking at the gaping hole that was once their home, or seeing their loved ones lying dead partly covered in rubble. Their grotesque bodies and faces were distorted covered in dust soaked blood. The children would hear the frantic ringing of alarm bells as fire engines screamed towards the buildings that were belching fire and smoke from great holes in the ground. It was a surprise to see familiar buildings that you as a child walked past each day and now it was just an empty space, how could a young child comprehend all this by seeing and hearing such devastating dramatic pictures opening before their eyes!

Then having to leave your parents, waving goodbye at a train station, why are we leaving? Where are mummy and daddy going, where are we going? Holding his sister’s hand tightly, they, along with a group of other children, were ushered onto the train. Not knowing anyone, not knowing any of the other children gave an atmosphere that was quite frightening as each child sat in their seats just staring straight ahead as if traumatised by this sudden change in their young lives. A little time into the journey the atmosphere slowly melted as children began to talk and laugh with one another. Finally, the train pulled into the station of the Port of Penzance, one of the most western cities on the Cornish coast. From the train a coach took this group of bewildered children to a makeshift office block in the town centre. As it was getting late, it was decided that the children were to spend the night in the office, so makeshift arrangements were organised. Each child was given a Pallyas (a hessian sack full of straw) to