The Rainbow Years

By Rachel Vivien

"Discover "The Rainbow Years," an engaging and heartwarming memoir of Rachel, an extraordinary woman who has lived through 81 colourful and inspiring years. Follow her journey as she navigates life's challenges, from the struggles of wartime Britain to the vibrant cultures and personal trials she encounters in Africa.

 

Born during World War II to a military father and a devoted mother, Rachel's childhood is a fascinating reflection of life in post-war Britain. Raised by her loving family and supported by her strong faith, Rachel experiences her father's medical training, a life-changing journey to Africa as missionaries in Rwanda, and her education intertwined with her family's mission work. Accompanied by Irene Coleman, a heartbroken friend seeking solace, they face the challenges and joys of their new life together. While attending a small school for missionary children, Rachel contracts polio, an illness that would shape her life, but not define her. Sent back to England for treatment and recovery, Rachel's resilience shines through as she clings to her beloved teddy bear, Monday. Returning to Africa, she attends an English secondary school in Kenya during the tumultuous Mau Mau uprising. Rachel's passion for education takes her to Homerton College, Cambridge, where she trains as a teacher before returning to Kenya as a missionary herself.

 

This captivating memoir combines poignant tales of love, loss, and personal growth with Rachel's inspiring resilience and courage. From her time as a missionary in Africa to her eventual return to England, where she continues to teach and live in Sussex, "The Rainbow Years" is an unforgettable journey through a life well-lived. Don't miss the opportunity to delve into this remarkable story of hope and the power of the human spirit."

• Language: English
• Publisher: R W Publishing
• Release date: May 23, 2023
• ISBN: 9781739424411

Book preview

TRY_BCover.jpg

Published in the UK in 2023 by R W Publishing

Copyright © Rachel Viven 2023

Rachel Viven has asserted her right under

the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988,

to be identified as the author of this work.

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

Paperback ISBN: 978-1-7394244-0-4

eBook ISBN: 978-1-7394244-1-1

Cover design and typeset by SpiffingCovers

Contents

Rachel

Tomatin

All Change

Africa

School Days

Home Leave and Holidays

School Days

Acknowledgements

Once upon a time . . . all good stories start like this. This is the story of a missionary child born in 1941 to Kenneth and Wendy Moynagh.

Rachel

Wendy Martin-Harvey was the youngest of four children – Doris, Gwen, Martin and Wendy. They lived in a big house built by Wendy’s father, Thomas, when he got a promotion. He was clever. He went to work for a firm called British Calendar and Cables. He was 16 and made the tea. Then he had a good idea and got promoted. By the time Wendy was born, he had enough money to live in a house with a tennis court and have a chauffeur called Wallington – well Wallington was the chauffeur when I was born.

Wendy’s mother was a good Christian lady who ran a Sunday school class once a week in her drawing room – it was a posh house so the sitting room was called a drawing room. She was a shy lady so when her husband was asked to be Mayor of London, he refused because he knew his wife, May, my granny, would never manage dressing up and talking to people. All the children went to private schools.

Doris was good at acting. She went to The Royal Academy of Dance and Drama and was called the Tragedy Queen. She was hauled off the stage by her parents before she was called a Loose Woman as that would have been a tragedy! She decided to join a Christian organisation that had camps for girls and off she went with her mother in tow to do the cooking – not quite the same as being the wife of the Mayor of London!

Gwen skipped school as often as she could but when her father realised what was going on, he went to the school gates at the end of the school day to meet Gwen who wasn’t there. He was a wise father so he told his wayward daughter that he had been to meet her after school and was disappointed to have missed her! She didn’t risk it again. When Doris decided she had better have some training in being a good Christian she signed up for a two-year course at Ridgelands Bible College; Gwen thought she had better tow the party line so she signed up too.

Wendy liked school. She played tennis in the school team, kept her head down and worked hard. When she left school she went to London to do a cookery course and learn how to be a good housewife – flower arranging and that sort of thing. Then she met a handsome doctor that Gwen knew and liked a lot. He preferred Wendy – Wendy kept very quiet about that! He was at St Barts hospital and as Wendy wanted to be a physiotherapist, she decided to go there too. They both thought this was a good idea. Then Wendy had cold feet. Did she just want to be a physiotherapist because John was at Barts and what if Gwen found out? Maybe God wanted her at Ridgelands Bible College too? It was certainly a safer bet. Off she went to college, John got forgotten about and Gwen, blissfully unaware of her little sister’s love life, hankered after John until her dying day – yes she really did!

Here is an aside: many years later when Gwen had married Raymond and, in their eighties, they went to South Africa on holiday, they went to church on a Sunday. Who should be playing the organ but John! Gwen was quite bowled over, couldn’t listen to any of the service and whispered to Raymond, The man playing the organ is the John I have loved since I was a teenager! Then Raymond couldn’t listen to the service either. When John had played the last note on the organ Gwen told Raymond he would have to find his own way back to the place where they were staying because she was going back with John in his car and was going to have a private conversation. As always, Raymond did as he was told. Gwen never divulged the private conversation but that was the last time she saw John.

When Wendy finished at Bible College, the war had broken out and so she went to Plymouth to help in a Sailors’ Rest which was a house where troops on leave, with nowhere better to go, had meetings and meals. Gwen went to work in her father’s factory in Slough, looking after the welfare of the women who worked in the factory. Doris worked as a Good Christian doing Good Christian Things.

Kenneth Moynagh was born in Kenya. His father had emigrated as a young man with little prospects of a decent life in England and an entrepreneurial streak. He did well as a trader in whatever was available and bought up a considerable amount of land. He met a pretty Irish nurse who had left Ireland when she felt the call to be a missionary and convert the heathen in Kenya. Kenneth’s father turned out to be the heathen that needed converting! She married him and set about the task. They had four children – Digby, Kenneth, Eileen and Alan. But converting that particular heathen proved too much and she left him and went back to England taking the children with her. He met another lady who had no interest in his soul. They had lots of parties, used up all the money, sold the land for a pittance – needs must – and went to South Africa. His ex-wife managed a nursing home in Epsom, and was as poor as a church mouse but did get grants to send her three sons to Epsom College.

Digby and Alan went to London hospitals to train as doctors; Digby to Barts and Alan to St. Mary’s. Kenneth wanted to do the same and got a place at Barts subject to interview. On the day of the interview, his mother told him there was no money to pay his fees and he was to go and tell them to cancel his place. As he set off he passed the postman. Before he got to the corner of the road his mother called him back. An envelope had arrived with enough money to allow him to go after all. God provides, his mother told him. He went to Barts, played rugby for the hospital and was invited to the Christian Union which changed his life. He had always been to church with his mother but this demanded something far more – a personal commitment to a God who would make demands but not without the strength to meet those demands.

He joined The Sudan Missionary Society which supported him through his training but it folded up after the war so he had to apply to a different mission. He was most of the way through his training when the war broke out and he signed up to join the army as a medical officer. He did not talk about the war. He went to France and was rescued at Dunkirk. He was shipped back to Plymouth and, at a loose end, he went to a Bible Study meeting at the Sailor’s Rest. Wendy was on duty that evening. She made him tea, gave him a hymn book, played the piano for the singing and fluttered her eyelashes at the handsome young man with a ginger moustache.

Love at first sight was convenient in the war as time was at a premium. They got engaged six weeks later and Wendy took Kenneth home to meet her parents and for him to ask her father’s permission to marry his youngest daughter. Her father sized him up and gave them his blessing. Her mother was unsure – his background was unsavoury, his father had been a travelling musician and jack-of-all-trades, but Kenneth had a good profession and was able to provide for Wendy. They were married on February 1st 1941. Her wedding dress was made out of parachute silk. They lived in a cottage in Tiverton, Devon. Wendy had a maid to help with the chores. By the spring she knew for certain she was pregnant and I was born in Exeter Hospital on December 23rd 1941. Gwen jumped on a train and was the first to welcome her niece into the strange new world she would occupy for a very long time.

Me, aged 18 months

Tomatin

Kenneth spent three months with his new daughter and then packed his bags and went to West Africa. Wendy soldiered on for three more months and then dismissed the maid and went back home to the safety of Tomatin and settled down with her parents and Gwen.

My grandparents house called ‘Tomatin’

My grandfather was commuting between London and Slough where there was a large factory making cables for telephone and telegraph systems. Gwen went to work in the factory looking after the interests of the women who worked there. My grandmother battened down the hatches at home – until the war effort demanded that homes should be opened up to evacuees. Gwen left