Lay in bed until 10, then a lovely breakfast. Watched people going to church across the road. We miss the sound of Sabbath bells, even if we never heeded them. A Mrs. Walkoff came to lunch, an Englishwoman married to a Russian. She is sister-in-law to the woman who has recently been imprisoned as a spy. Mrs. W.’s husband is apparently a “Red” (so is she), whereas the husband’s brother is a “White” Russian admiral, and his wife favours Germany as an opponent of Bolshevism. The spying was carried out with the assistance of persons at the Belgian and American Embassies.
Mrs. Walkoff lives in Chelsea, where there has been great damage. She admitted that she has no fear of raids, but is in fact rather stimulated by them.
After lunch went over to Stratford to see Ida [Hughes-Stanton], but the children were an awful nuisance so I did not stop. A number of planes flew over as I came into Stratford. Home to Colchester at 6. There was an alarm at 6.45, so I went out to go to the Castle. Planes were going over to the south, and there were many searchlights out. As I went down Military Road, past the almshouses, there were two violent explosions, and great flashes across the sky, which later this evening I heard were two large bombs near Kingsford.
Ida Graves [Hughes-Stanton] was the partner of the artist, Blair Hughes-Stanton. See EJR's diary entry for 31st March 1940 for more information.
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