24th December 1942

Thursday

Christmas Eve, a lovely sunny day that might have been March or April.  

A tall, gaunt beggar has been singing in the streets yesterday and today, with long grey hair and flowing beard, dressed in a filthy macintosh, his bundle on his back.  Another beggar I saw today in Military Road had a box tricycle with a gramophone on it.  With this he played carols and sang an accompaniment.  About 3 o’clock a military band marched through the town, playing lively music.  Huge queues waiting to get in the cinemas. 

  

Noticed that Wilson the baker at Scheregate, who bought my uncle Shepherd’s business at St. Mary Magdalen, now has a motor van instead of box-tricycles, and Littlebury’s bakery have a new electric van.

Mrs. Lyon-Campbell sent down various books and papers today, or at least Harding [the Museum Attendant] had to fetch them in a sack, dropping them in the mud on the way down.  Very typical of Poulter that he refuses to spend 2/- on a taxi.  The “Perlustration” is included, and also Ald. Wilson Marriage’s “Colchester Illustrated”, which is a gift to me, and I am delighted to have it.

Cycled out by Harwich Road, the voices of the children singing carols all around in the dusk.