Page 30 - February 2021 Voices

GLEANINGS FROM THE GROVE

Keep Calm and Carry On

Paul Fanning, DTM

What a joyous day it must have been on the 17th all professionally mounted
of April 1891. All of Walter Hoare’s Post Office and looking quite smart.
mates were congratulating him (and his lovely The first medal was the

wife Emily) on the birth of their child, Margaret British Empire Medal
Emily, the day before in London’s Blackfriars for Meritorious Service,
borough. the second the Defence
No champagne was flowing, of course, as it Medal for World War

was a workday. Little did either of the Hoare’s Two, and the third, the
or anyone else in the Post Office know what was Imperial Service Medal.
in store for little Margaret Emily (let us call her All three showed either the
Maggie). Royal cipher or the head

This was the first of the Hoare’s five children of George VII (who was
living in the glorious Victorian age. While Walt the King-Emperor from
walked his daily route, moving up eventually 1936 through February of
to the coveted sorter position and posting to 1952 when his daughter,

the General Post Office in Fulham, Emily was Elizabeth succeeded him
in charge of the household itself—doing the as Queen Elizabeth II who
laundry, preparing Walt’s daily lunch for his tin still reigns 69 years later).
pail, and having his dinner on the table when he Individually, the medals

came home. are not extraordinary or
It was not the idyllic life of the wealthy (with expensive prizes. As a
their servants doing all the work), but Walt and group, the story of the “man” behind the medals
Emily were proud of their status. He was the makes them exciting. Especially so as they were

Postman and she the mother with five children awarded to a woman who had served in some
smartly dressed and being educated at the local capacity during the Second World War, and
school. But there is more to this story than just because they had been mounted without the
one of the many lower-middle-class families in typical women’s bow ribbon. They were awarded

London or the entire British Isles. to a uniformed recipient, doing her “bit” amidst
I became acquainted with Margaret Emily the air raids, carnage, and constant urging by
(Maggie) Hoare, B.E.M., I.S.M. several years the government to “Keep Calm and Carry On”
ago. I was offered a set of three British medals in spite of all they faced.

30 ONE COMMUNITY