WARWORK by Alison Falconer

Alison Falconer studied the mathematical tripos at Newnham College, University of Cambridge, during World War II. She wrote an article WARWORK for a book A Newnham anthology first published in 1979. The article was written under her married name of Alison Catherine Dillon. The version we have used is from the 2010 edition: A C Dillon, WARWORK, in A Phillips (ed.), A Newnham anthology (Cambridge University Press, 2010), 201-203. We give an extract below.

WARWORK by Alison Falconer.

I had a buttercup yellow blanket made into a stylish siren suit with pockets for identity card, torch, etc. If not on duty, we slept during air-raid warnings on the passage floor of Fawcett, crowded together. I recall awakening at 6 am utterly alone! The Warning had been followed by the All Clear, but even jostling and the hard floor did not wake me from sound sleep. I had lectures in the Arts School and in Trinity College; the hectic bicycling was refreshing and aided concentration.

After lunch we did some war work: I discovered one could think about Uniform Convergence while washing 400 spoons, or while fixing coloured rags onto camouflage netting. But as we raced pulling up onions, concentration on simple properties of Quadrics was all that would fit well!

When we did roof drill to be ready for incendiary bombs, I did no Maths at all in case I got involved in experimental projectiles. Lunch had been inadequate - I discovered the exact time interval between a better-than-average meal and the consequent brain surge was fourteen hours, and I used this discovery to eat my 'food-on-points' the exact time before any particularly challenging work. Lunch in Hall in the war was always inadequate, and as the afternoon continued I was always hungry: I would stop studying in my room, and go to study in the Library or the University Library, where the books were very engrossing.

Supper was always very enjoyable - groups of friends would include people from many faculties and conversation was lively. One day at supper we had rolls and anyone who got a large red bean inside could claim an orange! This was a very good way to distribute the twelve oranges received for sharing between all the College.

After supper we usually went to a society meeting such as the delightful 'Informal Club' inspired by Miss Welsford (for which club we wrote poetry), or perhaps we'd go to the Trinity debating society, 'The Magpie and Stump', or we might study in College in the semi-gloom of a 40 watt bulb. (This caused me such eyestrain that the oculist prescribed a 60-watt bulb - like a prescription for medicine!) While we studied we assembled transmitters for paratroopers, or fixed rubber sleeves over the turned-back outer covers of wires, keeping to a colour code. We used as a tool little pieces of glass tubing drawn to a point (in place of expensive three-pointed scissors), and this brilliant idea of Miss Chrystal's set people at Pye's factory wondering how it could happen that a specialist in Hebrew and Theology could have such practical brilliance.

I recall one evening when I did a daring thing. To be out late we had to sign the Late Book at breakfast to have permission. The eminent G T Bennett, Senior Fellow of Emmanuel, invited me to dinner and discussion the same evening [too late to sign out]. I believe it was June 30th - his birthday - and he would be 74 that day. I could not miss this opportunity. He had a delightful personality, and his remarks on Mathematics and on life in general were able to cast special light. In the evening as he politely escorted me back to Newnham, I stopped near the bicycle shed outside the main gate and told him that I would have to climb in, as I had no late permission. I vividly recall his expression as he said, "I have felt for fifty years that I have known appropriate behaviour and etiquette, but now I am stumped. Do I say 'Goodnight, and it was very nice to see you', or do I help you to climb?"

Last Updated June 2024