Alison: Austrian or South German…. Did I go to refugee camps? I think I went with a group of people when I was at Cambridge doing the Long Vac… a group of musicians. I went with a group of very good musicians including the grandson of Walter De La Mare, Ben De La Mare. It was a terrific experience Mil, and very sad as well. They were the last refugees that hadn’t got themselves relocated, so they were the dregs of the refugees (from the Second World War), about 1960. They were pretty old and they were very dicey, lacking in energy. [Anthony – displaced people with jewish connections and traumas. Was that the time you met John Riches You could ask him.. Professor of Divinity].
I just remember tramping around and getting exhausted. There was a lot of walking uphill and walking up paths, presumably back down again. [she can’t remember]
It was a mixed group of folk from Cambridge and Oxford. Did I tell you Ben DLM was one? And someone good Peter Renshaw, a very good violinist. And then he was engaged to a blythe cellist called Virginia. It was definitely humanitarian stuff. Oh Mil it’s so deeply back in time.
[Do you think that’s where you first encountered these glasses?]
Yes they were there and the nicest ones had amber coloured stems.
Anthony – the ones nearest you are the newest which is why we still have four… I reckon when we married she would have brought that one with her, and some similar to the nearest one, but we’d probably broken them all [and replaced].
[in Oxfam] there was an absolute bonanza. A display of 6 or 12 in the window.
They’re wonderfully comfortable to grasp Mil. I’m sure you found them in the pubs and restaurants [in Austria] I loathed beer. I’m sorry Mil, memory lane is foggy.
The Royal Collection 