Life in Belfast continued for many as it had done for much of the interwar period. People went about their daily business without much regard for the war. Doreen Bates, a tax official, had moved to Belfast from London. Since 1934, she had been having an affair with an older married man, E (in her diary) with whom she worked. In 1940, she was was posted to Belfast and kept up a correspondence with E during her time in Northern Ireland. She felt that Belfast was ‘a hideous place’ and longed to go back to London.[1]
On 30 March she wrote in her diary ‘Yesterday, I shopped in the afternoon after lunch in Belfast. Just as I was leaving the officer Wardrop (her manager) paid a social call. He takes the official view, when you get your HG [higher grade, promotion] you must have your own district…I had a chit [form]…asking for…any…preferences. I said my preference for London had been strengthened since I came to Belfast but I would prefer almost anywhere in the southern half of England to NI [Northern Ireland]. A lovely letter from E on Friday morning – lovely, so lovely that I cried a little on the bus as I read it’[2]
[1] Cited in Stephen Douds, The Belfast Blitz, The People’s Story (Belfast: Blackstaff Press, 2011), p.15.
[2] Doreen Bates, Diary of a Wartime Affair, The true story of a surprisingly modern romance (London: Penguin Random House, 2017), p.259.