Helen Forrester’s Memoirs of Her Poverty- Stricken Childhood in Liverpool During the 1930’s
The author wrote four books recounting her life in Liverpool beginning in 1931 when she was twelve years old.
At age twelve Helen Forrester (1919-2011) was the eldest of seven children. Her first two books tell of her life before moving to Liverpool when her middle-class family moved in privileged society living in the south-west of England and then her life in Liverpool during the Great Depression. Helen was shielded from the rougher side of living by a private school education. She had always been told what to do and life was strictly regulated by a hierarchy of domestic staff. Her parents had been given no training in managing a family or household budget and enjoyed a high standard of living by being permanently in debt.
This all came to an end by 1931 when her father was declared bankrupt.
I had heard vaguely that going bankrupt was an American disease which had struck Wall Street in New York, and that Americans committed suicide when this happened to them; mentally, I saw dozens of them hurling themselves off the top of skyscrapers, and I wondered where Father would find a skyscraper.
Her father’s misguided sense of honour and ignorance of his right to refuse a creditor the removal of the basic needs of a family such as clothing and bedding, caused him to walk out of their home with his wife and seven children with nothing but the clothes they were wearing and a blanket for Edward, the six-week-old baby. Helen’s mother had been ill and hospitalised after the birth and had only been out of hospital eight days when they took a train to Liverpool using the last of their money to pay for the tickets. Helen’s father had been born in that city and had memories of it as a bustling and wealthy place. Not now. Unemployment was high and the death rate was one of the highest in the country. The infant mortality rate was horrifying, too.
Helen’s grandmother lived a ferry’s journey away from Liverpool on the other side of the Mersey River, but she had quarreled with her spendthrift son and his wife and would have no more to do with them. Helen did not know this at the time and didn’t understand why they couldn’t go to live with her.
Twopence to Cross the Mersey is Helen’s account of her and her family’s first two years in Liverpool. Because her mother was still convalescing after her last child, the care of the other children fell on Helen. However, as her mother started to recover physically, Helen was still required to look after the younger children who were not at school. Her father had found work but both he and his wife were still feckless and constantly argued. The children were malnourished and always cold while their parents managed to buy cigarettes or get a beer at the pub.
Helen desperately wanted an education, but it wasn’t until she was nearly fourteen that it was discovered that her parents had kept her out of school. She was required by law to attend school until the age of fourteen, so she had a glorious six weeks away from the demands of her home until she officially reached that age. Then it was back to looking after the two youngest while her mother got an odd job in sales because of her mental state more than anything. She had never had to look after her children before and wasn’t going to do it now. And Helen was free labour.
Coming towards me, amid the well-dressed shoppers, was an apparition. A very thin thing draped in an indescribably dirty woollen garment which flapped hopelessly, hair which hung in rat’s tails over a wraithlike grey face, thin legs partially encased in black stockings torn at the knees and gaping at the thighs, flapping, broken canvas covering the feet. This thing was attached to another one which rolled drunkenly along on four bent wheels; it had a torn hood through which metal ribs poked rakishly.
I slowed down nervously, and then stared with dawning horror.
I was looking at myself in a dress-shop window.
At first I had the impression that Helen’s parents were victims of the Depression but at their core they were selfish. Helen applied for a scholarship that would have paid for her education, and it was awarded to her, but her parents kept this knowledge to themselves. When she found out what they had done she confronted them. They lied and told her she’d been deemed ineligible because she had come from a different county and not Liverpool.
One of the advantages of being very poor is that one has time. Since we had no clothes except those on our own backs, there was no pile of washing to be dealt with each Monday. When there is little food, there is little cooking, and since we possessed no bed linen, towels, cleaning materials or tools, most other domestic jobs either were non-existent or could not be carried out.
This book ends with Helen going to night classes in order to pursue her education.
Liverpool Miss is the second book of Helen’s account of life in Liverpool. Things are looking up slightly for some of her siblings but not for her. She is still battling with her parents to persuade them to allow her to continue her education. She has constant struggles with illness caused by severe malnutrition and suffers generally from neglect.
With all the bitterness and unreasonableness of a budding teenager, I saw myself as a convenient tool of my parents, my only reason for existence that I could take the care of the children off them.
In many ways life in Liverpool during the Depression has echoes of things I’ve read in Dickens. Helen wheeled her little brother and sister around in a rickety old pram window shopping in the city. She was looked upon with disgust by people who obviously were living well. People were shocked when they heard her speak politely in a posh accent. Class distinction was very alive and well.
In those days, few would believe that neglect or ill-treatment of children occurred in any but working-class homes; and once my parent’s original social status had been established there would be a tendency to believe anything they said.
Something her mother did well was writing begging letters to old acquaintances. This often resulted in parcels of clothing or bedding - clothing was given to the younger ones as they went to school, the others were pawned and some she used some herself as she was working. Helen got nothing because she stayed at home.
Helen did meet kind individuals and it was through one of these that she obtained work in an office. Her youngest brother was four by this time and she asked the other children to share the load so she could be employed. Her parents still fought her all the way. Her first book was dedicated to the Liverpool City Police and on a couple of occasions they were very kind. She found out a few years later that one policeman paid for a regular delivery of milk so the baby could be fed. He’s seen her taking some milk out of a neighbour’s bottle and replacing it with water, so she had something to give her brother.
Another kindness came from an elderly man she befriended in the park. He encouraged her to get books from the library to educate herself.
Read everything you can. Read the great historians, the philosophers, especially the German ones, read autobiographies, read novels. One day, you will have the opportunity to make use of the knowledge you will accumulate, and you will be surprised to find that you know much more than those who have had a more formal education.
Her place of employment sent Helen on a charity holiday and paid her expenses. For the first time in four years she had a bath and washed her hair. They didn’t even have soap at home, let alone towels.
Helen had been very ill with bronchitis and an ear infection and been confined to bed. When she was over the worst, her employer sent a message that she would visit. Her mother wanted to make a good impression, so she washed Helen, ironed her work skirt, lent Helen one of her blouses and took her downstairs to their front room, to Helen’s surprise. When Helen entered the room, a fire was blazing and there was new furniture and curtains. Her visitor was shown into this room. Her parents had bought over a hundred pounds worth of sitting room furniture, but they still lacked basic necessities such as sheets and blankets to keep them all warm and clean.
One of the most moving parts of this book for me was when Helen was taken to see an ear nose & throat specialist after her illness. He wanted to exam her chest and as she removed her blouse both the doctor and nurse gasped. The doctor was furious and said that Helen was half starved and that it was some time since he had seen such a shocking case of malnutrition.
Hunger was painful at times, but most of the time I felt lethargic and weak. I thought I was lazy, and I was always pushing myself to complete the work I had to do…
Over me lay the smell of poverty, of a body poorly washed, clothes unaired, foul breath and fatigue.
From that day Helen’s mother made sure she received the same amount of food as the other children. They still didn’t have enough to eat but food was given priority over other needs and there was an improvement.
By the end of Liverpool Miss, Helen had the beginnings of a friendship. Both books are simple, poignant narratives that are suitable for mature teenaged readers. People who lived through the Great Depression won’t be around to give our children firsthand accounts like some of us may have had. Books like these are a way to see through the eyes of those who are no longer here; to give us at least some idea of life during this time.
By the Waters of Liverpool and Lime Street at Two are the third and fourth in the author’s memoirs covering her life through World War II and Liverpool during the Blitz.
I don’t think I ever had an original thought until I had been plunged into this queer life in Liverpool, where I had been given the job of looking after my brothers and sisters.
Other Books Set During the Great Depression
A Fortunate Life by Albert Fahey - my review/thoughts
Shadows of the Workhouse by Jennifer Worth (2005) - although not set during the Depression years this book looks at the aftereffects on people who were sent to Workhouses in Britain. Helen Forrester lived in fear of being sent to one. Although the institutions were officially abolished in 1930, in reality many did not close until several decades later. Available here.
Hannah Coulter by Wendell Berry - I’ve linked to a short review I wrote. An older woman looks back on her life and her childhood during the Depression in America.
Lila by Marilynne Robinson - set partly during the Great Depression in America.
All the Green Year by Don Charlwood - an Australian coming of age classic set in Victoria during the year of 1929.
The Shiralee by D’Arcy Niland - an unusual story of a single father, a wandering labourer (swagman) and his young daughter set during the Depression years in Australia.