The refugee

A day off work which I spent partly in Hanley researching Ruth Schmerler the victim in the 1944 unsolved Cheadle murder. The Sentinel of 30^th September 1944 had lots of detail including a photograph of a very attractive young dark haired woman. She left Poland in 1939 and went to live with a Children’s Home for Jewish children in Manchester. She had a brother called Kurt who was working as an optician’s assistant in Manchester. She was a Land Army girl in 1944 working gathering the fruit crop in Worcestershire. A lorry driver gave her lift to the outskirt of Birmingham where a British soldier gave her a lift. Her body was discovered at a quarry at Counslow near Cheadle. Her suitcase was discovered at Shap Fell 140 miles away. The local police took the matter very seriously and in the search for the first time mine dictators were used in the search of the weapon. She seemed to be very popular. Anyway I will have more information forth coming from Hanley Library.

I had a chat with Fred Hughes in Café Nero in Hanley wide raging and enjoyable as ever. A man walked in who I recognise. It was Hendrik Staut who I knew from Johnson and Slater in the early 70s. It was a pottery that made shower trays amongst other things. We reminisced about  people long dead. Tom Wilding the middle aged accountant who spent every holiday in the Northern Isles. Mike Hall the salesman who thought that the South Africans were misunderstood- it was the Apartheid era. The owner Mr Mayland who had an interesting war and was one of the first British Officers in Vienna. His son Master John as we had to call him educated at Stowe who wore a cravat, trilby and carnation. The production manager who we could not name but was Jewish and also wore a carnation. John Walley the first gay I ever met who did rather strange things with a carrot one lunch time. Dave Farn who I still keep in contact and Bob Gibbs who knew someone who Kubrick recruited to blow perfect smoke rings which were used in 2001 and Terry O’Donnell who I had a strong influence on me. I can see him now a Londoner he always smoked Hamlet cigars and was a real Renaissance man. He loved reading and music- Beethoven was a hero. He was a Socialist. Those chats we had were the equivalent of an Oxford tutorial. I gather he died a few years ago.

Another Renaissance man is Charley who bought me another coffee in the Foxlowe. I was telling him about the Ruth Schmerler. A keen Mathematician Charley was telling me about the God equation which set me up nicely to sit in Phoebe’s Maths class. The adults did a Level 3 multiplication test. I did my 25 questions and got them all correct in 2.12. Cannot beat learning your tables by rote