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have said that.' She was most upset when she found out what I did do, and I said 'Well, think no more about it. We'll just carry on as we are. I'm very happy to stop here.'

Just outside my room, in the corner of the landing, was a cold-water tap with something underneath to catch drips that might go on the carpet. I had a gas ring in my room and I could fill my kettle from this tap and make myself a hot drink when I wanted to. Other people who had rooms there could use the tap too, and one day someone left it on and there was water trickling all down the stair carpet. This same woman said 'It's her fault. She's left the tap on. Now look what she's done.' Old Mrs Hooper came up and said to me 'Somebody's left the tap on', and I said, 'Well I haven't. I only use it now and again. I can tell you now it couldn't have been me', and I could tell her when I'd last used it. She said 'I knew it wouldn't be you, but she says it is. I'll go and sort her out again', and she told her off well and truly.

So I had enemies like that, people who thought I did something that was out of the ordinary and didn't approve. But apart from that, I was very happy to be at Bristol and I thought it was lovely. We had nice times.
Ivy had a message from old Queen Mary saying she'd heard such a lot about how Ivy Benson's Band had entertained the troops and she'd heard us on the wireless and would like to come and meet the girls.

 She'd also heard that two girls in the band had husbands who were prisoners of war and she was very keen to meet them.We went to the main hall on Whiteladies Road in Bristol; it's still there and it's still the BBC Headquarters. We had to go and set up to play and carry on playing when the Queen came in. She sat on a seat at the back and heard the band and then she asked for these two girls and she talked to them. The pianist, Willie, was one of them, the one who used to say 'My Brian's in Italy' and cry. Queen Mary had a word with her and wanted to know whether she was receiving mail from him regularly, did he receive food parcels from England, was he being treated right in the prisoner of war camp and all that sort of thing; she wanted to know all about it.

When they were first allowed to advertise on commercial radio, Ivy Benson's Band did three or four sessions in one day at the Lux Radio Theatre, at Bush House at the bottom of Kingsway. We played and they said what they had to say about Lux. We were paid for that and it was good money. It was there that Gwen met one of the mechanics; he worked in the listening room. She married him and he was called up of course, and ended up in a prisoner of war camp, and Gwen was left on her own. Then she met this other one, and he was an absolute rotter. I met Gwen again years later and she was back with her husband. Both girls got their husbands back.