A WARTIME ROMANCE

Sandy Kilpatrick 1545 - 1545 • Last updated 18 Dec 2008 10:45

This Sunday is Remembrance Day and to mark the occasion the Chronicle tells the touching love story of Ochiltree couple James and Celia Kirkpatrick, who recently received their commemorative badges for being a veteran and land girl respectively.

ON CHRISTMAS Eve 1943 James Kirkpatrick and Celia Wollaston"s eyes met across a crowded dance floor in Epping.

It was love at first sight. He was a 19-year-old ground gunner in the RAF, from Cumnock. She was a 17-year-old Land Girl from Theydon Bois in Essex.

The young couple became tangled up in a whirlwind romance - but their growing love would be put to the ultimate test when they were parted by the war.

Now, more than sixty-three years since WWII ended, Celia, 82 and James, 85 reminisce on the fight for their country, their pride recieving war medals, and the time separated from their beloved.

Celia Wollaston was 14 when WWII broke out during September 1939. Turning 17-years-old she immediately signed up for the Land Girls. She didn"t want to have to work in a factory. Celia toiled as a Land Girl in Hertfordshire where she was responsible for three large greenhouses, growing tomatoes from seed to the vine, earning 1p for every box of tomatoes she farmed, and a bonus for a good crop.

Meanwhile, James had volunteered for the RAF at 18-years-old and was sent to a training camp in Yorkshire. He was then stationed all over England to defend the aerodromes and radars.

Little did they know that fate was set to bring them together.

In December 1943 James was sent to an airbase near Epping, a small market town in the county of Essex.

It was in a pub in the town that James and Celia first set eyes upon each other.

'I wasn"t really supposed to be in the pub. I wasn"t aged', Celia recalls.

Their eyes would met again that same Christmas Eve across a crowded dance hall, and then again on Christmas Day across the dinner table. Celia had invited James to join her, and her brother for the festivities.

The young lovers soon became inseparably but they would only spend a few short weeks together before fate choose to tear them apart.

James was sent across the Channel to France where he joined the American section of the RAF, guarding the aerodromes and radars operated by the Canadian Airforce.

He was given the important role of Dispatch Rider, delivering important military documents by bag, from base to base, speeding through the French countryside by motorbike. 'More or less you were you were on duty 24 hours a day', said James. 'I could be called out at anytime to go on dispatches. You didn"t have time to be scared.

Back in Hertfordshire, Celia laboured away in the nurseries working alongside Austrian Prisoner"s of War. They were "beautiful singers" and a "rather happy bunch, considering the circumstances". Men also worked in the Greenhouse through health reasons, and to help with the heavier work.

'Some of the men grew watermelons on the fly. It was a rare treat,' said Celia.

Throughout this time Celia and James corresponded through love letters, and, infrequently, during brief periods of leave they were reunited.

During one reunion the couple wondered about the future and decided to get married. They set a date at the registry for October

'You didn"t know what would happen or if we would be together again. We didn"t see an awful lot of time with each other,' said Celia and James.

They crossed their fingers and hoped he would make it home in time.

It was September 1945, the war was over but James was still on duty. October arrived and the Germans were being pushed back from France and Belgium.

But there was war in Palestine, and James was leaving today.

Seven planes were set for the Middle East, and his was last in line to leave.

James sat helpless, knowing it would be months before he would see Celia again. Plane by plane they took off, and James became resigned to his fate.

But just as the sixth plane took off - his crew got the call. They were to go back to their unit in Germany.

James made it home for their wedding and he and Celia were married on October 8, 1963. They danced, went to a hotel for a drink, and caught the five o"clock train from London to Scotland - where they spent their honeymoon.

In December that same year James was demobbed, and the couple moved to Scotland. In 1949 Celia and James moved to Ochiltree, were they have lived now for 59 years. And, this year, the couple - who have been married for 63 years, have three children, nine grandchildren, and nine great grandchildren - have been awarded with their Veteran badge and Land Girl"s badge. And they say they are very proud, and both agree: 'If it hadn"t been for the war we would never have met.'

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This article appeared in Cumnock Chronicle 05 Nov 08

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