On her return from Haft Kel at the end of 1937 Nancie stayed at the same hotel in London that she had previously stayed in with the Holt family. It was near Kensington Gardens and she enjoyed the lovely green grass and the 'heavenly trees. After the bare landscape of the Anglo-Iranian oilfields it must have seemed like paradise.She also went home for a few weeks and enjoyed meeting up with all her old friends. She celebrated her 25th birthday while she was there.
On July 19th 1937 Nancie returned to London by train and met a Mr Winter with his brother in law Mr Deason. A few days later she met Mrs Deason and on the 29th they left Shrubbery Gardens for Tinsley Green.
Nancie was to look after the Deasons' little daughter Diana. They lived at The Old Greyhound Pub in the village of Tinsley Green, in West Sussex. The pub has been replaced by a more modern building but is still the home of the annual World Marbles Championship. This was apparently revived in 1932 after a break of 50 years and takes place every Good Friday, the prize being a silver cup.
Nancie never mentioned this to us as children so I don't know if she was aware of the marbles connection. The old pub building is still there at the edge of the car park for the new pub building. It is just an old cottage really. There is a film of the World Marbles Championship taking place there in 1938 on you-tube, if anyone is desperate to see it!
When I first wrote these notes up I was amused to realise that I was doing it on Good Friday. Nancie didn't stay with the Deasons for very long and didn't, as far as I know, keep in touch with them. She does mention 'working in the evening' and I take this to mean that she was expected to work behind the bar. Having been used to be waited on in her time abroad, this really wasn't her 'cup of tea'. By October of that year she was being interviewed for her next post.
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