Raymond always made sure to walk Rae home at the end of an evening, stopping along the way for fish and chips – a delicacy unheard of in America – and as they strolled back to her billet he would tell her all about his life in Pennsylvania. He came from a small community called Hackett, not far from Pittsburgh, and like the rest of his family he had worked in the local coal mine since he left school. To Rae, who had grown up in London, coal-mining was an alien world, but she was pleased that he was from an ordinary, hard-working family like her own. She remembered the bragging Yank who had shown her a picture of a hotel in Florida and claimed it was his house, and appreciated Raymond’s honesty about his humble background.
But while Raymond was winning over Rae and her friends, there was another group of people who she knew would be less easy to convince: her family. Given her brothers’ dislike of the GIs, she had so far kept the relationship a secret.
She knew that her mother had recently put paid to her sister Mary’s relationship with her boyfriend Bob. Having got a ‘funny feeling’ that he was married, Mrs Burton had taken her tallest son round to confront him. When Bob admitted that her suspicions were correct, she had told him, ‘You stay away from my daughter. Here’s my son, and I’ve got two more just like him, so don’t you even try to come near us!’
As the weeks and months went by, Big Ray and Little Rae grew closer and closer, but she continued to put off mentioning him whenever she wrote to her mother. In any case, Mrs Burton had more pressing worries. After her ‘funny feeling’ about Mary’s boyfriend had turned out to be correct, she had begun to trust her intuition more and more. Now it was telling her that her own husband wasn’t being faithful.
During his long shifts with the military police, guarding ‘vulnerable points’, Rae’s stepfather had been eyeing up his own target, a much younger woman in the ATS. When the girl had taken him home to meet her parents, they had been surprised to meet a man their own age. But they liked Mr Burton and willingly gave him their daughter’s hand in marriage, little knowing that he already had a wife and family.
‘He’s being tried for bigamy,’ Rae’s distraught mother wrote to her, ‘at the Old Bailey.’
Rae was furious. She got leave to return to London for the court case, and made sure she was there to hold her mother’s hand as they watched the man who had been a father to her for more than a decade stand in the dock. Mr Burton argued that he had only married his mistress because she had fallen pregnant, and with a good character witness from his officer he avoided jail. But Rae’s mother refused to give him the satisfaction of a divorce, and he and his ATS girl lived out the rest of their days unmarried.
Back in Mansfield, Big Ray and Little Rae’s weekly dates continued, always followed by a visit to the fish-and-chip shop. One day, they were sitting in the pub when Raymond drew something out of his pocket.
‘Would you accept this?’ he asked her.
He was holding a large gold ring with five stones in it. Five stones meant five words: Will You Be My Wife?
Rae was completely taken aback. Marriage had never crossed her mind in their months of dating, and she’d had no thoughts of the future whatsoever. What was the point, when no one knew how long the war would rumble on – or what the eventual outcome would be? She and Raymond could both be dead by tomorrow.
But she liked him, and all she knew at this point in time was that she wanted to carry on being with him.
‘Yes,’ she said, a little surprised at herself.
Now that they were engaged, there was no way Rae could continue to keep the relationship a secret, so finally she wrote to her mother. An anxious reply came back: ‘Are you sure you know what you’re doing?’
There was only one way to convince Mrs Burton. The following month, they took a train to London so that Raymond could meet her, as well as Rae’s sister Mary. Rae just hoped her mother’s intuition didn’t give her another ‘funny feeling’.
Raymond came armed with several tins of turkey and some much-coveted butter. To Rae’s relief her mother seemed to like him, although she did repeat the question, ‘Are you sure you know what you’re doing?’ as soon as he left the room.
But throughout dinner Rae noticed that her sister seemed a little quiet, and as she helped her take the plates out to the kitchen she asked her what was on her mind.
‘I’m just not sure about him, Rae,’ she said. ‘I don’t know why.’
Rae soon discovered that family introductions were only the first hurdle. The US Army was not keen on its soldiers marrying while on duty abroad, and the process of obtaining permission to wed was an elaborate one. A commanding officer had to approve the application, and write a letter to the civil or church authority who would conduct the marriage, having interviewed the GI in question. The potential bride was also subject to questioning, usually by an army chaplain, and was required to provide character references. The Army did its best to dissuade prospective brides, who were often accused of using marriage as a ticket to a more prosperous country. Meanwhile, checks were made into any dependants of the GI in the US, to ensure that the husband could afford to keep his new wife. Unsurprisingly, the process often took many months, but any GI caught violating the Army’s strict procedures was subject to a court martial.
Rae set about accumulating the necessary paperwork for her marriage to go through smoothly. Her captain provided a character reference, and even agreed to walk her down the aisle. Rae’s housemate Eileen, the colonel’s chauffeur, and Nancy, a girl from the storage depot, were to be bridesmaids.
But despite all their work, Rae and Raymond were told it would take at least six months for the Army to process their application. In a war, that seemed as bad as six years. Then there was worse news: Rae received notice that she was being transferred to a workshop in Buntingford, more than a hundred miles away.
That was the last straw. Raymond went straight to his commanding officer. ‘I need special permission to get married quickly,’ he said.
The CO looked at him knowingly. ‘Is your girlfriend pregnant?’ he asked. That was normally the reason for such requests.
‘No!’ laughed Raymond. ‘She’s just being transferred.’
‘I’ll see what I can do,’ said the other man.
The wedding was brought forward by three months, giving them just enough time to wed before Rae had to leave, although that meant it would have to take place in chilly January.
Rae intended to be married in her army uniform, just like Raymond. But he thought there might be something he could do to prevent her wearing the regulation thick cotton ATS stockings on their wedding day. ‘I bought you this,’ he said the next time he visited her, handing her a little box. Inside was a pair of silk stockings, with seams up the back.
‘I can’t wear these – they’re not regulation!’ she said.
‘Rae, just take them,’ Raymond pleaded.
The fourth of January 1944 was a cold day, but there was a clear sky and no sign of rain. Entering the church, Rae could see all her ATS friends, as well as some of her male colleagues from the workshop and army friends of Raymond’s. His best man was another cook called Chet, who lived in a town near Raymond’s home in Pennsylvania. As Rae reached the altar, Raymond smiled with relief to see that she had forsaken her thick regulation stockings and was wearing the silk ones he had given her.
After the ceremony they went straight in to sign the register. Then the little group went to the pub for a few celebratory drinks, before heading to the couple’s favourite restaurant for the wedding feast: the local fish-and-chip shop.
The next morning, they took a train down to London for