[First World War went to enlist in the…]

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First World War went to enlist in the Navy.

His father, "a self-taught scholar, a convinced atheist and a member of the Independent Labour Party" (as well as an alcoholic, which accounted for the family's chronic poverty) insisted that the boy's "religion" was stated on his enlistment form for the Navy as 'humanitarian" - thus making him the only man in the Navy without a religion!

Louis' time in the navy was colourful to say the least before he was twenty he was given a dishonourable discharge having "over three hundred offences against him — none for any failure in seamanship."

Winifred, on the other hand, was born into a family of well-to-do Suffolk gentleman farmers. She won a scholarship to Girton College in Cambridge where, in 1917 — incredible as it may seem today - the overwhelming mäjority of the students were women. The young men of Winifred's age were either fighting in the war or had already given their lives to it and Winifred was aware that it was unlikely that she would find fulfillment in marriage and children.

Outdoor

Nonetheless, her career as a University teacher enabled her to travel widely in Europe and to spend time in New Zealand where she developed a liking for the harsh outdoor life and experWENDY FRANKLAND reviews "Two Lives", by Winifred Haward Hodgkiss, which is published by Yorkshire Art Circus.

ienced at first hand the absurdities of class distinction whilst working for a period as a governess-nanny.

Meanwhile, Louis had begun to gain a reputation as a writer of novels and plays depicting the mining life he knew so well and met Winifred when she was working as Talks Producer for the BBC in Manchester. Louis was invited to broadcast one of his scripts, and they were drawn to each other because as Winifred says ''He was in revolt against a society that denied him a career. I was in revolt against a society that offered me a career but no partner."

They decided to make a life together, and took over a nearderelict cottage in the remote village of Hawkswick in the heart of the Yorkshire Dales. Here they spent nearly thirty years together working on the cottage and garden, writing and establishing friendships with their many visitors as well as the local people.

In 1978 Louis died in the garden he loved; he is buried there - these are the lines by the seventeenth century poet Wallter that Winifred read at his funeral as his memorial: •The soul's dark cottage, battered and decayed Lets in new light through chinl that time hath mac with weakness, wist men becon As they draw near to the eternal homı Leaving the old, both worlds i once they vie That stand upon the threshol of the new.

Now in her eighties, Winifre still lives in her home in th Dales and is active in the Peac Movement.

• I have lived throug two World Wars, and know th war is obscene, bringing n glory but suffering. Preserve th world, you who are my succes sors. There is love and there i sorrow, but the gain outweigh the loss, if you will make it so • A Class

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