The Observer, October 20, 2006
Volume XXXIX, Issue 8
An American Abroad: Drama student learns from Blitz survivor
Every step that you take in London is upon history. As an American, I think that anything over 100 years old deserves a historical marker. It is therefore overwhelming to realize that the local McDonalds on Edgeware Road could be the sight of a mass Plague grave, an ancient Saxon battle, or a World War I rally.
Recent history is also hidden underneath this modern, cosmopolitan city. Walking to the local video store to rent a Bollywood movie presents no signs that I am possibly walking on a street that was bombed sixty years ago during the infamous London Blitz. The city rebuilt itself a long time ago, but the effects of the terrible bombing campaign still surround the average Londoner. The Imperial War Museum is dedicated to remembrance of Britain's wars, but many buildings are the products of reconstruction, including St. Mary's of Marylebon, whose roof was damaged when its courtyard was bombed decades ago.
I bump into people every day who probably once hid in air raid shelters as children: the nice gentlemen who on Gloucester Place gave me directions to my bus stop, the woman sitting behind me in a theatre watching the Royal Shakespeare Company, and my High Comedy teacher at the British American Drama Academy, Norman Ayrton.
I recently spoke to Ayrton about his memories of the Blitz. The ideal English gentlemen, he sits across from me in his usual suit, smart tie, and dress shoes answering my questions about his experiences during World War II.
I know him only as an actor who teaches me how to perform Restoration Comedy, but he seems extremely different to me now. His survival of the bombing of his home, his evacuation to the countryside, and service in the Royal Navy are only some of the subjects of this afternoon's interview. The more questions that I ask, the more I see that this man has more to teach me than how to move my hands affectedly while wearing a corset.
Alannah McCarthy: Where were you living during World War II?
Norman Ayrton: In London, I have basically lived in London all of my life.
AM: Were you living in London during the Blitz?
NA: Yes, my home was in north London. I saw The Battle of Britain while I was standing in my garden, and I watched the bombing of the docks. I was later evacuated as a schoolboy to the country, 50 miles north of London.
AM: Were you ever afraid?
NA No, I don't ever remember being afraid. One took every precaution one could. My parents made me promise to leave the cinema during the air raids. I tried seeing Alfred Hitchcock's Rebecca so many times, but never saw the whole thing as the air raid siren always went off after the first half. Our cellar was a bomb shelter and we would go down there every night. My grandmother and I would play Whist all night. There was no point in being afraid. You never knew what was going to happen. One had to be spirited and deal. You had to be tough, there was no choice.
AM: Was your home ever bombed?
NA: Yes. One night at 5:00 a.m., I got fed up waiting down in the cellar and went upstairs to bed. Our home was hit while I was asleep in bed. It was covered in tons of gravel, with cellar buttresses sticking out.
AM: Were you ever afraid of Germany invading?
NA: We always expected a German invasion. We would say every evening; "I wonder if they'll come tonight."
AM: Do you remember yourself or people being nervous about Germany?
NA: I was nervous when Germany invaded Austria. It was frightening. One saw the newsreels in the cinemas.
AM: Were any friends or relatives hurt or killed?
NA: My mother's family in France went to a concentration camp. My aunt and uncle were killed, and my two cousins survived Dachau, and after the war came to London to live with us.
AM: How did your mother deal with that situation?
NA: Well, she could not really do anything. One knew that terrible things were happening.
AM: How do you think World War II affected you?
NA: If it had not been for the war, I probably would have gone into my father's wine business or accounting, in order to please my parents. The war made me determined to do what I wanted to do. It gave me the courage to go into acting.
Ayrton is now an extremely accomplished teacher and director. His prolific career has spanned from acting with The Old Vic Company to teaching at The Julliard School and The Royal Shakespeare Company. This man that I regularly see three times a week withstood bombs, war, lack of resources, death, and destruction. Similar situations are numerous within the modern experience–September 11, the London subway bombings, the 2004 tsunami, Hurricane Katrina, as well as terrorism and war all throughout the Middle East and Africa.
Sixty years may have passed since Ayrton was a young man looking out for Nazi planes on top of a school building, but people everywhere are still surviving horrific circumstances. What his story imparts to anyone in trying situations is the need to be tough in the face of hardship and terror.
