The Silver Swan twins

Sue writes about her mother and aunt during the war.

Identical twins, Betty and Beryl, were born in 1929 and brought up by their mother. One of their aunts owned a dancing school and another was the pianist, so they began ballet lessons at the age of about three, later learning character and tap dancing. Their mother took in sewing to make ends meet, and made costumes for the dancing school. The twins loved dancing, and by all accounts were promising pupils. Sadly the war put an end to their lessons and they were evacuated to Bournemouth at the age of 10. Life was difficult for them living away from their mother, and moving between different billets, especially as no-one really wanted to take in two extra children and they were under strict instructions not to be split up.

One happy memory they have of this time was a visit of a ballet company to Bournemouth during the war. They wrote home to their mother for extra pocket money to buy tickets, and they clearly remember the thrill of seeing Margot Fonteyn and Robert Helpmann dancing together on stage (I have researched this on the internet and it appears that Fonteyn and Helpmann did indeed dance with the Sadler’s Wells Ballet in Bournemouth on 24 and 27 February 1943).

The twins remember being back at home, aged 15, on VE Day. When the war was over their mother sadly decided that they were too old to restart ballet lessons and it wasn’t long before they left school and were out at work.

Little did they know that 75 years later, at the age of 90, they would temporarily be living together once again, whilst Britain fights another, very different, war. And dancing together again too!